In the course of one year, from January 2019 to January 2020, Tesla’s shares shot up by an astronomical 700 percent. For a brief time, when Tesla shares again dropped slightly, Elon Musk became the wealthiest person on earth, eclipsing the fortune of Amazon’s Jeff Bezos by almost $5 billion. 

Billionaire tech investor Chamath Palihapitiya and chairman of Virgin Galactic wasn’t surprised. “I’ve looked up to him for a long time,” he said in an interview on CNBC in January. “About five or six years ago, I thought he was just building a great car company, but somewhere along the way we began to realize that he was actually building an energy company. He was showing us that climate change mattered. It’s taken six years for everyone to realize the same thing, and now he’s being rewarded.”

 According to Palihapitiya, it makes complete sense that the world’s richest person is someone fixing climate change. 

 “Tesla is a distributed energy business, and they’re busy figuring out how to harness energy, store it and use it in a way that allows humans to be more productive,” he says. “The big disruption that’s coming is power utilities,” says Palihapitiya. “There are trillions of dollars of bonds, CAPEX, and value sitting inside the energy generation infrastructures of the world.”

A few years ago, Palihapitiya tweeted that he thought the world’s first trillionaire would be someone who fought climate change. “It may very well be Musk,” he notes. “But if it isn’t him, it will be somebody like him. And it will be because of this: finding a way to deliver clean energy and allowing the world to become sustainable. It will be an incredibly important thing that will be rewarded by the markets.”

 The billionaire investor thinks that Tesla stock still has the potential to double, or even triple, in the years ahead and is confused as to why investors don’t see the bigger picture. 

 “I cannot understand why people are so focused on selling things that work,” he says, referring to traders who look for short term market gains. “Let’s say I owned a billion dollars of Tesla stock. If I sold it, I’d have a billion-dollar problem — what would I do next with all that money? Why not pay to stay with people who know what they’re doing? Musk is a guy who has shown himself to be one of the most important entrepreneurs in the world, so why bet against him? Instead, get behind people who have powerful characters, who know what they’re doing, and who aren’t going to bend to short term profits. Then, drive that train for 10 to 20 years to make the world a better place.”

 Palihapitiya’s friend Bill Gurley, one of technology’s top dealmakers, has a phrase he often uses: “When the music’s on, you gotta dance.” Palihapitiya believes the music is now playing. “Today’s visionary entrepreneurs are dancing, they’re in rhythm and flow. Let them do their thing and get behind them — don’t sell a share, just let them create more value for you.”

Do you have what it takes to own a business? Your first answer might be that it depends on the market, but that’s only part of the story. So is thinking it depends on your product. The bottom line is it depends on you.

We tend to hear more about business successes than failures. Although this year, given the pandemic and its economic impacts, we’ve seen plenty of failures, most people still believe that if they want to be a successful business owner, they can. But if you don’t focus on your own drive, abilities, and tolerance for stress and uncertainty, you’re missing a key part of the equation. And if you start a business without really finding out if you should, you’re making a grave mistake.

Say you’ve got a great idea. You’ve got a niche service. You’ve done the research, and there’s space for you to grow a company. Before you start looking for a storefront, look in the mirror by asking yourself these eight simple but vital questions.

1. Can I listen?

Business owners must process a vast amount of verbal communication. They need to be good at listening, adept at assimilating and filtering, and doing it fast — so all communication, from employees to customers to your advisers, needs to result in a positive outcome for your business.

2. Can I lead?

Unless you’re planning on opening a shoeshine stand or a one-person consultancy, you need to be able to lead and motivate people. You’ll get the most value from your employees if they know you value them — and you may need to occasionally swap hopes and aspirations over coffee with your employees to really understand their needs. Once you understand their needs, you can better motivate them, which will in turn help you achieve your own dream. It’s an excellent trade-off.

3. Can I sell?

This question often hits a nerve. Very few products sell themselves. Generally, a business must convince a customer that have a need, and more importantly, that this product meets their need — and delivers the best possible value. If that’s actually true, it’s simply a matter of being interesting enough that the customer is willing to continue a conversation long enough for you to establish these three truths. That’s about being persuasive. If you have any doubt about your ability to persuade, ask your partner what they think. It’s likely you did some sort of sales job on him or her at some very critical juncture. Were you successful?

4. Am I competitive?

To be a good business owner, you must enjoy doing whatever it takes to overcome all your business supremacy challenges. You must be motivated by a burning desire to do these things better than your competition — and realize that few products or services are so unique that your customer can’t get something comparable elsewhere. You must have the need to not only please your customer, but to do it so well you’re beating your competition senseless. How do you know? Check your financial statements — they’re your scoreboard in this game. If you see profits, be ready to reinvest them right back into the business, or you won’t continue winning. That’s what most successful entrepreneurs I’ve dealt with do. They don’t necessarily make money so they can spend it.

5. Am I a hard worker?

Owning your own business is entering into a highly consumptive relationship, so be honest with yourself. Don’t start a business to support your golf habit. You can do that a lot easier with a high-paying job. Business ownership is the wrong avenue if your quest is simply more personal resources. Your own business must be more than just a means to an end. It’s everything — and must be a passion.

6. Am I a risk-taker?

This isn’t a matter of leaving your umbrella at home when there’s rain in the forecast. All growth comes from taking risks and executing at the highest possible level. You’ve also got to be willing to wildcat; dry holes are necessary to find the gusher. If the thought of zero return on your time and money over what could be protracted intervals is too daunting, stay put.

7. Do I have a skill that adds significant value to this market?

Successful business owners are either the best player at a critical position or the second-best player at several positions. You need to have outstanding technical skills if you’re considering a technical business; impeccable sales skills — and the desire to use them consistently and frequently — if you’re considering a sales-driven business. It’s very difficult to drive a business with only strong administrative skills. The only exception may be a franchise, which has an extremely process-driven approach. In my experience, “right-sized” former executives of process-driven public companies are often successful franchisees. In essence, a franchisor turns the operation of a business into a job with clearly defined dos and don’ts included in its recipe for success.

8. Do I have a clear goal for my business?

This last question may be the most critical: the point of your business must be much more than to escape from your current job. To create a business with real value, you need to set out to create and operate a real value business. For a business to be a true asset, it must consistently turn a significant profit after paying you a fair salary. Otherwise, it’s little more than what I call “an incorporated job.” And moving a business from the status of an incorporated job to an asset requires a series of very purposeful, difficult, and risky acts. An uncommitted owner will inevitably fail to execute these acts if they don’t make asset creation a business goal from the start.

I’ve had tough conversations with clients who were dead set on starting their own businesses, just because they had an affinity for a certain product or service. However, if they know deep down they don’t want to engage in the complicated process of value creation, then starting a business means they will endure significant pain, take on outsized risks, and work harder than any employee without achieving a commensurate reward. But if you are willing to work harder and smarter than ever before towards that goal of value creation, that is certainly laudable.

I never think of shopping as a time for excitement, but in 2019, I was in for a mild shock when I visited my local mall. There, I saw something that only a few years ago would have been unimaginable.

Sears, which took up over a quarter of the mall’s entire floor space, was pulling down its signs. What was once a powerful retail giant is now a glaring symbol of one company’s inability to change and adapt. Sears, however, is not an exception. As we brace for further impact from the global pandemic, more giants are expected to fall. In 2010, in the middle of another crisis, researchers Ranjay Gulati, Nitin Nohria, and Franz Wohlgezogen showed that during the recessions of 1980, 1990, and 2000, 17 percent of the 4,700 public companies they studied did not survive. One out of every three public companies will cease to exist in their current form within the next five years — a rate six times higher than 40 years ago, according to BCG, a global consulting firm.

As I stood in the mall and looked at the shadow of what was once a remarkable brand, I was reminded of another story of heartbreaking failure: the Titanic. Titanic’s story offers eerie parallels between the behavior of the ship’s team and that of today’s at-risk companies. Effective leaders know that understanding why things fail can help to avoid repeating mistakes.

Most of us know the story of what happened on that chilly Sunday, April 14, 1912, at 11:49 pm, when the Royal Mail Steamer Titanic — en route from Europe to New York City — collided with an iceberg and sank within three hours, leading to the deaths of 1,514 of the 2,224 passengers and crew on board. The largest moving human-made object at the time, the Titanic was considered unsinkable by all: experts, media, and the public. The ship was equipped with the most advanced naval technology available and a crew of experienced and respected naval leaders. So why did it sink, and what can we learn?

Failure #1 / Ignored Warnings

The Titanic’s crew was warned about the area’s dangerous icebergs. But why were these warnings ignored?

The radio operating team was so concerned with keeping the high-paying customers satisfied that they told the passing ship Californian, “Keep out; Shut up!” when interrupted on-air by his counterpart warning of the upcoming ice field. Customer satisfaction is all the rage. But killing it for the wrong whim of the customer might accidentally kill your business.

Failure #2 / No Binoculars

Overconfidence can be blinding.

The night of the collision was clear and still. Perched 50 feet above the forecastle deck, in a small open box called “the crow’s nest,” lookouts Frederick Fleet and Reginald Lee worked their two-hour shift. Inside the nest, Fleet and Lee had a large bell to grab public attention and a telephone to reach the captain’s bridge. What they did not have, however, was a pair of binoculars.
A hundred years later, with all the advances in modern technology, it is still hard to imagine any ship in the open waters without binoculars. The Titanic, too, had several binoculars on board, but for much of the trip, they were locked up in a storage cabinet. This was, quite literally, a case of overconfidence that was blinding.

Failure #3 / The Role of the Iceberg

It’s easy to blame the iceberg.

We’ve reviewed some of the causes of the disaster, but we’ve missed the main one: the iceberg. Whenever I work with a company or discuss the Titanic story, the iceberg is the first cause mentioned.
When I’m asked to work with a company to reinvent its products, processes, or business models, I wasn’t there to experience their good times. By the time I’m called, things are already deteriorating — the iceberg has been hit — and oh boy, is it easy to blame the iceberg!

Sneaky competitors, overbearing regulators, lousy weather, bad design, late suppliers, lazy customers, those finance-department knuckleheads: I’ve heard it all. It is so easy to blame it on someone else.
But here is the thing: While you cannot prevent the iceberg from appearing, you can darn well make sure you don’t hit it. The choice is in your hands.

Of all the things that went wrong on the Titanic, there was one problem more glaring than all the others: the arrogance and overconfidence of past successes.

Failure #4 / Previous Success Might Destroy Your Ambitions

What got you here may not get you there.

On the night of the collision, the captain had already gone to bed. First Officer William Murdoch was in charge. At 39, Murdoch had 16 years of maritime experience and was known for his masterful record of averting ship collisions. For instance, before the Titanic, he had served on the Arabic when a passing ship came bearing down from the darkness. Murdock grabbed the wheel and held the ship steady. As a result, the two ships passed within inches without damage.

The Arabic incident was one of many Murdoch mastered in his career. In the 37 seconds between the first sighting of the iceberg and its collision with the Titanic, the officer fully relied on his past successes to make executive decisions in the present. We all know how that turned out.

Are You too Big to Fail?

History can be a great mentor.

The Titanic story is the most powerful example of a too-big-to-fail mindset. Sometimes the sheer size of a company creates an illusion of being untouchable and unsinkable. Enron, Lehman Brothers, Blockbuster, Toys-R-Us, Borders, Myspace, and Sears all went through the same process of blind belief in their own ability to withstand any storm or disruption.
The Titanic Syndrome has sunk many companies. It can be summarized as a corporate disease in which organizations that face disruption bring about their downfall through arrogance, excessive attachment to past success, or an inability to recognize and adapt to the new and emerging reality.

Slow Adoption is Gone

Start your new lifecycle now.

Once upon a time, our companies enjoyed long and healthy lives, with a slow rise to the top of financial performance and a gradual decline to annihilation. The rate of change was so slow that it was easy to develop the Titanic Syndrome and still survive — we had all the time in the world to renew a business on our terms. If a new “iceberg” showed up on the horizon — a competitor, a technology, a regulation — a company could adapt slowly and even enjoy the ride. But that fairy tale is long gone.

The increasing level of globalization showcased so painfully during the 2008–2009 global economic crisis and powered by the ever-increasing access to knowledge means that more of us are inventing every day and sharing those inventions globally. With all these pressures, the demand for corporate (economic, communal, and personal) reinvention has grown even further.

Does it mean that we are doomed? Absolutely not. What separates companies that survive from those that go down is the ability to start a new lifecycle, to pivot their company far enough from the path of destruction to find a new opportunity for growth. But if before you had 30+ years to reach your prime, today you might only have a few years.
How many exactly? To answer this question, we launched a global reinvention survey in 2018. Thousands of participants took part, giving much-needed insight into the speed of change and ways to deal with it. Our 2020 results showed that to survive today, 60 percent of us need to reinvent every 0 to 3 years, with a whopping 16.1 percent needing to reinvent every 12 months or less. This means that barely into a new business, you must start the reinvention process anew — again and again, in a continuous cycle of renewal.

The business you’re in today cannot be the business you’re in three years from now. By then, you’re either entering a new business model or you’re on the way to extinction. Period.

• An 18 year old woman wants to “bring humanity to business” but doesn’t know how. More than 35 years later, and despite having no role models, she still hasn’t surrendered her values.

• Brigitte Baumann was told that a CEO must simply look after the bottom line. That’s all.

• Go Beyond is born; an angel investor company that shows that social impact investments can make a profit and change lives.

• While recognizing that women ‘get’ certain projects more than men, she wants to harness the ‘gets’ for the benefit of male investors too.

There can sometimes be a downside to being an early adopter. Brigitte Baumann (pictured above), founder of Go Beyond, discovered this harsh fact as an angel investor 17 years ago. The term “impact investing” hadn’t even been coined yet and she innocently assumed that investors, shareholders and board members shared her values. It was a big mistake. “I wanted to find companies that had values which represented the business of the future,” she says. “The idea of people over profit, an uncommon idea back then, was how I thought all business should be run.”

She encountered resistance from big corporations and eventually decided that it was much easier to support entrepreneurs for profit – but who considered all stakeholders, not just shareholders. As they say, if you can’t win people over, find people who already think like you. When Baumann entered the workforce 35 years ago she had expressed a desire to focus more on people. Short-sighted work colleagues told her to pursue a career in Human Resources, to which she replied, “No, I want to be the CEO.”

A stint at Wharton and then Mackenzie at Oxford in the 1990s had people whispering, “Wow! She’s going to be a CEO really fast.” Yet little-by-little she kept seeing the people-centric values and ethics she held dear beginning to divert. She recalls thinking, “Do I really need to give up my personal values and ethics in business?” When she eventually became a CEO people laughed at her approach and called her idealistic. “Don’t you get it?” they said, “This is how you should act as a CEO,” and gave her tired and stereotypical formulas.

Baumann’s had an uncompromising streak in her since she was 18 years old. When asked what she wanted to do with her life she’d say, ‘”I want to bring humanity to business.” She had no idea what “humanity” meant or even how business worked at the time. Fast forward to the present and Baumann has now founded her own company, Go Beyond. It allows novices and sophisticated investors alike to build, manage and exit portfolios and invests in young and fast growing companies. This year she was named European Business Angel Of The Year after delivering annualized returns of 15 percent and quadrupling investors’ money over a two-year period.

Seventy rounds of investment and 30 start-ups later, Go Beyond has created social impact within the traditional for-profit sector that now outweighs anything Baumann might have achieved if she’d stuck to the “traditional” way of investing.

Charitic in France is a web platform that brings charities and companies together to develop resources and corporate responsibility. Inakis is an online shopping guide for bio, eco and fair trade. Shadow Government is a simulation game that allows players to explore strategic planning models for countries, encouraging people to solve the world’s problems without a single election. Ecowizz helps utility customers better understand their energy consumption.

“We filter every deal on impact,” says Baumann. “Our dream is that impact will be how everyone does business one day. Yet, importantly, we don’t label it as such. We’re aware that some of our investors will look at our impact criteria carefully and others less so.” Baumann wants her impact investments to be shining examples of standalone returns, rather than having investors think they are simply supporting a good cause.

Angel investing in the early 2000s also had no women. “There are a lot of products that we as women totally ‘get’, and that most men don’t,” says Baumann. Once again, rather than creating a niche image that might alienate some investors, she decided against creating a women’s-only network, but rather a gender-inclusive one that incorporates ideas and inspirations on how to encourage more women business angels. Some of these considerations have been around the hours they set for meetings or calls, mindful that many female investors are still busy raising families or caring for aging parents. Go Beyond is now the only angel investor company in the world that has over a third women membership.

“I’ve found with women that we tend to want to do good and do well, as opposed to first doing well and then hoping it will do good,” says Baumann. “When you create an angel network and you want to attract more women, you need to have certain products and services that women can connect to – ones that suggest, ‘Hey this is useful to me, but it’s also useful to society.’”

A profound insight came to Baumann when she was pregnant, highlighting the magnitude of the responsibility she has to future generations. “Something happened to me physically, it wasn’t intellectual at all,” she recalls. “I felt my baby in my womb and thought, ‘Oh yeah, that’s what I am living for.’ I became more sensitive to how my investing would impact people in the future.”

Have you ever been faced with a dilemma at work where you’ve been forced to choose between your values and the status quo? Have you ever tried to introduce values in your business that go beyond profit?

Golf has a reputation for being a very easy, laid-back sport. Some may even call it boring, although I find that a little harsh, but I understand it’s not for everyone. But I’m here to tell you that golf isn’t only one of the most challenging games you can play, but arguably one of the most frustrating.

Even golf legend Arnold Palmer has repeated this same sentiment, famously saying that “Golf is deceptively simple and endlessly complicated.” In other sports, you’re usually competing against one or numerous opponents. If you lose, it could be because the other side was stronger, had more endurance than you, or was more cunning. But in golf, you’re competing against yourself, the course, and the weather. Sure, you might be trying to outperform your competitors, but how well you play is entirely contingent on you and you alone.

Like in business, your ultimate fate is in your hands. I know — comparing golf to business might seem a bit absurd, but I’m a firm believer that some of business’ greatest lessons come from outside the office. Both exciting and humbling, below are some of the biggest lessons I’ve learned from golf that have helped me grow in my career.

Practice Makes Perfect

The only way to improve your game is to get out on the green as much as you can. Sometimes life, busy schedules, and bad weather can get in the way, but golfers who are committed to greatness will find time to get some practice in, whether that’s a quick trip to an indoor course or taking a few minutes out of your day to practice on an online golf simulator.

The goal isn’t to spend hours out on the course but to consistently and intentionally dedicate as much time as you can to your passion, even if it’s only a few minutes every day. The same is true in leadership. No one is “born” a leader, no matter how innate their abilities seem to be. Rather, great leadership requires a continuous journey of professional development.

Every time you lead your team through an issue or emergency, for example, be cognizant of what you did well and what you could have done better. Put this into practice the next time you run into a problem and, soon enough, you’ll find that crisis management will become second nature to you.

You should constantly strive to be better. Seek mentorship from a fellow colleague or another professional in your industry. Take advantage of any career development programs offered through your organization, or seek these opportunities outside of the workplace. Even if you’ve held the same position for decades, there will always be room for improvement.

But You Don’t Always Have to be Perfect

Golf is hard. It may not be physically demanding, but it can be mentally tedious. The second you start thinking you’re perfect is when you’ll play the worst game of your life. This is why golf is such a humbling sport.

You’re going to miss shots or hit hazards during gameplay; it’s impossible to play a perfect round every time. How you react in these moments is key to your success. If you’re too focused on being perfect, you’re going to get flustered when you make even the smallest mistakes, which will only lead to a greater number of bigger mistakes. It’s the same thing in business.

Every leader makes mistakes, from startup entrepreneurs to the world’s richest CEOs. No one achieves success by being perfect; they excel by taking risks, learning from their mistakes, and pushing themselves outside of their comfort zones. I once read a quote from the former CEO of IBM, Tom Watson, that said: “If you want to increase your success rate, double your failure rate.” It’s stuck with me ever since.

We can only become the leaders we all dream of being when we stop convincing ourselves we need to be perfect.

Take Time to Relax and Refresh

One of my favorite parts of golfing is the opportunity to go outside and enjoy the fresh air. I love it so much I opt out of using golf carts whenever possible so I can walk the course. It’s a time for me to leave all my outside worries and stressors behind and, instead, put all my focus into the game. Even though golf can be incredibly frustrating sometimes, it’s also the perfect way to relax and refresh. Even when I play my worst, I always leave feeling better than when I arrived.

As leaders, we spend all of our time focused on our duties, our team members, and the state of the business. Most of our days consist of meetings, while the other half involves putting out haphazard fires that happen throughout the day. If we don’t pull ourselves away from this environment from time to time, we make ourselves susceptible to burnout and stagnancy.

Leaders need to find time away from their responsibilities and their desks. Innovation and growth can’t flourish if we don’t give ourselves some mental reprieve from our jobs. Mine happens to be golf, but find the thing that allows you to reset yourself.

Golf has been pivotal to my career and shaping who I am as a leader. Whether you love golf or not isn’t the point. The point is that there’s inspiration and insight to be found in anything you do. Use this to influence every aspect of your life. You’ll be surprised just how much you can learn from the little things.