Sometimes hitting the hard bottom is the best thing that can happen to a leader.
Life is not a smooth sailing journey, it is filled with rough tide. And of-course where is the fun in smooth rides anyways. Well especially in a leader’s journey its even more thrilling. One day you might feel at the top of the world and the other day you are having existential crisis. Truth be told, that’s a normal human nature. We are constantly in a state of restlessness, either regretting too much over the sad past or worrying too much about the stupid future. If you just sit down and manifest what could be going wrong in the present ? You would surprised that there is not much to worry about.
But most important thing for any leader is to keep learning through these highs and lows of life. Experiential leaders define that greatest learnings come from the lows. More than any courses, coaching, books the real learning is when you hit the hard bottom. When nothing seems to be on your side and your gasping for options. That’s when any great leaders mind would activate its true potential and start finding better creative solutions to the problem. If you survive and don’t give up, congratulation you have learned years worth of lessons in months.
How I hit my hard bottom and came back again that gave me these five I’s
I was one the youngest person in the domain to become a cofounder and CTO of twimbit. In the first 2 year, i was building amazing tech , growing the team and speaking at conference as if I was unstoppable force. I was also featured by magazine titled ” Top 10 most inspiring CTOs of India”, ” World Most influential tech leader” and “10 Most influential business leader in India”. I felt as if I was on top of the world and with this pace of achievement I will really go far. But then in the 3rd year I hit a brick wall. I was not building and innovating as I was doing before and got more involved in bureaucracy and BS. I wasn’t growing anymore and not at all happy. That’s when I decided to leave everything behind , the title, the awards, the identity, twimbit and start fresh.
Five I’s, I’ve changed ?
Breaking down the title reveals a recipe of growth that when applied in any situation yields to growth. In this article we will see the five “i” that are fundamental to change and growth for any leader.
These five I’s Are –
- Identity
- Investment
- Industry
- Interests
- I
Identity
Often at the leadership position we can get accustomed to the comfort of giving orders. The comfort level could entrench us so deep that we are not willing to think out of the box or go the extra mile. We are not much interested listening to others and often think that we are smarter and better the others. We are less of ourselves and more of the title we bear ( lead / manager / CXO ).
These are clear indication of an over inflated identity issue. This identity leads to a thick wall between the reality and one’s imaginary world. A leader must time to time come back to the trenches and have an open discussion like a teammate. He should throw off the title even in-front of the outside world and come as a serving individual. The most important thing a leader does is serve its team.
Investment
You might have invested a lot time and energy into building a solution. This could cause you to form a bias into loving a solution rather than the problem. But ultimately it’s the problem where the attachment is needed and time to time you might need to pivot. Some time pivot in investment could also mean leaving the entire thing you have build from scratch and moving on the next challenge. Moving on from these attachment is more important here and seeing that as investment in learning. Ultimately, the risk taking nature is what rewards in the longer run.
Industry
There is a common notion that you should be an expert in a domain to make breakthroughs. This might take upto years and the learning curves hits a plateau after a while. But recently, another trend is becoming more prevalant. People with slightest expertise in the domain are doing wonders in another industry. This is an effect caused when you carry the knowledge and expertise from one domain and are introduced to a new problem. Surprisingly your chances of solving this problem are better than someone who has been with it for years. That is why leaders should time to time change their industry and try multiply what they have learned to a brand new problem. eg. A guy who founded an internet company tries automobile industry and build self driving EV’s.
Interests
Have you ever observed how much excited small kids are and there eyes are always lit up. But as we grow that excitement goes away. Working in the same areas and repeating the same work cycle again and again can make anyone lethargic. That’s when you need to try something new.
Studies shows that trying something new causes your neurons to fire. This make you sharper at problem solving and improves brain function. Try to change the department or delegate the thing that you are doing to something else. Try doing something that you never tried before. Maybe learning cooking, or learning bachata.
Last but not the least the most important I, is “I” itself thats the person reading this article. It’s easy for us to blame the situation, making long excuses that why yoweu are not happy. But the real question to ask in these situation is what are we doing to improve this situation instead of complaining about it. The real change starts with you. Begin with the smallest start you can imagine and let the domino effect take over.
Conclusion
Even after having all the answers, you might have existential crisis, will question your choices and feel imposter. You will hit the rock bottom, but endure the pain and think that this is the best time for you time to learn and grow. So cheer up keep inspiring and conquer the world. If you have any question or feedback don’t hesitate in reaching out to me on twitter at @AManInTech, we will figure out something together. Do share it with the leader next door who might just need this to make the next move.
ABOUT AMAN
Aman is a serial tech entrepreneur and have 0 -> 1 experience of bootstrapping tech startups 3 times. Previously he was Cofounder & CTO of twimbit, ML researcher at TU Vienna Informatics, and founder lead at Mobile-web. dev community. He is an active member of web and web3 community while he give tech talks, share advice on product building and mentor kids in tech and entrepreneurship. He has been featured as top CTO of India and recognized among world most influential tech business leaders.
