The Modern Day Vasa and the Cult of the Try-Hards

Let me tell you a story about one of the biggest fiascos of a time past.  The year is 1625 and the Lion King of the North, Gustav II Adolf, is intent on building the Swedish nation into one of the most feared powers in all of Europe. The King contracts Dutch master shipwright, Henrik Hybertsson, to build four brand new warships to lead his navies. One of them, Vasa, is to be the most powerful warship in the Baltic, if not the entire world. Vasa′s construction is begun in the late winter. Master Hybertsson, already ill when construction starts, can no longer supervise the other shipwrights by the summer and has to hand over responsibility for the new ship to his assistant, Hein Jakobsson. Barely a year later, Henrik is dead.

When completed, Vasa is 226 feet long and more than 164 feet tall from the keel to the top of the main mast. The ship weighs over 1200 tons and is outfitted with 10 sails, 64 cannons, 120 tons of ballast and hundreds of sculptures – truly a fine piece of craftsmanship. The captain supervising the construction of Vasa, S?fring Hansson, calls Vice Admiral Klas Fleming down to the ship, moored at the royal palace, because he is worried. He has just ordered 30 men to run back and forth across the deck for onlookers and the ship rolls alarmingly. The Admiral has the demonstration stopped, afraid the ship will sink at the dock. Under pressure from the King to get the ship to sea, he orders S?fring to sail anyway. A few short months later, Vasa sets off on its first and final voyage. Still within sight of the shipyard where it was built, Vasa heels to port under a gust and water gushes in through the open gun-ports. Within minutes, the ship is lying on the sea bed below. Thousands of Stockholm′s inhabitants witness the tragic scene, together with several foreign ambassadors. What began in ambition in the heart of a king ends in tragedy and shame.

Fast forward to the modern day and the world has a new leader. Thousands follow on his every word. This leader commands a large following that is affectionately named the Cult of the Try-Hards. He believes  the dollar is paramount and his modern day “Vasa” is the idea that flashy products, more features, and attractive schemes are the way into the hearts and minds of the consumer. To this end, he spends countless hours focusing on creating the next big thing. He blows millions of valuable dollars on case studies, focus groups, and consumer panels. He “tries” hard, but doesn’t have a true aim or target for his energies. He lacks a clear end goal.  His motto is that the old way simply doesn’t work anymore in any manner, so he seeks to revolutionize everything that he possibly can. His buzz words are “Outside the Box,” “Synergy,” and “Quick Win.” The truth is -- these ideas and notions are nothing new; they are simply a remaking of the idea that bigger and more extravagant is better. They are the ideas that led to King Gustav II commissioning the building of Vasa and the steps toward the path of tragedy, shame, and obscurity.

Below are three keys to avoiding calamity not so different from that which befell Vasa and not being drawn into the Cult of the Try-Hards.

1. Fine-tune your energies on the basics and perfect the fundamentals before moving on to the next step. As Jim Rohn so eloquently stated this idea, “Success is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well.”
2. Acknowledge that less is sometimes more and simpler is sometimes more productive. Works smarter not harder to accomplish the unthinkable, the unbelievable, the extraordinary. "That's been one of my mantras - focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it's worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.” – Steve Jobs
3. Remember that the past does not define you. Learning from your failures will get you closer to the success you seek. Neither your success nor your failures are permanent – they died when you woke up this morning. “Your most important work is always ahead of you, never behind you.” – Stephen Covey

Understanding these three basic principles is vital to carrying yourself, your organization, and your society into the future. What happened to Vasa, the largest and most extravagant vessel of its time? It sank to the bottom of the sea before it had a chance to perform its purpose. It had faded from the annals of history for almost four centuries and has now been raised from the sea bed as a reminder to all who will witness that bigger is not always better, new is not necessarily noteworthy, and extravagance can easily lead to emptiness.