Random Reflections on What's on Your Plate and Why Founders Are Born

Some random thoughts for the day that I may or may not expand on, but I wanted to leave them here because I believe they might be useful for someone.

On understanding what work is in the context of business and your career.

This will be an oversimplification, but there is a real skill in understanding what "being productive" means, because you will see all sorts of ridiculous displays of "pseudo-productivity" in organizations. I highly suggest that anyone who's serious about their career and life carefully read Cal Newport's work, from So Good They Can't Ignore You to A World Without Email and Slow Productivity, and so on. To me, Mr. Newport's work is essential if you want to change your frame of mind about productivity in both your personal and professional life. Having said this, another simple concept that comes to mind and that I often use with my team is understanding "what's on your plate." I use the analogy of your job as sitting at a table, with everybody serving you all kinds of food on your plate. These foods are their priorities; they want you to eat them. The fact of the matter is that you need to differentiate what is truly important from what is less important, and understand that deciding what you're going to leave to the side is a skill, almost an art. It is important to understand the difference between tactics and strategy. If you want to move in your career, you must develop yourself beyond the tactics.

Understanding what your team's, your department's, and eventually your organization's movie is about is important, but even more so is being known as a "solution finder," because in the end, the core of business is "solving fucking problems, every single day." The better you are at coming up with good, creative, or out-of-the-box solutions, the more people will know you as a solution finder, and the better your position will be. You want to be the person your boss comes to with the toughest problems because they know you are more likely than not to resolve them. By strategy, I also mean vision. Being able to articulate a strategic vision for your team, department, division, or organization is extremely important, and to do so, you need to understand how the players move and be able to "guesstimate how the chess pieces inside the organization, as well as outside your organization, move." Every company has a "vibe," and you need to have your finger on that pulse.

To accomplish this, you'll need to leave some of that food off your plate and set it aside. That is the reality. I find that your boss and key stakeholders will almost never reprimand you for leaving tasks that are just "mundane, everyday tasks," or even tasks that someone in another department wants you to complete, when they know you are focused on the important things. As you already know, there are no shortages of colleagues emailing you to "help them with this or that" or something else that they themselves could do with a little bit of elbow grease. I can tell you this from experience, having worked for and alongside brilliant top executives, including presidents, chief legal officers, and, lastly, an extremely successful entrepreneur. Understanding what is important, and what they deem important, is key to your success. In The 48 Laws of Power, the infamous first law is "Never Outshine the Master." While there's truth to this, the devil is in the details because if the "master" sees you as a "problem solver, solution finder," you'll shine for him and he'll take care of you more often than not.

As I said, you want to be in the conversation, and to do that, you need to read. Fucking read, and read a lot. If you were expecting "networking," I'm sorry to disappoint. Your "network" will be easy to find when you are known as a solution finder, not as someone taking up space in the organization. In my opinion, being a constant student is mandatory because it enables you to bring value to conversations and problem-solving. The act of reading is not only for learning but also, as Cal Newport argues, exercise for your mind. Just like you should get after it every day, no exceptions, you also need to get after it every day by reading.

On entrepreneurs.

Today I saw a post from a company I have written about here before, T.REX ARMS, whose founder, Lucas Botkin, made the painful decision to leave the very thing he created from nothing because of family dynamics. I have written about this situation in The Erasure of the Founder and The Cost of Casual Equity. What surprises me is the stubbornness of his brothers, who have yet to pay the capital owed to Lucas, and the absolute arrogance of thinking they have the skill set to run and grow a company. Two things are facts. One: Lucas literally built the company from nothing. Two, since he left, he has founded new companies that, so far, seem to be headed in the right direction. I tell people all the time that true entrepreneurs are born. You may, in rare cases, find someone who was trained to do so, but after more than a decade working hand in hand with a founder, I feel very confident in this. Founders are born; they possess a unique DNA and upbringing, making them distinct individuals. Not everyone needs to be a founder; some are great operators who represent the next evolution the company needs to grow beyond what the founder started.But that’s not the case with T.REX ARMS, because the founder and the company have always been the same person, connected through Lucas. The company was not mature enough to separate its identity from the founder, and his brothers miscalculated this to their own detriment. Today, T.REX is a shell of what it once was, not too long ago. It's sad to see this; it's sad to see family torn apart by greed. It's almost always greed. A tale as old as mankind.

But nevertheless, I'm a huge fan of Lucas. I think he’s great. I haven’t met him yet. We share some contacts, and I’m hopeful to someday meet the man and his new team. It’s inspiring to see someone walk away from his creation and make a stronger comeback because he now has over a decade of experience and the humility to learn, change his views, and evolve—a true entrepreneur.