I recommend this book at least once a month to someone: Will and Vision, by Gerard Tellis and Peter Golder. It’s classic.
Some of the lessons I often think about include:
- There is no such thing as “first mover advantage” when it comes to technology. It’s often the opposite actually. The first movers make all the mistakes and invest all the up front costs, and the winners come in second and capitalize on you.
- It’s not enough to have the will to succeed. You also need a vision you want to realize. Without a vision you’re not sure what you are building, where you should focus, and what you should sacrifice to get there. A vision gives you a target to aim everyone at. If you don’t have that, then everyone starts thinking for themselves and their own careers, their own pocketbooks, and their own individual needs before the company. And when that happens, things fall apart, products start to suck, people miss deadlines, and you slowly decline into mediocrity.
- But it’s also not enough to have a vision you want to accomplish. You also need the will to get there. You need energy, enthusiasm, drive to accomplish your goals. You need people who care, people who get things done, people who are intrinsically motivated to succeed. Without the will to get shit done inculcated at every level of your organization people start to slack off, and the slack off disease spreads like the plague. But the key here is intrinsic motivation. It can’t be solved by throwing money or stock options at people. You have to inspire them to get the most out of them. You have to capture their imagination.
Anyway, I’m going beyond the scope of this book with my own ranting. But it’s still a good read. It will give you good ammunition to blow up the next argument from those who say “we have to be first’ for first’s sake.” No. We should never be first for first’s sake. We should be the best at how we want to distinguish ourselves in the market, and let’s focus on that instead.
Enjoy the book.
