Machete

Great things happen when you’re on a roll. Coming up with a smart idea usually kicks off more smart ideas; more smart ideas lead to innovations. Being confident in what you know and what your doing has a positive reinforcement in making you feel more confident, more creative, more in control, more effective and more resourceful. It builds on itself. Speed bumps don’t get you down as much. Obstacles get tackled quickly and resolved creatively. You’re in a great mood, and life is good.

I wrote a post some time ago called “smart people can ratfuck you”. What I wrote in that post was the idea that smart people feel compelled to “help” and sometimes their “help” is in advice, opinion, direction, or counsel that to them feels justified, but in reality has the effect of squashing your momentum or pointing you in the wrong direction. Smart people also tend to be powerful and this power  can create a vacuum that tamps down the creativity and momentum that’s necessary to overcome the real obstacles you’re facing.

Building a company is fraught with peril. You’re in a constant state of new challenges, new hurdles, and new dynamics. These challenges are different at every phase of the company’s evolution. You have to be on your game in order to win.  Positive momentum has to be shaped and focused, but never squashed.  Its far too easy to point out the stuff that’s wrong and way harder to constructively focus the momentum.

Entrepreneurs succeed by being bushwhackers. Resourceful, creative, machete-wielding, fearless bushwhackers. Ready to charge the hill without hesitation. Anything that constrains that drive, enthusiasm, and behavior detracts from the likelihood of success.