Na enem izmed mnogih letov v zadnjem letu sem imel možnost brati knjigo Great by Choice avtorja Jima Collinsa. Sicer zveni kot še ena dolgočasna poslovna knjiga, v resnici pa gre za delo, polno dobrih zgodb in anekdot.

Iz serije zgodb sta se mi dve še posebej vtisnili v spomin. Prva govori o odpravah na polarni tečaj, paranoji in pomenu dodelanega plana, ki lahko v ekstremnih situacijah reši življenje odpravi. Nekaj malega na to temo sem na svojem blogu že pisal  (The plan).

Druga ankedota, ki je name pustila vtis, je zgodba o »20 mile march«:

Imagine you’re standing with your feet in the Pacific Ocean in San Diego, looking inland. You’re about to embark on a 3,000-mile walk, from San Diego to the tip of Maine. On the first day you march 20 miles, making it out of town.

On the second day you march 20 miles. And again, on the third day you march 20 miles, heading into the heat of the desert. It’s hot, more than 100˚F, and you want to rest in the cool of your tent. But you don’t. You get up and you march 20 miles.

You keep the pace, 20 miles a day.

Then the weather cools, and you’re in comfortable conditions with the wind at your back, and you could go much farther. But you hold back, modulating your effort. You stick with your 20 miles.

Then you reach the Colorado high mountains and get hit by snow, wind, and temperatures below zero — and all you want to do is stay in your tent. But you get up. You get dressed. You march your 20 miles.

You keep up the effort — 20 miles, 20 miles, 20 miles — then you cross into the plains, and it’s glorious springtime, and you can go 40 or 50 miles in a day. But you don’t. You sustain your pace, marching 20 miles.

And eventually, you get to Maine.

Now, imagine another person who starts out with you on the same day in San Diego. He gets all excited by the journey and logs 40 miles the first day.

Exhausted from his first gigantic day, he wakes up to 100˚ temperatures. He decides to hang out until the weather cools, thinking, “I’ll make it up when conditions improve.” He maintains this pattern — big days with good conditions, whining and waiting in his tent on bad days — as he moves across the western United States.

Just before the Colorado high mountains, he gets a spate of great weather and he goes all out, logging 40- to 50-mile days to make up lost ground. But then he hits a huge winter storm when utterly exhausted. It nearly kills him and he hunkers down in his tent, waiting for spring.

When spring finally comes, he emerges, weakened, and stumbles off toward Maine. By the time he enters Kansas City, you, with your relentless 20-mile march, have already reached the tip of Maine. You win, by a huge margin.

Po več kot letu dela na produktu vox.io lahko rečem, da mi je zgodba zelo blizu. V tem obdobju smo se nenehno trudili držati dober tempo (~25 milj na dan) in vsakič, ko smo zaradi takšnih ali drugačnih razlogov pospešili na 40+ milj na dan, se nam je vse skupaj vrnilo v obliki slabše kakovosti produkta in globoko skritih žužkov, ki smo jih morali kasneje odpraviti.

Ob tej zgodbi je treba poudariti, da je pri mladih podjetjih pot še precej neznana in tudi konstanten tempo ne pomaga, če se ne premikaš v pravo smer.

Osebno mislim, da dobro podjetje, ki lahko raste skozi čas in enkrat tudi doseže dober položaj, ne more zrasti čez noč. Pot je dolga in je treba vsak dan narediti nekaj korakov proti cilju.