Don’t believe in magic

by Giff on August 20, 2010

sorcerersappTwo observations:
1. Very little happens in a startup if you don’t make it happen.
2. Very little is done right if you don’t examine best practices and iterate your own efforts.

Common sense, right? And yet here are some further observations:

Right after I posted about demo tips and the importance of practice, I ran into someone who was at a different startup event where the demos were poor, unpracticed, and un-coached. It is a common problem.

I had coffee a little while ago with a highly successful woman who was frustrated that she hears too many younger entrepreneurs complain about the lack of mentors. “When I started,” she explained, “I didn’t wait for anyone to come to me. I picked the right people and went out and chased them.” She approached landing mentors as a sales cycle, impressing and winning over her targets with brains and a go-getter attitude.

To give a personal example, I used to believe in magic when it came to public speaking. I thought there were “gifted” wizards like Steve Jobs who could just get up and wow the crowd. Then I realized that all the best speakers practice the hell out of their talks. Brilliance doesn’t happen on its own.  (btw, if you want to learn more about public speaking, I recommend Scott Berkun’s book, Confessions of a Public Speaker)

There is no magic in marketing, virality, and product design. Instead there is creativity, smarts, measurement and iteration. Yet you see teams piggy-backing on the fad of the moment, hoping for a silver bullet but not going deeper.

A big part of “lean startup” is getting teams out of “guess and hope” mode (aka magic), and into reality-based iteration. This requires getting out of your comfort zone.

Now, the *other* hard truth of early stage startups is you cannot do it all with the resources at hand. You have to make choices and some areas will get short-changed. But do it consciously. Be master of your choices, and don’t believe in magic.

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  • http://www.5o9inc.com/ Peter Cranstone

    Agreed. Key to me is “validation” of the idea. At each step, check with the “prospect” (they’re not customers yet). Ensure that you choose enough prospects that a consensus is reached. Magic happens along the way – but only if you weave the right spell.

  • Katgordon

    Great post, Giff. Another example of how geniuses practice the hell out of their crafts can be found in Steve Martin’s book “Born Standing Up.” His account of how methodically — one could say obsessively — he practiced magic and comedy for years before being discovered reveals how hard-won success really is.

  • http://giffconstable.com giffc

    Thanks for the reminder on that book. Steve Martin is such an interesting and intelligent guy, I bet I would really enjoy the read.

  • http://www.denisbaranov.com Denis

    Giff, do you say that creativity is not magic? I personally believe that whatever qualifies as natural talent (or predisposition) is magic because it’s nearly impossible to repeat.

  • http://giffconstable.com giffc

    So much of what we do as designers is creative, but not magic.nnTake UI/UX. I’ve worked with several really excellent HCI people, and seen some awful ones too. The best ones don’t rest on talent, and they certainly are not just about making things pretty. Instead they rigorously stay on top of HCI research and studies, they get very close to the business goals and drivers behind the application, and they are obsessive about studying how users are actually using their application. Their results appear magical, but their process is not.nnYou could say the same thing about great game designers. Highly creative, but the top minds think about the theory, process, and drivers of games, and they test/iterate their game designs to come up with something that feels magically delicious at the end.nnThe truth is that greatness almost always requires rigor and process.

  • http://www.denisbaranov.com Denis

    Being a sucker for simplicity, I always look at UI/UX as science & skill not art so I agree with you there. However, what I originally meant in my comment was things like visual art, literature, and music. While true masters perfect their techniques by practicing a lot & often, they do not become masters simply by following some predefined rules. In fact, there are plenty of examples of quite the opposite (Picasso, Tolstoy, T. S. Eliot, Jimi Hendrix, etc.). This means that there is some magic & natural talent involved. Otherwise, anyone can become the next da Vinci given enough time.

  • http://www.denisbaranov.com Denis

    And not all creativity in advertising & marketing is science. We know this because nobody is yet to develop the 100% successful formula for a viral campaign (there are some elements that increase the chances but none that guarantee them).

  • http://giffconstable.com giffc

    That is true of everything in entrepreneurship, and maybe all of human life :)

  • http://www.denisbaranov.com Denis

    So would you say that there is some magic in business (as long as it’s not the credit fairy)? =)

  • http://giffconstable.com giffc

    The original post is about not believing in magic wands. It is not about denying the very real importance of talent and creativity.