I recently bumped into a business associate whose startup I had written about, so I was familiar with much of the story that had led him to found a truly disruptive business. He had become exasperated by the slow pace of the industry he was in, and decided that his interests wouldn’t be served by playing the long game, and waiting patiently for his turn at the sharp end of the Company. In fact, he had begun to doubt if this particular Company even had a sharp end, such was the frustration he was experiencing.
He could scarcely contain his delight as he told me how he had poached one of his old businesses clients almost literally from under their noses, meeting them outside the doors of his old offices, and as I congratulated him on his coup I couldn’t help but feel a genuine sense of warmth towards this young maverick, who was taking on the establishment, and, to all intents and purposes, winning.
But the most surprising thing about the story? I actually doubt that his old bosses, if they could see him now, would even begrudge him his success. There are some people who we just can’t help admiring, even when they are stealing our thunder, or nicking a business win that by rights should have belonged to someone else. It goes contrary to everything that our nobler instincts would have us believe about respecting our elders, biding our time, and supporting our team mates, but there is just something irresistible about a maverick.
A world-famous Advertising Agency, back in the early noughties, used to have as its slogan, “when the world zigs, zag”. It seems like a simple enough, albeit contrarian, strategy, but the reality is it is one of the hardest tricks in business to pull off. In sport, coaches often talk about execution being the key to success. “If we execute on our plans, we know we can win”. Take the dreaded NFL playbook, a dossier which apparently contains more than 1,000 pages of highly complex and detailed instructions covering every eventuality, every nuance, of the game of Gridiron. What looks like chaos on the pitch, is really the complete opposite; organised chaos.
Being a master of disaster is not easy. It takes dedication, and even more than dedication, it takes guts / heart / balls (delete as appropriate). Would anybody know who Evan Spiegel was if, when Mark Zuckerberg famously called him up and asked him to come to the Bay Area from New York and sell him Snapchat, he had agreed to do so? Unlikely, can you name the founder of Oculus Rift? But Spiegel said no, and, by doing so, catapulted himself into the big time. Zuckerberg and Facebook have still not been able to break their Snapchat hoodoo, despite all the resources they have at their disposal. Given the chance to zig, Spiegel zagged, and he will always be remembered for it.
Calculated risks do not always come off, and the results can be disastrous. Renegade investor Morten Lund gave an interview last week at the Tech Crunch Disrupt conference in which he reminisced about the $80k investment he made into an early stage Company called Skype, which yielded a return of over $50m. Less than 2 years later, however, Lund was bankrupt. “My free newspaper project, “Nyhedsavisen”, went belly up and I lost everything”, Lund explained, “I had to give up my art collection and my cars, but in reality, it wasn’t all that bad.” Spoken like a true maverick.
Very few of us are born risk takers, but we shouldn’t be envious of those who appear to be “getting away with it”. Because of its rarity, successful risk taking is one of the most highly prized commodities in business. Nowadays we talk about “unicorn” startup companies, and “black swan” events, occurrences so rare that they have the capacity to fundamentally change an investment horizon. You can be sure that behind every black swan event or every unicorn company there is somebody who was prepared to take a risk, and, crucially, they got away with it.
In the US they like their entrepreneurs to have experienced failure. To have tried to succeed, failed, and tried again, marks somebody out as having the right kind of qualities; ambition, a capacity to learn from mistakes made, and determination, a never say die spirit. In the UK, we are less enthusiastic towards those with a failed business or bankruptcy behind them. They have wasted money, time, or resources, failed to deliver on their promises, or don’t possess the right qualities. But crucially, in the UK, gamesmanship is a prized asset.
“Getting away with it” is not all about being a maverick, it’s not about taking unnecessary risks, it’s not even about becoming rich or celebrated, although the chances are, for this type of personality, both of these goals are achievable. Every office has one, somebody who appears to be taking outrageous risks, or asleep at the wheel, or not pulling in the same direction as the rest of the team, and yet, come crunch time, it is they who end up getting the brakes. Why is that?
Let’s go back to the example of my friend who launched a startup to rival his old bosses’ business. There would have been many people in the firm more obedient than him, more intelligent perhaps, better organised, so what were they not doing that he was? The answer, when you think about it, is simple. They were not keeping their bosses on their toes.
Ask yourself, why do people get into business in the first place. To make money for them and their families? Sure, that’s a reason. To create order and discipline in their lives? Perhaps. But mostly, people stay at their firm or business because they enjoy the cut and thrust, they love the challenges it brings, and because the office stretches them in ways they could never imagine and helps them to develop and win at the game of life.
Mavericks are the great entertainers of the business world. Getting away with it is the ultimate thrill, an intoxicating display of mental superiority, demonstrating the ability to take any situation and bend it to your will. See it happen, and you cannot fail to experience 3 things; outrage, jealousy, adrenaline. It may be the darker side of business, but all great entrepreneurs have it.
The good news, however, is that it’s not all about instinct, it can be learned. You just may not find it in too many curriculums. This particular skill, is self-taught.
