IGNORANCE & ARROGANCE
alan elliott merschen
Sometimes reflecting on the past allows one to keep looking forward with better focus. For me, reflecting on what I did wrong is helping me to do right.
There is an old theory that to be a successful entrepreneur you need a combination of arrogance and ignorance. I didn’t realize I started my business with that combination. Unfortunately, I was ignorant of my own arrogance.
Maybe it was determination or maybe it was desperation, but I said yes to any potential project. Somehow I thought, “I can do this” and would try to do it all on my own. Often, this was based on the fact that I could not afford to hire anyone else. Later when I started to hire people, it was for support. I fancied myself a boxer with a great support team in my corner.
Many entrepreneurs become control freaks, yet soon we realize things are out of control. Hopefully, we discover our strongest skill sets and, most importantly, our weakest. Then we recognize other people’s strengths. Slowly, we step back and let them shine. Somehow, I gained enough wisdom to embrace real collaboration.
“Somehow, I gained enough wisdom to embrace real collaboration.”
Now that I’ve sold that company, my business experience is in the rearview mirror, but the lessons are laid out right in front of me. I was lucky enough to be involved in the global travel industry, learning lessons from various cultures. Out of all the lessons I learned, the most important was how I should have embraced collaboration earlier and more often. Not just internally, with a very talented team, but also in our industry, related industries, community, and society
Then along came COVID and the reminder that necessity is the mother of invention.
The need, desire, and merits of collaboration have been highlighted by this global challenge. We are now surrounded by success in the collaboration of people, companies, countries— often by those who never thought they would work together or share secrets. And the world will become a better place because of it. Best of all, people are finding out they actually like it too!
This is in part why I created The SIGMUND Project. SIGMUND is the result of a concurrence of current events, personal reflection, and global realization that the more we work together, the more we succeed.
I ask for your collaboration with this exciting not-for-profit project. A great first step is to browse the ideas on SIGMUND’s OPEN · SOURCE and see how you can collaborate for innovation.
Looking Forward,
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