Think Alone, Fight Together
I prefer solitude. My strengths - contemplation, strategizing, thinking - are best exercised alone. I enjoy periodic interactions to test ideas and gather feedback, but my best work happens between those conversations. I actively avoid meetings, phone calls, scheduling.
Peace Time
- This works well in peacetime. Imagine the king of a peaceful kingdom deciding how to grow his people’s prosperity. Easy to picture him spending most of his time alone, occasionally caucusing with trusted advisors. If the king is well chosen, it’s his unique wisdom that everyone wants - and accessing it requires quieting external noise.
War Time
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But in wartime, in the dynamic intensity of battle, it’s optimal to fight together. When I’m in fighting mode for one of my companies - and every company will go through this - I want people at my side. Swords drawn, shoulder to shoulder. I find myself wanting to talk more, to meet with others who are fighting alongside me. We give each other courage and motivation. The warrior mentality of never giving up. Not much deep thinking gets done - hopefully that happened before the battle. But no plan survives contact with the enemy, and rapid tactical adjustments are best made together.
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Many times I’ve received a “no” from an important customer or investor and my immediate reaction was to give up, move on, start strategizing again. Only to have my partners motivate us all to keep going, never give up. More often than I’d have expected, we turned “no” into “yes.”
Moments like these teach me the value of teams and remind me not to isolate. A friend once told me to think of The Avengers. They’re a team, but each one has their own movie. Superheroes in their own right - but sometimes you need the whole team to win.