Ignorance: An Entrepreneurs best friend
I often heard what you don’t know won’t kill you. When it comes to opening your own business, this is indeed the case. If I knew before starting our company exactly what was involved in being successful, I probably would have passed on the opportunity. Even though things worked out very well for my partners and me, it still was something. When I look back, I wonder how we made it through.
Especially when I now go to a legal technology trade show and look around after 27 years and see a handful of companies or people that started the same time, we did that made it, or are still in business. When I started in the litigation technology field, it was the Wild, Wild West. It was like a massive land grab where there were very few rules, and only the strongest survived. We were moving and shaking so fast we did not have any time to stop and get a sense of how crazy things were and how off the wall some of the things we did to succeed.
All boats rise with rising tides
This aphorism holds true for every team, no matter what you are doing. The concept is that as the water levels rise, “opportunity or prosperity,” then all the boats in the water, “the people on the team,” will also rise together. If the team wins, then everyone on the team wins. Winning creates more opportunities, money, ways to advance, and flexibility with a chance to continue to reach even higher levels. This does not mean that everyone on the team is contributing equally. Everyone on the team gets to experience the thrill and excitement of winning and will always have that in the record books to lament and build upon. When teams win, efforts are made to keep the team together because the team's chemistry and makeup work. They get the best equipment and higher salaries with all the perks winners need to keep winning. The opposite is true as well. Managers or coaches will change players or employees until they get it right. Losing kills morale and destroys the chemistry of the team. It can also restrain resources such as revenue, which then prevents you from getting the best players or the equipment needed to improve and succeed. It can become a downward spiral that becomes hard to overcome and change. It is important to get everyone on the team to believe that they can make a difference and are playing for the team's good. It is easier to be successful ‘win’ with everyone contributing in a positive way. Think about how fast the canoe can go when everyone is paddling in the same direction with all their might.