The Gift my Dog would give to founders!

I’ve worked with many founders who are starting their business, I’ve worked with founders who are past survive but not quite into thrive, and plenty of founders who are looking for the exit path that will make all of the work and heartache worthwhile.

The brilliant part about my job is that I get to help great people find a way through the rocky but exciting pathway of idea to success and sometimes to help people rescue a second chance out of a ‘failure’.

The frustrating part of my job is being able to see the patterns of behaviour that create value, enjoyment and excitement at the very same time as seeing the patterns that I know will lead to value destruction, frustration and often stress and regret.

‘Why don’t you help people to follow the good stuff and avoid the bad stuff?’ I can hear you asking, ‘isn’t that your job?’

It’s a conundrum I’ve thought about a lot over the years. I want every founder, client or not, to succeed. There are very few things better than seeing a group of talented, committed people taking an idea and building it into a business that delights their customers, creates fulfilling well-paid jobs and builds value for the owners.

I’m not the only advisor or consultant who can see these patterns. The bookshelves are full of advice and guidance, there are many podcasts offering real life insights and guidance, and many founders are part of mentoring and support networks that offer great guidance and advice.

So, after many long walks with my dog when I’ve been trying to puzzle out this problem here are my three insights into why founders and business leaders often find it hard to follow patterns of success:

Time Travel is Hard

If I (and my dog) had one gift to give to founders it would be time travel!

You might have seen my previous post about decisions made at one stage in the life of a business that are sound at the time but create issues in the future.

The gift of time travel would enable founders and business leaders to see that decision from a different place. A place where success has arrived and they can make forward decisions with confidence, a place where the relationship with the co-founder(s) or key employee has changed for better or worse, a place where their biggest competitor is desperate to buy them rather than finish them off. Having that confidence, that perspective, that knowledge would be way more powerful than an advisor telling you to look ahead.

Pay for an argument

The most successful founders I’ve worked with have wanted me to discuss, to argue, to brainstorm, to challenge, to find out what the real problem is, to be right on some things and wrong on others. These founders want intellectual input, they want different perspectives and they want whatever decision they make to be difficult but well informed.

These relationships get the most expansive, creative and excited version of what I can offer.

The founders that tend to move from one difficulty to another have wanted something different. They’ve wanted a precise answer to a problem. They want data or experience or judgement to make a difficult decision obvious and straightforward.

These aren’t unreasonable requests but they do limit creativity and exploration. I often find that we fix one problem only for another to appear shortly after, often down to the same core but as yet unexplored issues. These assignments and projects tend to get the most analytical, data driven and cautious version of what I can offer because that task is to hunt for a target answer to a specific question rather than exploring for the best version of that business.

It’s all about the Exit

For reasons I’ve explored over many long conversations, many founders are reticent about their ambition for the end of their time with the business. There can be a lack of belief that the business will be of value to other owners, embarrassment about wanting to be wealthy, a strong connection to the team, desire to protect the team from a change in leadership and conditions or simply an honest reflection that the founder loves running the business so much that they don’t want to leave.

All of these are based on sound logic and healthy emotions. However, the impact on the strategy for the business is always negative and always stifling.

Successful businesses need momentum. They need drive and focus to bring energy to decisions about product and service development, recruitment and retention of talent, investment in sales and marketing and all of the many things that make a business fizz. A founder without a finish line to aim for struggles to generate that drive and focus and, at some point, energy fades and drift begins.

Even if your finish line is a comfortable retirement at 60 rather than a Ferrari at 30, you need to have an exit as your focal point.

I’d love to hear from other founders and advisors if they agree or disagree with these insights. I feel certain that my dog has plenty of long walks ahead of him as we try to puzzle out more answers!