Each of us is at someplace in our startup journey, and we're all trying to get somewhere else. How do I close the gap between where I am and where I want to be? ask many founders of themselves.
Just over two thousand years ago, another ‘gap’ was crossed with dramatic results. The Rubicon is a small stream in Northern Italy that marked the boundary between Gaul and Rome. Anyone crossing it was automatically confronting the Roman State, so when Julius Caesar, then a general, crossed the Rubicon on 10 January 49BC, he intentionally declared war on the Rome.
This is the origin of the phrase, Crossing the Rubicon, meaning to take an irrevocable step, a deliberate decision to move and go beyond the point of no return. As he crossed, Caesar is quoted as saying Jacta alea est, (the die is cast) as he made the decisive move, a statement of his intent. There was no going back, he was audaciously locked into that ambitious course of action.
Enough of early Roman history you cry! Well, we all have a choice in how we grow startup and whether we want to cross our own Rubicon. The decision not to cross the Rubicon is why people look back and think if only. There is another famous Latin motto, Carpe Diem, seize the day, which applies here. Doesn't it feel good to push yourself beyond your comfort zone and to achieve something remarkable? Just how much of a Caesar do you want to be? How much of a growth mindset do you have?
Your Rubicon moment is something that will stretch you. Of course, Caesar’s actions were deliberately confrontational, but the metaphor applies to founders taking decisive action to move their venture forward by introducing new ideas, or confronting barriers holding them back – something we’ve always wanted to do, but never done. Now is the time!
Has your start-up hit a buffer? Maybe your sales are stalling, or hiring pace isn’t there. However improbable it may feel, you have two choices at this moment. Either you let it drift away, or you take the road less taken and cross the Rubicon. Lotus blooms in the muddy pond is a Japanese saying that tells any founder needs to hold a positive mindset at this pivotal moment.
There are many success stories from entrepreneurs who grabbed the initiative and made a bold move. For example. in 1955, Harlan Sanders was broke. A newly built highway meant traffic now bypassed Corbin, Kentucky where Colonel Sanders had been cooking chicken at his restaurant for two decades. But the resourceful Sanders sold his building and started franchising his chicken restaurant concept. Within five years he had 400 Kentucky Fried Chicken locations.
Entrepreneurs, like Caesar, seize the moment of challenge, push the boundaries and seek to hit their goals. Inevitably they live a life marked by the peaks and troughs being more vivid than if safer choices made. It’s a roller coaster ride where the tracks haven’t yet been fully built, but they’d have it no other way, happy going round blind corners and crazy inclines.
Caeser’s bold and decisive act wasn't impulsive, he weighed the potential risks and rewards before acting. Sometimes, taking calculated risks is necessary for founders to achieve their goals, even if it involves uncertainty. Your venture may be facing a critical juncture, where indecision can paralyse and lead to missed opportunities. There are times when we must commit to a course of action, even if the outcome is uncertain. While not always advocating recklessness, it shows that fortune sometimes favours the bold.
Is there a founders’ Playbook for this? Well, Ryan Holiday’s book, The Obstacle Is The Way, offers insight and guidance akin to Crossing the Rubicon. Here are some quotes from his book, which I think apply to founders.
Perception precedes action. Right action follows the right perspective. Is this the time to try something new? You have the decision to choose how you perceive every situation in your startup life. Persevere, pivot or pack-up?
Don’t panic. Keep your emotions in check and balanced. In every situation, no matter how daunting, keep calm. Sometimes the best solution is to do nothing. Entrepreneurs find it hard to say ‘stop’ and press pause, but that can be the best solution at times. The next move is always yours. That's the essence of it.
Lose the rose-coloured glasses. See the world for what it is, not what you want it to be. Hey, we’re back to being realistic, but it’s also about optimism, the mindset to expect the best outcome from every situation, and resilience to make it happen. I doubt Caesar had self-doubts about his audacious plan.
If you want momentum, create it yourself. If you want anything from startup life, you have to make it happen. Only action will bring you closer. Start now, not tomorrow. Be optimistic, learning from others who are successful, and believe you can do the same. Equally, it's not just what happens to you, but how you react that matters.
It’s okay to be discouraged. But it’s not okay to quit. Entrepreneurial life is competitive. When you think life is hard know that it’s supposed to be hard. Every attempt brings you one step closer. Don’t have a victim’s mentality or feel sorry for yourself. Founders become tenaciously defiant when told it won’t work. Then they get it done.
Many misunderstand what’s at work in turning a setback into a comeback. For me, it's not about ‘bouncing back’, rather it’s about the ability to integrate harsh experiences into your entrepreneurial thinking, learn and apply the lessons, and then be motivated to go again, and expecting to go one better.
Be willing to roll the dice. Be prepared for none of it to work. We get disappointed too quickly because we often expect things will turn out fine, we have high expectations. No one can guarantee your success. You try with all your effort, it doesn’t work out, you accept it, and move on. Understand that any decision is usually better than no decision.
The path of least resistance is a terrible teacher. Don’t shy away from difficulty, gain strength from the unrealistic achievements of others. Surround yourself with high achievers. Avoid toxic people like the plague. To be remarkable, you have to expect unreasonable things of yourself. Know that when you overcome one obstacle, another waits in the shadows. Make sure the real challenge to your venture doesn’t live between your ears.
Summary
Mark Twain said that the most influential moment in human history was Caesar’s crossing of the Rubicon. Soon after Caesar’s act of defiance, he tore down the Roman Republic and established the Roman Empire in its place. The river was nothing to write home about, but its significance was, and the lessons from are timeless and applicable to various aspects of life.
For startup founders, it reminds us of the importance of calculated risk, decisiveness, accepting responsibility, and understanding the potential consequences of actions.
Our future does not balance on a single, precarious tilt, ready to sway any which way with the breeze, neither is life determined by tea leaves, oracles and baptisms, but rather our actions and our words.
Well, all that from a bit of Roman history. History often signposts us to other ideas we can bring to our everyday thinking. For example, take Edmund Blackadder’s statement Baldrick I have a very, very very cunning plan – to which Baldrick replies Is it as cunning as the fox that used to be Professor of Cunning at Oxford University but has moved on and is now working for the UN at the High Commission of International Cunning Planning? Yes, replied Blackadder.
Startups are luck, mixed with an intrinsic will to succeed with a dash of hope for something bigger. Like the NASA moon landings, startups are often an imagination-defying epic, and crossing the Rubicon is a spot on allegory to encourage founders to make it happen.
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