"Built to Last" — An Exploration on Myth 6

Just what makes a visionary company? Almost always they are the premier institutions, the crown jewels in their industry. It is the question that the book "Built to Last" by James C. Collins and Jerry I. Porras answers quite thoroughly - a compelling book amongst others that I am reading momentarily.

Some time ago now, I came across a section that resonated with me and which I wanted to write about in my blog. Throughout the beginning comes a section regarding 12 myths and the respective realities about the most successful companies. One I was particularly enticed by was the portion on myth 6, that Blue-chip companies play it safe. "blue chip" being the term that was first used in 1923 by Oliver Gingold, an employee of Dow Jones, to describe stocks that traded at $200 or more per share. It borrows from poker’s hierarchy: blue outranks red and white in value. Given this, these blue-chip types are the profitable, time-tested and well established companies.

Undoubtably, the reality component of the book disagreed, that on the outside these companies indeed appear conservative and prim. However they're not actually afraid to make bold decisions. Not all evidently, as some are stiff with thick layers of bureaucracy that couldn't move more nonchalantly.

But a select few however, make commitments to massive goals with highly ambitious deadlines. The type of goals that may be daunting and perhaps precarious, but it's in the "adventure, excitement, and the challenge" of these that "grabs people in the gut, gets their juices flowing, and creates immense forward momentum." The excerpt later remarks that visionary companies have judiciously used these goals to stimulate progress and blast past the competition at crucial points in history.

Apart from providing huge and real value in the world, this is what gives life to many things such as business, to not just create something massive in the end, but the process of getting there through "impossible" deadlines and risks, and hence gaining the feeling that you are creating something almost magical.

Although not everyone, this is what gets many to join a great cause, the opportunity to embark on the greatest adventure of a lifetime. Just think back on your own life, I am sure that for many of you some of your best moments have been where you worked unimaginably hard for a goal, and it then came to be. Most of life’s best highs do arrive this way: great effort, persistent focus, and a goal that in the end finally breaks through.

Additionally, with reference to self-transformation, what I want to ultimately say is this: setting those ambitious and highly intensive goals is what will ignite you and bring the very best out of you.

I always love to repeat that 'pressure makes diamonds,' hence never hesitate to march onward into adversity and accomplish your greatest ambitions. Indeed, do so with deliberate ruthlessness, acknowledging that each respective challenge will be used as a stepping stone towards making a superior you in countless facets.

On the last front, history shows us that startups and companies won’t always meet these goals within such rigorous deadlines, but they will advance lightyears ahead — leaving their competitors far behind — precisely because of those same timeframes.

I’ll leave you now with the befitting full quote from the iconic ‘Think Different’ commercial, where Steve Jobs recaptured his vision for Apple. I’ll see you all in the next post, where I will explain in greater depth the concept of the Markov property and some of the arithmetic behind it. Until then.

“Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”