Sharpe (Four Seasons) & Dyson managing tough days
I had a tough day last week. When you care so deeply and can see a bright future… but others don’t see it or don’t want to be a part of it… it can hurt. As leaders, all of us have tough days. It always comes back to how we handle those moments of a dip.
Fortunately, building a great company is not a novel or unique endeavor and there are incredible teachers whispering their learnings within books that are available to us when we need the inspiration or insights.
Those who came before us that achieved great ventures had tough days, weeks, years, and maybe even decades! Two leaders I’d like to reflect upon:
Isadore Sharpe, founder of Four Seasons, stated: “Excellence is the capacity to take pain.” (Imagine what he’s gone through to create this aphorism.) Clearly, creating a world class international hotel brand had many tough days and many tough conversations. Isadore certainly danced with his fears and battled with the resistance in his head telling him it wasn’t possible to go from construction guy to world-class, international hotelier. But he marched forward. Pushing through the dips. Compounding his knowledge, conviction, and relationships with the other believers in the vision of the Four Seasons. It took Sharpe decades to compound the effort into greatness.
James Dyson, founder of Dyson, had a vision of a bagless vacuum. No one besides Dyson thought the Hoover bags were a problem with the vacuums of the 1970s. He developed over 5,000 prototypes and struggled for over 14 years! He would go to bed crying, depressed, and broke. He marched the march every single day. Dyson got up morning putting one foot in front of the other. After 14 years of grinding, the compounding of his efforts became profitable! It took Dyson over 14 years to look somewhat sane in his pursuits.
It’s a great reminder that Dyson & Sharpe invested decades of their lives to build great teams and great companies. They did it day after day. They were consistently consistent. If it were easy everyone would do it. Jim Collins, the master scholar of great companies, calls it the 20-mile march: “you stay on the march, no matter what the weather, no matter how tired (or energized) you feel, no matter how unpleasant the surroundings.” (BE 2.0)
The great companies and great leaders show up beating the drum toward their vision. Day after day after day. Small, disciplined efforts over extraordinary lengths of time is not for everyone.
As the Blue Angels (world-class pilots) say EVERY SINGLE DAY: “Glad to be here.”
I’m glad to be on this journey with you rain or shine.
Onward,
Matt