O Captain, my Captain!
For all my vices and human weaknesses, I am not enough of a megalomaniac to commission, say, an equestrian portrait and savour the sight of it in the quiet of my drawing room. Mind you, even that is a lower level of the vanity game, as those with more advanced hubris levels lead the guests visiting their home to view these portraits. Fortunately, such needs are completely alien to me.
I might have more of a penchant for an artfully composed image of a ship’s captain, one arm resting on the rail, the other holding a spyglass to scan the distant mists for a treasure island. Yet I resist this temptation too, even if the marine metaphor will be a perfect fit for us today.
It is widely known that a ship has but one captain, and it is he who bears the ultimate responsibility for the decisions made and the fates of both passengers and crew. He is also the last one to leave the sinking vessel.
Yet surely no one imagines that he could navigate the ship alone. Even a legend of the magnitude of Jack Sparrow – Captain Jack Sparrow – needed the crew’s helping hand on The Black Pearl.
No matter what your superstar quality, you still need the support of a team if all your efforts are not to be in vain. There must be someone you can count on and who will lay on the chances for you to score. Otherwise, you’ll leave the pitch without a goal to your name.
Even in a sport as individual as boxing, there is a whole range of staff working with the fighter before he steps into the ring. Sure, the hardest part is your own work, yet if not for the efforts of the support and training team, there would be no bout at all.
Alone, you win nothing. Not a single match. I repeat this ad nauseam, and that’s one of the fundamental truths in business. Keep a firm grip on the wheel, yet pay attention to others. And don’t burn any bridges, for you may have to cross them another day.
A ship only has one captain, but working with him are several officers, a whole crew of sailors, and on top of that, the cook too.
Things at work follow different paths, and that is something we always have to take into account, whether we’re the employer or the employees. No company in the world is free of differences of opinions and conflicts simmering along the divides between those views. But let’s consider whether some positive energy can spark from all that friction? Is it not at the fault lines that new continents are born: something that will serve everyone well? A new idea, a conclusion drawn from a conversation, energy sparked by good, fruitful discussion. Precisely.
It is crucial that we all identify with the goal we want to achieve, and agree on a particular strategy to guide us there.
Trust works both ways. I trust my employees, and they too know that they can count on me and the company at all times. This is how it is supposed to work, and how it does.
“We never leave our own behind.” A good old principle that allows no exceptions.
What about friendship? Can you build business on friendship? A question not unlike the classic “Can there be true friendship between a man and a woman?”
My business life includes a chapter with three friends who decided to join forces and do good business together. Nothing out of the ordinary. “Three of us were there, different blood flowed in each of us” – Poles would recognise the words from Perfect’s anthem of a generation. But in our case, unlike in the song, nobody with the face of the most beautiful actress of the time appeared. The reasons for abandoning our plan were different. We all already had successes under our belts, excellent business cards in our hands, and were set for what you call bright futures ahead. We thought that joining forces would bring even greater success. Three captains imagined they could merge three ships into one: colossal and unsinkable.
One afternoon several months into the voyage, we sat at a table and made a joint decision.
“Gentlemen, time to end our voyage.”
And it was not because the venture was badly planned. Our flagship would have weathered the storms and navigated round the icebergs. Yet we set greater store by our friendship than the expected profits. It’s not money that is most valuable in this game. A triumvirate inevitably leads to conflict, and clashing ambitions, plans, and visions. Obviously, it would have been best if our individual egos had been, at least for a time, supressed and buried deep. But life is life, and sometimes it dictates tough conditions.
Three captains aboard one ship is simply not a good idea.
We need to be certain that the one who is steering the ship will set and keep a course that is clear to the whole crew. Moreover, that one day both the sailors and the passengers won’t realise that, to their dismay, it is not the Caribbean bliss the ship is heading for Greenland, not quite a swimsuit island.
The captain must make logical and consistent decisions.
It is on this course that our individual, internal compass must keep us.