A Tribute to Those Entrepreneurs
During the search process of several leadership hires I've made at Avery Dennison, often times the word 'entrepreneur' comes up. Our top leaders in headquarter and in Asia are always searching for someone with entrepreneurial spirit.
I've known the word for long since Korn/Ferry days, when we were working for start-up clients. To me, the word means 'willing to roll up the sleeves' with 'dirty work' even if you are a VP/CEO. It also means very strong ambiguity tolerance, down-to-earth and super positive attitude, the ability to lead and motivate a team when the resources are scarce and the future is in fact uncertain.
During the search process, I start to think more about the meaning behind this word.
Ben Horowitz, the successful Silicone Valley entrepreneur wrote in his book The Hard thing about Hard Things that during his eight years as the company CEO, he only had three good days and the rest were just one sleepless night after another sleepless night.
"Life is a struggle. "
"Peacetime CEO sets big, hairy, audacious goals. Wartime CEO is too busy fighting the enemy to read management books written by consultants who have never managed a fruit stand.”
“The hard thing isn’t setting a big, hairy, audacious goal. The hard thing is laying people off when you miss the big goal. The hard thing isn’t hiring great people. The hard thing is when those “great people” develop a sense of entitlement and start demanding unreasonable things...The hard thing isn’t dreaming big. The hard thing is waking up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat when the dream turns into a nightmare.”
Out of hundreds of start-ups, only a handful can survive in the end and what are the qualities in those CEOs or businessmen/women from those surviving companies?
China is a market known for its uncertainties and the market has groomed a group of brave and top-notch entrepreneurs. Out of their stories, am thinking of adding a couple more qualities or 'competencies' to the definition of an entrepreneur
- A strong heart to be on your own. The story of Dai Kebin, the founder of a big job board in China - that in his most difficult time in 2010 when he didn't have a cent to pay the high-way toll fee, he borrowed money from the driver in the next car and called his friend from the station. His friend later recalled that Dai just needed a friend to talk to. Sometimes as a founder, you realise you are about to go bankrupt or faced up with life-or-death situations, you can't tell your family, you can't tell your friends, you can't tell your employees, your partners or even your investors. You are on your own to solve it. These are lonely warriors who shall enjoy the glory with the crowd but endure the dark nights alone before the dawn.
- Ability to manage own psychology and not collapse from extreme human emotions. Founder of Tencent, owner of Wechat, described himself as constantly shifting between extreme confidence and extreme self-doubt. An entrepreneur goes to bed knowing he/she is prob good for nothing and wakes up the next day feeling he/she can change the world again.. It's not easy to restore confidence, if you are sober, when your products receive overwhelming negative feedback and when your leadership team are questioning every decision you make behind your back.
- Brave. Brave enough to confront the fear. Fear of not knowing where to go - no directions at a cross road or no road at all; fear of making millions of investment which may turn your balance sheet from green to red, fear of not knowing that how many days are left for the company. Fear of being known as a failure among the family, friends, alumni, neighbors and all people you know. Brave enough to make a good move when you don't know what a good move is in the dark.
- Passion. These are talent people and they can choose a life with good pay and manageable risk. They can be a dentist, an accountant, an HR, or a manager role with a company with stable growth and predictable future. There must be something, something beautiful and attractive enough for them to take up the path behind the dark door to battle with the endless difficulty, fear to be homeless, mood swings, loneliness, and the struggle. It's the passion for what they do.
We are looking for entrepreneurs as our leaders, as there is no 100% predictable future for any company, and no investment is guaranteed to be successful. We are looking for leaders who are constantly thinking and exploring - how we revamp our strategy we made last year, is the ecosystem changing without us knowing it, do we try a new sales model, if this doesn't work then what, are we working with the right partners, or without seeking permission do we just do it first and then ask for forgiveness...?
We are all entrepreneurs as we all need to choose how we live our life. None of us know how long the journey is going to be and how much time is left. We all have fear to conquer and moments to be on our own, and we all have to be brave when we have to. So being entrepreneurial is not a type of career, but rather a sober attitude towards life?