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I am fascinated by the complicated paradoxes of human nature. When I think of brilliant creators such as artists or musicians, I am intrigued by the internal contrasts in their personalities. As their lives progressed, as successes and failures accumulated, how did they become so much more interesting and complex?
Most of us tend to think of artists as creators of great art, but aren’t they also their own creations? This is certainly true of popular entertainers today. The best ones understand that every few years, they must reinvent themselves to stay relevant and in demand.
Think of Madonna and Lady Gaga, who are tremendously talented storytellers, having created multiple new personas and fresh stories which they bring to life through music, dance, and theater. Not only have their fundamental performance skills improved over the years, so has their ability to present compelling stories and engage audiences.
How does this observation relate to the life of an entrepreneur?
The internal conflicts entrepreneurs torture themselves with are fundamentally paradoxical—and human. They must be very strong people, confident about what they know and what they don’t know. In this sense, they must have a strong sense of reality. Yet, one of the most-often repeated criticisms is that they are unrealistic dreamers! The most successful ones have compelling visions of what could be created, of how life could be dramatically different (better), even if the tools and the current state of technology can’t support that now. Also, because they are painfully aware of what resources they lack, how much more knowledge they need to achieve success, the best ones believe in learning from everyone, being open to hearing lots of different opinions and perspectives. That requires a certain humility and openness that can be a rare combination of traits in very strong personalities.
One way to understand the paradox is to ascribe one set of personality characteristics to the identity as “Creator” and another to the identity as “Creation." The successful entrepreneur, like the superstar entertainer, must figure out a path through this multi-dimensional challenge of being both identities.
How do we make choices? How do we decide what to eat for breakfast, what to do each day? Most people make these decisions out of habit, or follow suggestions from others, basically relying on our own recent experience or that of others to guide us. These are “shortcuts” for convenience or social context. The manifestation of the opposite extreme can be illustrated by a young teenager, who is feeling so conflicted between hormonal urges and social custom, that he (or she) becomes paralyzed and unable to take any action at all.
As we mature, we realize that every choice we make brings potentially positive and negative consequences. Some people want to be so optimistic that they choose to focus only on the positive opportunities presented along with any challenge. At the other end are extreme pessimists who can become so fearful that they avoid taking any risks at all. Most of us live somewhere in between, in some comfort zone where we expect and hope the risks and uncertainty will be tolerable.
In my teaching of young entrepreneurs, I constantly challenge them to stretch their comfort zones. What is at the boundaries of your comfort zone? How willing are you to experiment, to test your psychological strength? How do you respond when you find yourself in “impossible circumstances,” when no known solution is available? How do you find answers to these questions?
Young entrepreneurs characteristically have a very strong urge to build something and take it to potential customers. They are passionate about their ideas and their vision of why their product or service should be instantly loved by millions of people. They can’t wait to describe and promote what they are offering. Relatively few have the patience or discipline to analyze themselves deeply. Maybe this is good, because direct interaction with potential customers is the only real test of the value they hope to create. In this context, their primary role is that of Creator. That persona must already be strong and sufficiently well-formed to be appealing and persuasive right from the start.
Becoming Creation takes longer and is only perceived after a passage of time. The process needs to be enriched and shaped by all the feedback, especially the negative comments and advice the entrepreneur receives. What do we learn from positive compliments? They certainly boost our ego, but how useful are they in helping us grow? Negative feedback, on the other hand, gives us the opportunity to see different points of view. That can lead to change. We don’t have to agree with everyone, and can’t anyway, but we can discover some of the biases we have, some assumptions which we take for granted and sometimes have forgotten.
The smartest entrepreneurs are passionate learners and are impatient to grow into their success. Even if they have had entrepreneurial endeavors before, each new startup brings fresh challenges and opportunities to stretch their comfort zones. The paradox is that an entrepreneur can design a path to become a powerful Creator, but the evolving Creation depends on the contribution from the efforts of others.
In this model, you can see that some strong, but stubborn, creators may be able to achieve small success, but will find that their focus on themselves can limit their growth. On the other hand, some young entrepreneurs may need more time and seasoning to become strong Creators, but their patience and openness along that journey can lead to a more positive outcome (Creation). Because their path includes the input and energy from others, they are able to multiply their own talents. I call this “leveraging intangible assets you don’t own." That’s a topic for another day.
So, this is how every story begins—with a choice. When the choice is difficult, there is drama, thanks to conflicting human needs and desires!
