The mistaken belief that you can control everything that happens, without understanding any of it, by creating more process.
Leadership
The (sometimes) mistaken belief that you can fundamentally change a situation by digging deeper into what you’re trying to do.
I’m starting an MBA at the University of North Alabama. And one of my first classes is on leadership. I’ll admit it’s a word I’ve had an uneasy relationship with. I’ve noticed a very bulldust-adjacent trend where those who talk the most about it understand it the least.
I’m also (re)starting an effort that I first took up full-time in 2018 – what amounts to a restart of my business, Nectar Bridge LLC. I was fortunate enough in the intervening 4 years to do well financially. Now it can be told – in 2018 I went the directions I did because I couldn’t find a job and didn’t want to look unemployed. I did have moments where I believed I could make it work, but I also had moments where I had to get large cash advances on credit cards to make a mortgage payment. And moments where I took on any work I could possibly get.
I’m not in that position now. Not only was I able to accumulate some cash, I spent some money making hands-down the best move (literally) I ever made – moving to Huntsville, Alabama. I love this place – the church we attend, the friends we’ve made, and the business community.
You were saying something about leadership, Gary?
But back to leadership, and those who talk about it the most understanding it the least. I thought last time around that I could “lead with leadership.” I’d experienced some very positive results with business consulting for my own business, and I wanted to go in that direction. Providing mentoring, training, advising. Perhaps knock off a few M&As here and there, sit on a board.
I’d still be interested in some of those things, but I was ignoring all those voices (including those who were trying to be shepherds to me personally) about how leadership starts with service. The role of the advisor, dare I say the guru, that rarely comes without first demonstrating some concrete benefit. Most small business owners are simply not in a position to pay for mountaintop speeches. Come to think of it, I’m not crazy about making them.
I’ve spent the past week or so since going back full-time mending nets, blowing some dust out of some bellows. There’s a principle of acceleration that it takes a lot more power to get something moving from, say, zero to 2 miles per hour than it does moving forward from there. I don’t understand this very well (majored in business, not engineering). But I have felt the benefit of this – taxes, licenses, insurance – all up to speed, even though my only steady customer a week ago was my mom reimbursing me for her cell phone.
Already picked up one customer – a mechanical contractor who seems like he’s got a great business. I hope to help.
Keep climbing!