Visionary leaders - the single most important driver of a company's success
Breaking down the attributes common across all generational founders
One of the most significant drivers of long-term company value is having a true leader at the helm of a company - not just a figurehead. Somebody whose finger prints you can see in every facet of the company’s vision, culture, and products. Somebody who has true incentive, with skin in the game through ownership and reputation.
Today’s successful leaders are the contemporary equivalents of historical commanders like Napoleon Bonaparte. They a “je ne sais quoi”, or indefinable, elusive quality made up a unique combination of traits that enables them to pursue their goals with an intense focus and inspire those around them.
Across all great leaders, 4 of the most common shared traits are:
Vision - an ability to imagine a completely different future, do things seen as impossible by others, and inspire those around you to pursue your vision
Leadership - an ability to ‘connect the dots’ in an organisation, enabling employees to excel beyond their preconceived limits, and creating a whole that is much greater than the sum of its part
Resilience - the ability of a founder to take a contrarian view and remain intensely focused despite immense headwinds
Growth Mindset - a lifelong approach to learning, with a deep understanding of not only their own domain but of the complex web of interconnected systems that make up the world. These leaders have an insatiable appetite for knowledge that leads them to make novel discoveries and connect seemingly unrelated areas
Vision
The ability to imagine a completely different future, do things seen as impossible by others, and inspire those around you to pursue your vision, is a hallmark of greatness. Steve Jobs exemplified these traits completely, and was renowned for his unparalleled passion and visionary mindset.
When Jobs introduced the iPhone, he envisioned a future where people could carry a mini-computer in their pockets that was user-friendly and capable of performing a wide range of tasks seamlessly. The iPhone's impact on society at large was profound, and Jobs’ ability to bring it to life transformed Apple into one of the most influential and successful companies in the world.
“The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do” - Steve Jobs.
Jobs combined his inspiring vision with a deep passion for everything he created. His passion for design and user experience was at the core of his success, with Jobs refusing to accept anything less than exceptional and forcing the development of revolutionary technology. Overall, Jobs' ability to merge his passion with his visionary outlook set him apart as a true trailblazer in the world of technology and entrepreneurship.
“I’ve never been able to think of my work and my life as different things, they are the same thing, make what you love your work” - Steve Jobs’
Leadership
While a leader’s vision is important, in parallel they must foster the capacity for innovation and continued reinvention throughout the business.
While Steve Jobs was an amazing visionary, he also recognised the importance of building a strong team around him to fill his gaps and allow for scale.
He encouraged a sense of unity and shared purpose, inspiring Apple’s employees to excel beyond their preconceived limits and resulting in remarkable achievements that extend beyond the capabilities of any one person.
“It doesn't make sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do” - Steve Jobs.
Resilience
In the words of Rocky, “it ain't about how hard you hit. It's about how hard you can get hit... and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!”. This mantra applies to every facet of life, and is a key trait of successful leaders. Nobody ever wins on their first try. Starting a business is hard, scaling a business is harder, and maintaining a competitive edge is hardest.
One of the most stubborn and determined modern day leaders is Elon Musk who has, on multiple occasions, been on the verge of ruin. An example of this was the perilous start of SpaceX, which saw three failed attempts to launch its Falcon 1 rocket into orbit and had exhausted the $100m of funding provided by Musk. Failure was not an option in Musk’s eyes, and he invested his remaining net worth and borrowed from friends and family to push forward with a fourth (ultimately successful) launch.
“When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favour” - Elon Musk.
When paired with deep product knowledge, industry expertise, and a vision for the future, the ability of a founder to take a contrarian view and to drive down an unpaved road is critical to success. Some of the largest and most successful companies in the world have been built by stubborn founders who drowned out the noise and charged ahead into the unknown.
“Resillience matters in success. I don’t know how to teach it to you, except I hope suffering happens to you… greatness comes from character, and character isn’t formed out of smart people it’s formed out of people who have suffered” - Jensen Huang.
Growth Mindset
The best leaders have an insatiable appetite for knowledge across all domains. Warren Buffett is a big believer in lifelong learning and estimates he spends as much as 80 percent of his day reading, while Bill Gates believes that continuous learning is totally fundamental to self-reflection and development in life. This constant learning, combined with the other above traits, enables leaders to learn and grow from failure and continually improve on their ideas.
“I constantly see people rise in life who are not the smartest, sometimes not even the most diligent, but they are learning machines. They go to bed every night a little wiser than they were when they got up and boy does that help, particularly when you have a long run ahead of you.” - Charlie Munger.
Multi-disciplinary learning also creates a wider context window and ability to identify trends and opportunities that others don’t see. Elon Musk for example, who was passionate about cars, renewable energy and technology, saw the potential to bring these fields together with Tesla.
How to identify a leader with the right attributes
When assessing whether a founder is an extraordinary, “n of 1”, individual, I ask the following questions:
Have they articulated a clear vision, and resounding passion for what their company, industry and mission?
Have they built a team of experts around them that will help them to supercharge their ambitions?
Do they continued to push the boundaries and develop new innovative products despite reservations from their peers or investors?
Do they cross reference industries and ideas that are outside of their core area?
Leaders that receive a strong YES response to every question are the best placed to thrive in today’s rapidly changing world, where industries are uprooted, business models evolve, and competition adapts continuously.
Companies led by these generational founders are the best placed to become the Space X, Apple, or NVIDIA of the future.
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