Above The Fray
Apr 26 2009
Is it possible to remain above the fray in times like these? I think some of us if not most of us think we have some control over our destinies, our thoughts, or our feelings and it comes as a shock when we find ourselves in the middle of a tornado and we can’t figure out how we got there. There are common sayings like “Life is what happens to you while you are making other plans.” or “Man plans, God laughs.” or “The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” but most of us still feel like we have some control over what happens to us. Of course, we have control over what shoes we choose to wear one day, but the big things that really seem to matter just seem to all of a sudden happen to us. Take for example the recent outbreak of swine flu (NY Times)!
When something like your company is wildly successful or a terrible failure we try to make sense of it. If it’s wildly successful we can self importantly point to the things we did right, giving some credence to that strange phenomenon called “luck.” When it fails we can point to a few things we did wrong but more often we point outside of ourselves to the economy, other people, the market, timing, etc.
Companies are starting right now, companies are falling apart right now, companies are doing well and growing, and others are doing their best to survive. I know of one great success story that happened to someone in one of my networking groups, but it’s not public news yet. The internet is littered with stories of companies failing or going bankrupt. Fred Wilson did a long post about one of his first investments in Geocities, a company that Yahoo is planning to shut down. I mentioned the 11 companies who recently graduated from the Austin Technology Incubator in my guest post on Austin Startup and they are at varying stages of of the start up life cycle.
We often think we are above the fray, minding our own business when the sky falls, the funding arrives, a legal battle over patent infringement ensues, or when we find that perfect person for the job, but are we really? I think this is especially true of entrepreneurs. We think we are different and to some extent we are. We think differently. We view risk differently. We are less afraid and more afraid at the same time. We become defined a certain way but we still have to fit into a society that is mostly designed for non risk takers, and we realize but for a few minor genetic or family of origin differences we are all deep, so deep in the fray of humanity.
It’s an exhilarating yet at the same time humbling realization. At least I think so.
Author: Aruni | Filed under: entrepreneurship | Tags: above the fray, best laid plans of mice and men, entrepreneurship | Comments Off on Above The Fray
Recent Comments