“I think this is extremely difficult to be done. It’s a very hard problem and it’s better to spend your energy into other things.“
How many times have you heard people saying this? And what is your reaction to the same?
Your reaction to the above statement tells a lot about you AND the person who made the statement. The 3 possible reactions are:
- Yeah, you are right, let’s scrap the idea and focus on something else.
- Just because somebody else hasn’t done it doesn’t mean that I will not do this. Let me show you that this can be done.
- Ok - you have a point. But are you sure that nothing has been done there? Have you done proper research on that or just expecting me to research a little more? Even if nothing has been done - does that really make it unsolvable?
I regularly come across all 3 kinds of reactions - whether it’s in the interviews, general discussions with the team at Tekriti, discussions with partners or discussions with others outside work. And at the same time, I also get to hear the “It’s a hard problem; let’s not do this” statement at least a few times a month. My ego always makes me lean towards “Heh… I will show you that it can be done” approach (We all hate to say this but don’t we feel most satisfied in doing something that people don’t give us a chance for?). But the entrepreneur in me mellows it down and react in a 3rd way (as stated above) - which, in most cases, is the most practical.
What is annoying is that there are a set of people who make a habit out of asking the “It’s a hard problem; let’s not do this” question. And when you ask them the reason for the same - they will either have no answer or will relate to a scenario where it is not applicable at all or the more intelligent ones will point to a study that was published 5 years back.
But why am I writing all this? Oh well… I don’t know. Beyond the fact that I am being a bit sarcastic (sorry!), I am also just reminding myself that “Filtering the good feedback and criticism from the irrelevant ones is very important. The filtering is not always done at the content (feedback) level but at the critique level too.”
Someone told me once that there are 3 types of critiques:
- Your well-wishers, whose criticism carries a lot of weight. They really want you to be successful and will question you for the sake of reality-check. Listen to them. They will, most often, go above and beyond even if they don’t have a business to do so. Their feedback will almost always be priceless.
- Criticism is a fashion / necessity / hobby for them. Ignore them. There are chances that they might make a good point - but “kissing 100 frogs before the prince appears” might not always be worth it.
- Who are more neutral and want to make good points but their reputation is more important to them than whether it benefits you or not. Listen to them, but cross-question to know where exactly are they coming from. You need to be more thoughtful on what to accept and what not to.
Ah.. well! Agree? Trivial?
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November 12, 2006 at 3:33 pm
Well, the other dimension that is oft expressed is - “Is the problem really worth the time spent solving?” which IMO, should also be considered before further researching/solving.
November 13, 2006 at 11:06 am
Absolutely agree, Nagendra! Knowing what problem should be solved and what not - is absolutely important.
November 14, 2006 at 12:13 am
I have observed the same phenomenon in a different context.
We have been interviewing candidates for middle/senior management positions at madhouse (www.madhouse.in). Most of these guys would need to take a paycut and we tell that to them in advance, that they should look at madhouse if it really excites them and they are fine to choose a lifestyle of joining a startup.
At one point or other during the selection process, all of them reach a stage where they are excited to proceed but also have emotional fears, telling them not to leave the cushy job and join a startup. Now they have a hard problem to solve and the same three options mentioned by ashish.
Its sad to see that most of them choose to scrap the idea and continue doing what they are already doing.
Instead if they would choose to put some effort to anwser the hard question in an objective manner, I believe the results would be much better both for the candidates as well of various startups like madhouse.
November 15, 2006 at 11:43 am
Sameer - the net benefit that any person joining the team should see is more than what they see in their current job — and the benefit should be visualizable in the next 3 years. That has been my experience. So - yes - similar thing has happened with us also. But, if you really think, you don’t even want those guys in the team who are not ’startup material’ - that would be a short-term gain.
They say that the leader always has to go through a lot of pain that followers don’t see. Startups have just started to happen in India and we are leaders that way — we are bound to go through more pain. But if even a few of us are successful - it will ease up for the next set of startups.
I am hopeful
November 19, 2006 at 8:27 pm
Well, very few of us have the ability to go out of our comfort zone and think laterally.
I work as Product Manager and one of the most difficult task is to cut the noise (pt. 1 especially) and have people think of ‘How do I’ solve this?
Sameer - At times it’s not just that people are scary to take a paycheck cut and join a startup - but most of the times people aren’t too sure of what they are getting into. Probably they aren’t *bought-into* the idea.
At the end of the day - co-founder of a startup, even if the startup fails has more avenues than the employees. And even if the starup succeeds, founders make more out of it than the employees. So don’t expect your employees to share the same risk!
-Ashish
iDea Labs
November 22, 2006 at 9:36 pm
Ashish - I agree with you there. I think it’s also the governance model that impacts the way people think. Unfortunately, there still are a lot of companies that follow “I tell, you do” model and that is what hurts. Also, yes, one cannot expect everybody in the startup to share the same risk (and they actually dont even do that!)