Quick snippets from my morning read on Saturday, 06th February 2021
Today’s morning read looks at how to deal with hardship. This article by Ryan Holiday looks at 5 ways this can be done.
Entrepreneurs face obstacles from the moment they wake up in the morning, whether they’re trying to satisfy investors, struggling to meet payroll, dealing with unexpected complications or delivering a new product to market.
Of course, not everyone is cut out for these rough seas. But some individuals stand out as being particularly well-suited for dealing with what investor and advisor Ben Horowitz calls the “hard things.”
Iconic entrepreneurs like John D. Rockefeller, Thomas Edison and Steve Jobs all used this same formula when obstacles confronted them, even using the situation to fueli their immense ambitions. For them, the obstacle was the way. What follows are five strategies born of this ancient maxim.
1. Keep a cool head.
John D. Rockefeller was barely two years into his first job when the Panic of 1857 struck. Rockefeller could have become depressed and paralyzed by the unfortunate circumstances he faced. But instead of bemoaning the timing of the economic upheaval, he chose to perceive events differently than his peers. He looked at them as an opportunity to learn, to experience a baptism by the market. He was inclined to see opportunity in every disaster, as he once put it.
Within 20 years of that first crisis, Rockefeller alone controlled 90 percent of the oil market.
Like Rockefeller, today’s entrepreneurs live in turbulent times. Instead of letting our perception of events cloud our judgment, we can look to companies like LinkedIn and Microsoft, that were both founded during times of economic crisis. When others become lost worrying about a competitor’s latest acquisition or an investor having a fit, we can channel Rockefeller’s coolness under pressure and look for the opportunity in a crisis.
2. Think differently.
Steve Jobs was famous for what observers called his “reality distortion field,” which made him dismissive of phrases like “It can’t be done.” When he ordered a special kind of glass for the first iPhone, manufacturers were aghast at the aggressive deadline. “Don’t be afraid,” Jobs said. “You can do it. Get your mind around it. You can do it.”
Nearly overnight, manufacturers transformed their facilities into glassmaking behemoths, and within six months they had made enough for the whole first run of the phone. His insistence pushed them past what they thought was possible.
We can choose to reject our first judgments and the objections that spring out of them by insisting that obstacles are in fact malleable not concrete. Like, Apple’s leader we must have faith in our ability to make something where there was nothing before. To companies like Facebook and Google in their startup years, the idea that no one had ever done something was a good thing. It meant there was an opportunity to own it themselves.
Read the rest of the article here.
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