I met Lara last month. She is a second generation entrepreneur. She manages a unit started by her father. Whenever i talk to her, i find that she is attending one or other 'Positive psychology' seminars which have titles like " Discover your freedom", " Ask the Universe what you want", " Believe in yourself" and so on. She believes that she can do anything in her company, only if she can 'remove' all her bottlenecks, She belongs to a large joint family ( uncles, cousins) where most of the members are in the business. Surprisingly, all of them are attending one or other of such programs either to discover their true self, or 'manage his time well' or 'learn the art to delegate'. Later i discovered, that most of the attendees of such 'Positive psychology' programs are entrepreneurs, free lancers like consultants or doctors, or lone performers like actors who put all their efforts on developing their 'abilities' or honing their skills.
I asked Lara last month, " Will this fisherman catch more fish, if he fishes for more time?' Or ' Will he catch more fish, if he fishes with longer rod, or better fishing equipments?'. Lara was very quick in replying to me "That is ridiculous'. In fishing, the number of fishes you catch do not depend on how much time you fish, or with what equipments you fish. It depends on the 'surveying the terrain of fishing, assessing the nature of fishes available, and then getting the appropriate equipments and then putting on the right 'time and effort' to hook the fishes. Input abilities have to be aligned with the output 'requirements' to succeed in achieving one's goals.
If you understand the 'Enlight framework of Career Success', you will realise the futility of such misdirected efforts. Inputs or abilities are just one of the elements of success. Entrepreneurs will achieve their goals far more easily if they focus their efforts on producing the ' right outputs' instead of bettering their 'inputs' (abilities). Only when they determine their ' right outputs', they can focus on mobilising the 'abilities' that are required to produce the desired effort. If you read any story of a successful entrepreneur like Richard Branson or Jeff Bezos, you will find that their efforts are mainly directed on 'determining the output' they want to produce.
On the other hand, most of the entrepreneurs are like Milind, who believe 24 by 7 effort will automatically produce desired result. It is like man trying to fish by constantly splashing the rod in the water and hoping that some fish will take the bait now or later. So why do entrepreneurs focus on 'abilities' instead of 'output'? I guess there are four reasons:
1. Entrepreneurs believe that some action is more important than no action: When i told Lara about the importance of determining the right output in her company, she said that 'it will take lot of desk-time to work it out'. Lara, like many entrepreneurs, is action-oriented individual. She believes that concerted action ( right or wrong), consistently taken over long period of time, will produce some result. Lara also had a word to justify her action-orientation. She believes that ' Analysis causes paralysis'. Due to this belief, she does not want to spend time on 'what to do'.
2. Entrepreneurs wrongly believe that extraordinary abilities ( traits and skills) can automatically help them produce extraordinary results: If you have read biographies of any successful person who has produced bigger and huge outputs, you will realise the fallacy of this belief. For instance, if you read these stories of Narayan Murthy and Manmohan Singh, you will realise that they produced huge outputs despite their weaknesses. Despite the evidence that perfect traits and skills do not produce extraordinary results, many entrepreneurs continue to strive in developing their abilities.
3. Entrepreneurs are not aware of their 'key input ability', because they are not aware of the input framework. Input framework of success proposes that we need 3 key abilities to achieve our goals. Unable to assess the key inputs required to achieve desired goals, entrepreneurs cannot focus on important but invisible ability like conative trait and miss the opportunity to leverage their efforts.
4. Entrepreneurs lack the skill and patience of determining the right output: Everyone knows that pushing the right levers can result in big benefit. In a closed system, it is easier to identify these levers because correlation of one element with another element can be easily seen. For instance, 'Wrong material' leads to 'defects' in a production of an item. However, in an 'open industry system of competitors and suppliers' (system with more transparent boundaries) , it is very difficult to decipher cause-effect correlation. In an open system, it takes patience to set up experiments to understand the influence of identified 'variables'. It requires data to justify one's hypothesis. It requires 'ego-less' state to accept that one's hypothesis was wrong. Most of the entrepreneurs make the mistake of Rohit Sharma. Because they cannot figure out the 'right output' they prefer to take any action instead of finding the right action.
4. Entrepreneurs lack the skill and patience of determining the right output: Everyone knows that pushing the right levers can result in big benefit. In a closed system, it is easier to identify these levers because correlation of one element with another element can be easily seen. For instance, 'Wrong material' leads to 'defects' in a production of an item. However, in an 'open industry system of competitors and suppliers' (system with more transparent boundaries) , it is very difficult to decipher cause-effect correlation. In an open system, it takes patience to set up experiments to understand the influence of identified 'variables'. It requires data to justify one's hypothesis. It requires 'ego-less' state to accept that one's hypothesis was wrong. Most of the entrepreneurs make the mistake of Rohit Sharma. Because they cannot figure out the 'right output' they prefer to take any action instead of finding the right action.
If you are a smart entrepreneur, do not spend your effort and time barking on wrong tree. Instead spend time on determining the right output.
