“How I Built This:” The question that drives me crazy
Every evening, I go for a walk and listen to a podcast.
One of my favorites is How I Built This, with Guy Raz.
Over the course of an hour or so, Guy interviews the founder of a well-known brand, taking us through the ups-and-downs and incredible plot twists of building their business.
(Check out the ones with Butcherbox, Chobani and Bombas).
But at the end of every interview, he asks a question that drives me crazy.
I can always tell when the moment is coming and I brace myself, screaming silently: “Don’t do it, Guy, don’t do it!”
And then he asks:
“How much of your success do you attribute to luck, and how much do you attribute to hard work?”
An innocuous question. So why my extreme reaction?
Because it perpetuates the tendency to always judge what happens as “good” or “bad” luck.
To give away our power to external circumstances.
And I’m not the only one who thinks “How much of your success was due to luck?” isn’t a useful question.
In researching their book Good to Great, Jim Collins and Morten Hansen found that great companies were not generally luckier than their competitors — they didn’t get more good luck, less bad luck, bigger spikes of luck, or better timing of luck.
In fact, they realized, it’s not the luck you get that counts. It’s what you do with it.
That’s what I’ve seen with the most successful founders — both the ones that Guy interviews and the ones I work with. They don’t even think in terms of “good” or “bad” luck.
They simply say “Now what?” and focus on:
- extracting the learning
- finding the silver lining
- continuing to execute brilliantly
Here’s an example:
The first time Ganymed Robotics applied to the European Innovation Council for funding, they were denied. Bad luck, right?
But on their second attempt, they received a €2.5M grant and €10M equity investment. Interestingly, the first year, there was no equity component, just a grant.
So the fact that they failed and tried again a year later meant that instead of receiving just a €2M grant, they got €12.5M.
Navy SEALs call it “full benefit.”
I call it maximizing your ROE: Return On Everything.
It’s not luck.
It’s life.
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