Differences - 1/3

There’s a massive difference between an entrepreneur, a technician and a manager. I’m the former and I employ the latter two. It works well. Really well actually.

The differences between an eagle and a flightless bird are obvious. A lot of us would like to be an eagle that got the great view, and best pick of the prey, but are actually the flightless ones scratching around for a grub or two. But John Benfield puts it nicely:

“Eagles may soar, but weasels don’t get sucked into jet engines.”

Touche.

The thing about many who are jealous of the glory that Entrepreneurs get is that they don’t realise the risk, the stress and the jolly hard work that goes into trailblazing in business.

I’ve set up a lot of small businesses. I get a great idea, then just do it. Yup, Nike stole my catch-cry! Sometimes what I do is too brave, and I fail, well not actually fail, just fail to achieve as per the vision. Sometimes it is just a mistake. Sometimes it is a great idea but just not well implemented. Sometimes it works really well.

I previously set up and ran a computer and office equipment company called Team Electronics and a software company called Kiwi Software. They were good little businesses and I really seemed to understand what the customers wanted. We were different to the the rest. In the accounting software business our by-line was “New Zealand’s easiest to use accounting software” and it was. In the computer shop, our by-line was “Computers - No Jargon, No Pressure”. This was in the days when computer sales people were usually full-on geeks talking technical mumbo-jumbo”. We were different.

My web development company Go Kiwi Internet is a”No BS” operation. Just good basic products and services that are what our customers want. We’ve done well because of that. We’re different.

In the New Zealand culture, it has been fashionable for generations to knock the high-fligher. It’s called the “Tall Poppy Syndrome”. Born out of our insecurity as a nation, it’s actually quite evil this Tall Poppy thing. Basically it is the cultural group-think that says that all our people should be equal; that no one person has a right to be better or more successful than we are.

We gloat when someone who had greater vision than us fails. We resent and are jealous of other people’s success.

Boil it down and the Tall Poppy Syndrome is just a manifestation of pride. We think we’re just as good as everyone else. Or we think that by pulling another person’s expectations or achievements down to our own level that we are less threatened. That’s just selfishness, small thinking and evil.

In my book Internet UNMASKED!! I encourage people to “GO FOR IT” because I see too many people not reach their true potential. Kiwis need to be encouraged, in business and in other ways because of the impact of this generational curse.

There’s an interesting story in the Good Book of a bunch of losers sad dudes that cop the ire of the Lord for negative thinking, and some guys on the same team that got a pat on the back for their vision. These guys all got a mission to go into the enemy’s country to spy out the land. Not an easy task, and their senses would have been hightened and on full alert when they scouted the country. After their recon they came back with the same experience but these guys had two different takes on the whole thing. Here it is:

Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.” But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored.
Numbers 13:30-32

Two different takes on the same situation. The majority of the team crumbled under pressure. Sure, there were challenges ahead for the team. Sure there were “giants in the land” but Caleb got it right. And he was on the winning side. He had vision. He had a sense of pourpose. He stood up above the rest of the crowd and was different. He was one of the Tall Poppies.

I’m glad that I’m different. I’m glad that I can stand up and create, lead and DO something positive, despite the criticism. That’s the VICTUS IN AMBITUS way. Please step to one side, Nike. We’re coming through!