Copyright sandiegouniontribune
I’m interested in the concept of an assistant. Everybody needs one, wants one, can’t find one, and when they do, they think that the job description includes dry cleaning and car detailing — and then to top it off, they won’t pay the full freight necessary to get the greatness they want. I looked for advice from Ray Green, a business adviser and consultant. On his website, he tells his story of trying to hire “virtual assistants who can be an extension of me.” He spent almost a year looking and reports that he went 0-4 in hiring and spent north of $40,000. Each assistant failed miserably, he writes. He looks in the mirror, and he can’t decide if it is them or him. Finally, he comes to his own epiphany. “You can’t delegate what you don’t understand.” Context and process do not appear magically. To solve problems, he writes, you cannot look for someone who knows “how to do something.” The world now has almost unlimited virtual and not-so-virtual assistants. You think you want someone who knows how to perform a task — let’s call it scheduling, managing your cluttered desk, cleaning up operations or customer service etc. Green makes the compelling case that you need to find someone who can handle all these puzzles. This is a nuanced distinction with some overlap, but the key goes back to you, the founder. Do you know enough to truly understand what is needed? You don’t need to be a master yourself, but you need to be able to define it. As a founder you need to be able to explain the processes in your tech stack, the marketing, the sales funnel etc. If you can’t explain it, it will be very difficult to find someone who can read your mind and magically solve all the company problems. If you want to hire a janitor, first learn how to handle a broom. Now, having made the case for the importance of finding a “who,” with full disclosure, I confess my extreme good fortune in that I have had the same assistant for 32 years. She has an advanced degree in mind-reading, along with a can’t live without, no-cut contract, franchise tag. I wish all founders and entrepreneurs good luck in their search for your Dr. Seuss “Who” assistant. It is always useful to revisit the obvious, because since it is so obvious, we obviously forget it. I am going to share some thoughts from Scott D. Anthony, professor at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. His research is on “What Disruptive Innovators Do Differently.” Here are some excerpts from his work: Customer obsession. This is the first class in every MBA school syllabus. But it is hard to do, because it requires patience, listening, caring and understanding what the customer really wants – not necessarily what he says he wants. This is classic shrink stuff. What they say is not always what they mean. Curiosity. What is a fish? In Julia Child’s book “Mastering the Art of French Cooking,” she has a 27-page chapter dedicated solely to the subject of fish. Childs constantly challenged the status quo, looking for a different and potentially better way to do it. Same for your company. Collaboration. The biggest myth is the “lone inventor.” Collaboration should be obvious, but in my own recent experience there seems to be a growing amount of mistrust in the entrepreneur game of late. I should not have to sign an NDA to have an initial phone call. There is a lot of happy talk about working together to expand the pie, but the word competition keeps bumping up against the word collaboration. Is there suddenly a run on pie tins? Willingness to experiment. This one is easy. The world of innovation is littered with coincidence and fortuitous wandering and wondering. Allow for the random magic. Persistence. There is no substitute. Always nice to be reminded. The issue for the founder/entrepreneur, he writes, is how to practice the above five characteristics daily, how to make them indelible in your company culture. I will offer one suggestion. Write it down. In my own little world, when folks come into my office, I suggest they bring a pencil and a pad. No, it is not a blue book test, but the act of writing something down often makes it more impactful than recording it on Notion. Rule No. 802: Indelible ink Senturia is a serial entrepreneur who invests in startups. Please email ideas to neil@askturing.ai.
