What (startup) CEOs can learn from Michaelangelo
Truly great CEOs are in the business of creating something out of nothing.
That is why venture capitalists love them so much.
But when VCs and Silicon Valley media (yes - that means TechCrunch, The Information and others) applaud the courage of startup founders, they often miss the point. Building a company isn’t really like building a skyscraper or putting together a Swiss watch.
Company building is more like carving a sculpture.
I recently visited Florence and saw Michaelangelo’s David for the first (and maybe last) time.
It is impressive.
“Company building is actually a lot like carving a sculpture.”
But more than the elegant figure or the polished shape, this statue impressed me because of what it used to be - a square, solid piece of marble.
Yes, this magnificent piece of art started as a very unsexy block of stone.
That’s it.
When Michaelangelo created it - hundreds of years ago now - he did so with a vision of the finished product. And then, based on that vision, he started removing pieces of that solid piece of marble.
Little by little, bit by bit, taking away more and more.
Michaelangelo, one of the most famous sculptors of all time, created this fabulous piece of art by translating his 2D vision, sketched out on paper, and later fashioned in models of various sorts, into a 3D form through the art of reduction.
First there was a block of marble, then there was a roughly hewn block of marble, then there was a lump of marble that vaguely resembled a human figure - and finally there was a masterfully crafted image of a man, exactly as the artist had envisioned him.
Incredible.
This is why being a successful CEO is like being a sculptor:
You have to take things away in order to arrive at your desired goal.
So how do CEOs master this craft?
The greatest titans of our time have reached the heights of business success by methodically removing the barriers, the unnecessary elements, the inhibiting factors that might prevent them from creating the masterpieces that their companies have become.
Here is a short list of some things that CEOs have to eliminate in order to build great companies.
Chipping away to success
Current views about the market - Too often startup CEOs come up with a fantastic idea that closely mirrors the existing solutions on the market. It may be better, faster, cheaper - but it is essentially the same as its competitor. Getting rid of the “conventional wisdom” or “current market outlook” goes a long ways towards creating the conditions for a groundbreaking invention.
Customer expectations - Here we turn to Steve Jobs - and to Henry Ford. The latter famously proclaimed that if he had asked people what kind of transportation they wanted, they would have requested “faster horses.” Fortunately for him and for us, Ford threw away their wishes and went on to make history. Steve Jobs did the same. His disdain for what consumers claimed to want and need helped him create the masterpiece that is the iPhone - and Macbook - and iWatch…and so on.
Bad attitudes - On a more fundamental level, one key to making a masterpiece has to do with the artist him- or herself. Believe you can create something special and it is very likely that you will. Start blaming your colleagues and regulators and competitors for your lack of success and you will undoubtedly fail. Getting rid of bad attitudes is essential. These are a few worth removing:
Good ideas that do not contribute to overall success
“Not possible” outlook from employees
Infatuation with unnecessary processes and beaurocracy
The final masterpiece
Every successful startup began as a rough idea. It was not perfect. It was not guaranteed to be successful.
But the founder and his or her team made it so.
And more often than not, their ultimate victory results as much from reducing complexity, removing internal barriers and ignoring nay-sayers as from building cool new features and growing headcount.
The art of reduction is essential to producing a lasting masterpiece.