Breaking out of the Cloud

Experience

The year is 1998. I’m 20, CEO of Fibro Movement corp., my first startup. I have big ambition, grandiose ideas, and what seemed like endless opportunity before me. I work endlessly on my business plan and research on cutting edge technologies in the field of distributed computing and web applications; the early days of cloud computing. I pitch my project to a local government-backed investment fund and get seed money to help me realize my project.

Then, after just over two years, a friend comes to me and asks if I want to startup a company with him. I agree, and start working with him on the core technology concepts and business plan. Again, I work endlessly, sometimes even throughout the night before jumping in the car and driving 100 miles to meet up with investors. I’m driven, passionate, and feel unstoppable. After a while I start realizing that I’m only human and that running two companies while still full time in my undergrad studies is somewhat difficult to manage. So I decide to close my first company and dedicate my time to the newest business project, which will last just over 4 years, until mid 2005.

Discovery

With recent and past experiences, such as described above, I’ve learned that focus is extremely important in both your personal life and your career. Focus allows you to direct your energy to fewer moving targets and hence potentially be more successful in what you do. But what if you just weren’t born to be focused? Are you doomed to never reach your fullest potential? To be honest, I’ve often asked myself that question. I have a hyperactive mind that needs to be stimulated all the time and in different ways. This is who I am and I’ve just recently come to accept that fact. But I refuse to think that I can’t reach my objectives because of this. Pursuing an MBA has actually helped me realize that it can be quite a good thing. I wasn’t exactly sure at first why I loved the MBA so much – I would rather read those books than chill out with friends. My papers also reflected this, as I constantly pushed the envelope and produced top notch assignments, not just for the grades but for the satisfaction of going much further than required. Now I understand. The program is highly multidisciplinary and each course touches a different topic – perfect for my hunger for knowledge and hyperactive mind. After getting 100% on my Business Law course, my wife tells me with a laugh: “maybe you should have been a lawyer instead”. I answer back that I find law really interesting, but I wouldn’t want to be a lawyer. Again, my aversion to focus creeps up on me, but when I think about it now, I smile – I’ve come to consider this as my strongest asset.

Revelation

What does this all really mean? Well, to me this means that often we put too much effort on trying to be standard. We are who we are. Yes, we absolutely need to evolve and adapt, but we also need to embrace our true nature. I’m now convinced that my aversion to stagnation and focus will lead me to where I want to be, but perhaps differently than initially thought. I also understand that there are contexts where you need to take a step back and look beyond. There are countless situations where you definitely need to be focused, which I no longer have problems with. In the end, we need to find how to leverage our qualities and weaknesses to achieve great things.