Why chaos is a good thing
In answering a small- business owner, who was clearly looking for reassurance that the constant chaos she experiences is something close to normal, I stumbled upon a new definition of entrepreneurship that may help other entrepreneurs better understand the shifting sands their job is built on — and why never- ending chaos is actually a good thing.
“Entrepreneurs are people who are always doing things they don’t know how to do,” I said.
She looked quizzical, but quickly grasped the essence of this statement. When you first pull a business together, you’re operating at extremely high levels of abstraction through tasks such as visioning, differentiation, market evangelism and building a team.
On the other hand, you are required to master mind- numbing levels of detail you’ll ( hopefully) never have to handle again, such as developing job descriptions, figuring out registrations, negotiating contracts and building your supply chain. No one can be adept at all of that.
As the business grows, you hand off the uncomfortable details as quickly as possible because you have better things to do. My “Don’t Know” definition comes with a crucial corollary: “Entrepreneurs are always doing things they don’t know how to do, because once they know how to do something, they can delegate it to someone else, who will probably do it better.” Continuous delegation of rote chores frees founders to venture back into the no man’s lands where businesses are really built.
This model of entrepreneurship is more than a label. It’s also a path. Throughout the life of their business, entrepreneurs often ponder what the right road is for them. Should they focus on operations or sales? Is their job to hire great people or to develop new products? Once their business is running smoothly, where can they contribute the most value?
“Don’t Know” suggests the entrepreneur is best suited to be a pathfinder: the one person who can pick out the trail through the woods that leads to success. That means constantly running into dead ends, or losing the trail and circling back — but who better to do this than the founder, who has the clearest vision of the business’ future state?
Whenever entrepreneurs find themselves knowing exactly what they’re doing, they are going over old ground. They should immediately hand that task to someone else, because most entrepreneurs achieve their highest potential when they are foraging ahead in the wild, doing what no one else does so well: expanding business relationships and networks into new markets and opportunities.
This model then suggests that true entrepreneurs should be spending most of their time out of the office. Sure, there are initial phases that require internal attention: setting workplace processes and quality standards, and hatching the corporate culture. But once that is done, your place is on the road: meeting with customers and prospects.
Customer needs are never- ending. They don’t need just reliable suppliers, but creative problemsolvers. And you don’t achieve that status by presiding over the daily office huddle or chairing the operations committee.
Business expansion doesn’t come from routine. Growth comes from extending your products, marketing or distribution, little by little, into emerging niches, and doubling down on the areas where you find traction. There will always be doubts and disagreements over the right ways to expand. But the roving entrepreneurs, who are constantly studying new market developments and building stronger relationships, will have the best instincts for when to zig and where to zag.
So “Don’t Know” leads to one more epiphany: the visionary, peripatetic entrepreneur’s best friend is a stoic, stay- at- home operations overlord. Someone who can bring stability and consistency to production and office activities so the entrepreneur can spend his or her days out in the chaos fields. In today’s innovationdriven business world, routine creates profits, but curiosity and creativity fuel growth.
But there’s one more implication to consider: entrepreneurs need specific skills to succeed.
Ask questions of your customers, prospects, suppliers and all keepers of the opportunity vault. Open- ended questions such as “Where can we help you?”, “What comes next?,” and “How do you know?” will help you spot gaps and options others miss.
Share your findings. If you can’t give them back valuable intelligence, your sources will dry up.
Write down your key findings and think through what they mean. Sometimes the best ideas come from putting together two unrelated trends. ( Consider the iPod, based on the shift to digitized music plus the miniaturization of data storage.)
Share your findings with your top managers or product teams. They’ll provide the additional evidence or reality checks needed to prioritize your checklist.
The best entrepreneurs love being out in green fields, leveraging their passion and personality to find the next new thing. Get out of the office and breathe the fresh air of innovation and collaboration.