Entrepreneurs: Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst!

Entrepreneurship can be tough! Sure, we admire and celebrate the accomplishments of entrepreneurs like Sir Richard Branson (founder of the Virgin group of companies, James Dyson (creator of the Dyson vacuum cleaner), and Larry Page and Sergey Brin (founders of Google). But, when we dig deeper, we find that these entrepreneurs’ paths to success were filled with roadblocks, potholes and other barriers to success.

At the other end of the spectrum, across the globe, there is an untold number of entrepreneurs whose businesses implode or even fail to get off the ground. By some estimates, 20% of businesses fail within the first year, 50% of businesses fail within five years and overall, 70% of businesses fail within a decade.

Why is it that some entrepreneurs become wildly successful despite enduring hardships and difficulties, while others fail to reach their goals? At least part of the answer to this question lies in the amount of resilience of the entrepreneur – the ability to get back up and keep going even after seemingly being punched into the ground. Another part of the answer to this question lies in the entrepreneur’s level of preparation for the road ahead – even if they don’t know exactly what challenges they may face.

Perhaps the greatest story of contrasting levels of preparation can be found in the real-life race by two different groups of explorers to be the first to reach the South Pole. Both explorers faced similar difficulties, but only one camp prevailed, while the other camp tragically perished. The tale of these two groups of explorers holds valuable lessons for entrepreneurs. The overall lesson of the tale of these two groups of explorers can be summarized as “hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.” But the intricate details of the level of preparation between these two groups of explorers is beyond fascinating.

Ready to dive into the story? Awesome! Let’s go!

In 1911, two explorers, Norwegian Roald Amundsen and British Robert Falcon Scott were both making plans to be the first person to successfully lead their respective teams to the South Pole. The winner of this race would ultimately be the Norwegian. Amundsen beat Scott to the South Pole by 34 days, and his expedition of explorers returned safely to his base camp on the exact day that Amundsen predicted. Amundsen’s team achieved this feat with no loss of life – despite the journey being extremely dangerous and treacherous.

Unfortunately, each and every member of Scott’s expedition lost their lives on the way home after losing to Amundsen. What caused the difference in outcomes between the two men’s teams of explorers? One word. Four syllables. “Preparation”!

Amundsen knew that by choosing to make the dangerous trip to the South Pole, he and his team would be voluntarily marching into a crisis scenario so challenging that, in a worst-case scenario, they could lose their lives. To increase his chances of survival, Amundsen started with the end in mind. His goal was for him and his men to make it to the South Pole and back safely and on time, with no loss of life. With this goal in mind, Amundsen proactively put several practical, life-saving safeguards in place for the trip.

According to Jim Collins, writing in his best-selling book Great by Choice, Amundsen was simply more prepared than Scott. Amundsen and his men used a team of dogs to pull their sleds. Scott, on the other hand, used ponies and mechanized ice-sleds. This was a disastrous decision on Scott’s part. Scott’s ice-sleds quickly broke down in the freezing temperatures. His ponies didn’t fare much better. As Scott would soon find out, ponies have a tendency to sweat during exertion and, in the freezing cold of the South Pole, their hides would often freeze. Throughout their trip, Scott’s team would have to frequently cover their ponies with blankets just to keep the animals alive. Dogs, as it turns out, have no sweat glands and were more tolerant to the freezing temperatures that they would have to endure during the expedition to the South Pole. Amundsen knew this because of his level of preparation. Prior to making the trip, he had apprenticed with indigenous people who lived in sub-zero conditions, learning their culture and understanding their survival tactics. Due to the time he spent with the indigenous community, Amundsen knew that sled dogs would be a better choice than ponies and that ice-sleds would likely break down in the frigid temperatures on the way to the South Pole.

But that isn’t where the contrasts between Amundsen and Scott end. Amundsen was a master planner and put several contingency plans in place for their trip. While Scott brought a single thermometer on the trip (which broke), Amundsen took four! Scott and Amundsen both set up supply depots for the trip. While Scott placed a single flag to mark the location of his supply depots, Amundsen placed 20 black pennants (easily visible against the stark white of the snow) in specific locations around his supply depots – ensuring that he could easily find the location of the depots if his team strayed off course. Amundsen carried enough supplies for him and his men so that even if they had missed all of their supply depots, they would still have enough to survive. Meanwhile, Scott cut it a bit close. If he missed just one of his supply depots, he and his men risked running out of supplies.

Amundsen was also prepared to make some hard decisions in order to survive. According to Collins, Amundsen had actually practiced eating raw dolphin meat just in case he ended up shipwrecked and the only thing to eat was, well, raw dolphin meat. And, as for his sled dogs, Amundsen was even prepared, if necessary, to kill some of the weaker dogs and feed them to the stronger dogs if food for the canines ran out.

Even though Amundsen had no way of knowing exactly what life-threatening challenges he would face on the trip, it would seem that he had thought of everything to keep him and his team alive.

As writer Morten T. Hansen notes, “Amundsen planned for everything going wrong, while Scott relied on everything going right.” Amundsen clearly started with the end in mind. Amundsen didn’t just want to beat Scott to the South Pole – he wanted to be the first person to reach the South Pole and return home safely with no loss of life. Once he was fixed on this goal, he developed a comprehensive plan to make his goal a reality. Every single measure that Amundsen put in place for the trip – from choosing sled dogs over ponies to clearly marking his food depots – was done with this goal in mind.

Plan for the worst!

If you want your brand to survive the business equivalents of the hardships that Amundsen faced on his trip to the South Pole, you’ll need to do the same – start with your end goal in mind and put contingencies in place to survive the worst possible conditions that you may encounter. As you prepare for the journey to your (metaphorical) South Pole, you need to be clear about what you are trying to achieve for your business during, and immediately following, the crisis which your business may be facing. And, you’ll need to share your plan with your team so that they know what they’ll be getting into if they agree to join you on your journey. That’s why you will need to be as specific as you can be about your vision for your business, what your goals will be during and after the crisis and what sacrifices you are prepared to make in order to survive.

You’ll need to plan way in advance for every possible thing to go wrong. You’ll need to have the business equivalents of sled dogs (rather than ponies), and you’ll need multiple backup thermometers and clearly visible flags to mark your supply depots. And, while I don’t recommend that you kill any of your weaker employees and feed them to the stronger members of your team, you may need to be prepared to cut some of the weaker members from your staff if they aren’t dedicated enough to give it their all and make the grueling trip with you to your business’ South Pole.

If you want to read more about the Scott vs. Amundsen race, I suggest you get yourself a copy of Jim Collin’s book, Great by Choice. Another book that you should consider adding to your bookshelves is Stephen R. Covey’s classic book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. The third habit listed in Covey’s book is, you guessed it, “Begin with the end in mind”! While this entire book is worth the read, that chapter in particular, will help you to apply the principle of “start with the end in mind” to your business.

A word of caution

Here’s a word of caution while you are developing your plan of action: Don’t get discouraged by any missteps or failures that might occur as you roll out your brand survival plan. As championship boxer turned philosopher Mike Tyson once said, “everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” Chances are that you too will get punched in the mouth as you and your team move forward with developing and implementing your survival plan. In such cases, don’t despair. Getting punched in the mouth is par for the course for agile hikers. If you’re going to survive whatever challenges are being thrown at your business during a crisis, you’ll need to be prepared to take a few blows. Not everything will go your way. But, you can improve your chances of survival by starting with the end in mind and, like Amundsen, planning for everything to go wrong.

Hi there! I'm Ron. I am the author of the book Tighten Your Shoelaces and co-founder of Blueprint Creative, the world's first "Bhranding", communications and design agency. To book me for executive coaching or for speaking engagements such as conferences, workshops or strategic retreats, you can contact me directly through LinkedIn or by visiting my website.