I have been enjoying Jim Collins’ new book entitled ‘Great By Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos & Luck – Why Some Thrive Pesethem All’, which he co-authored with Morten Hansen. This is a great book that emerges from 9 years of research. You are looking for companies that are 10 times more changeable or successful. Right off the bat, he takes a look at some of the myths we have about successful companies and says that the research they have undermines these particular myths. I’ll give them to you very quickly.
• Myth # 1: Successful leaders in a troubled world are bold visionaries who seek risk. Research goes on to say that they were no riskier, bolder, or more visionary, or even more creative than their other comparative companies. What differentiated them was that they were more disciplined, more empirical, and more paranoid.
• Myth no. # 2: Innovation sets 10X companies apart in a fast-moving, uncertain and chaotic world. The research showed that innovation alone does not turn out to be the expected trump card. More important is the ability to scale innovation and combine creativity with discipline.
• Myth # 3: A world full of threats favors the speedy; You’re either fast or dead: being very decisive and acting fast was supposed to be an advantage. Contrary to this myth, research shows that it is the best way to die. 10X leaders know when to go fast and when not to. There is a right time to go fast and a time to go slow.
• Myth # 4: Radical change on the outside requires radical change on the inside. Basically, you are saying that just because your environment is rocked by dramatic change does not mean that you need to impose a radical change on yourself.
• Myth no. # 5: Big 10x Successful Companies Have Much More Good Luck. That was not true. Both sets were very lucky, both good and bad in comparable amounts.
In that chapter on luck, he talks about two mountaineers, Malcolm Daly and Jim Donini, who in May 1999 began climbing the unscaled face of Thunder Mountain in Alaska. About 30 meters from the top, they stopped to decide who would go first. Daly said to Donini, “Why don’t you go ahead?” Donini said, “No, you deserve it.” So Daly went up and just as he was about to reach the top, he thought to himself, “Just one more hand, hold on and I’ll be on top.” Then something slipped and the protection I had did not hold and began to fall. He freefalled nearly 100 feet and as he came down, his crampon (the knife-shaped spikes attached to the boot) struck his partner, slamming into Donini’s right thigh and piercing him. Daly continued to fall and fell about 160 feet, when 8 strands of the rope he was attached to were cut and only 2 strands held him precariously on the mountainside. Donini went down to where Daly was standing and led him to a particular ledge. Then they realized that there was no way I could help him. He had to go down for help. Then Donini descended 3000 feet to base camp and just at that moment, he heard his friend Paul Rodrick from Talkeetna Air Taxi fly by in a helicopter. He managed to get a message to his friend Paul, who came down and flew them to the ranger station. They began to put in place a plan to save Malcolm Daly. They were able to return and escape within 4 hours, a storm that engulfed the mountain and lasted for a full 12 days.
Even when they got back in the helicopter, they found they couldn’t get through; communication had gone wrong. When this happens, one is supposed to abort the mission. But the guy running the rescue mission wasn’t about to do that. He passed by with hand signals, managed to grab Daly, hug him in a bear hug, and then turn 1000 feet out, so the helicopter could pick them up and take them to safety.
Both Collins and Hansen asked the question: How much did luck have to play in this? When you look at it, you were very lucky. Daly and Donini didn’t make the helicopter fly by at that precise moment; why only 2 strands were held; Daly did not die in the fall, nor did he kill Donini on the way down; Donini arrived at base camp just as the helicopter passed. All the inexplicable moments! But did luck play such a big role in getting Malcolm to safety?
Both authors say: “Consider this! Even before these lucky or casual events occurred, Daly had prepared. How did he prepare? He increased his strength with thousands of hours of rigorous training: biking, climbing, running, skiing. and mountaineering.Just before they made this climb, he read survival literature, particularly looking at Ernest Shackleton’s mission to rescue himself and his men from Elephant Island in Antarctica in 1960. He had not allowed himself to wallow in his misfortune. feet, multiple broken bones, said, “I loved my feet, but there was nothing I could do for them at the time.” And she decided not to think about them. Then she made the decision to live. She had to keep warm; she couldn’t afford suffer hypothermia. So, in that position, he started making windmills with his arms: 100 windmills, not just 80 or 90. Then when he couldn’t, he started reducing it to 80 and then 50. Along with that, he also began to make stomach crunches. So he prepared well for all the things that were happening at the time.
So the authors say that while everyone has a bit of luck, the people who make the most of luck, or luck or, as I like to see it, the favor of God that is available to all of us, are the ones who prepare well. .
What are we doing to prepare for times like this? When we look at what happened to Malcolm Daly, we see that 3 things helped him.
1. He made sure he acquired knowledge. He knew a lot about mountaineering, he knew about rescue and he made sure he had empirical knowledge.
2. He disciplined his body. Even in that position, he didn’t give up, still struggling to make windmills with his hands and painful stomach crunches.
3. He also built friendship. The person who spearheaded the rescue mission was a close friend of his. He didn’t give up because he didn’t want to disappoint his friend Daly. So he caught him in a bear hug and carried him to safety.
We all have various events that come our way and we cannot understand why they occur. But the key to being able to take advantage of those events is also to be prepared. When events occur outside of your control, we must be able to bring them under control in the way that we have prepared.
There is an old adage that says, “God helps those who help themselves” and, very loosely, I would say “yes” to that. God help. But it also helps when we can’t do something. And most of the time, the preparation we put in helps us in these times of uncertainty or chaos or luck, good or bad; opportunities that come our way that are completely unexpected. When events occur that are beyond your control, you can handle them in the way you have prepared.
God bless us all.
