The ever debating topic for any companies is always about valuation or the right move/strategy. And often times, it’s so dreading whenever a group of people are deciding on what is the “right” move. All the energy could be sucked out of ourselves for figuring just this out.
Speaking from my experience of speaking first hand with investors and working with shareholders and partners, I have came to learnt and accept this fact:
“Everyone’s risk palette is different.”
And often times this is when decisions are stalled, conflicts happen. In one scenario, there are many instances or recommendations that people could lay out on the table. In the end, it’s not about what is the right or wrong valuation/move/strategy, but more of how much risk each is willing to take and willing to pivot if mistakes happen. At the end of the day, there are always times when we make a wrong move or we make a right move, but we would only know once the results unfold.
If you are student who is deciding what to study for college, hopefully this would help you. It’s one of those dreading moments filled with fear.
Here’s a fun fact, on how many times you would know what the right move is more often than you realised it’s the wrong move. A right move could lead to the right result but a wrong result later on, which could be deemed by people as a wrong move. It is probably in the minds of human nature to pick up on negativity. Nonetheless, the underlying question would come on whether how your organisation/company would embrace the space of making the so called “wrong move”.
Part of the Lean Startup Metholody that we adopted when starting myBurgerLab was the space and freedom to learn from trial and error. The space to embrace making mistakes and pivot creating an opportunity for us to say let’s try this and that on a really fast pace but low budget. Fast forward 2 years, sometimes things became more cautious and usually perception and the thought of “there could be more to lose” are the culprit. One thing I learnt is that embracing an act of making a mistake is more liberating than thinking on what would be the right move, cause in all honesty, seriously, every situation is distinct, even every economy growth or downfall is distinct. What worked the last time may not work this time or it could work even better this time.
Starting your own thing is a daunting experience if you are always thinking the right move from shareholding to business model. And don’t get me even started on recruitment – when all variables that may seem favourable just change one day. That is why they say people who are labelled “Entrepreneurs” are considered as risk takers, cause as a start, is quitting a temporary guaranteed monthly income stream for something unproven. And because everyone risk palette is different, don’t get bogged down by being a non-risk taker. Everyone has their judgment and perception, the question is “What is yours?”
If you trace back to every decision taken, it is based on the risk palette on how much you are willing to risk and what you are willing to risk. Right or wrong is just a matter or perception, just like a game of poker. Or if you like to Draft in Magic the Gathering, then you would understand what it means by risk palette (probably it’s one of the reason why I love to play limited than constructed 🙂 )
My good friend, Aaron, shared me an article which sparked the inspiration to writing this. Read about it here – http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2014/10/05/three-words-every-entrepreneur-and-vc-should-take-to-heart/