Measure your Adaptability and Improve it
I met 273 startup founders last year.
And each one wanted money. As a technology investor, my goal was to plan for everyone I met and make a quick decision as to which ones have the potential to do something really great.
But what makes a great founder? This is the question I ask myself every day. Some self-proclaimed capitalists bet according to the original origin of the founder.
Did they go to Ivy League school? Did they work for a blue-chip company? Have they made a big idea before? Effectively, how wise is this person?
Some VCs assess the inventor's emotional quotient or EQ.
How well will this person build teams and build relationships between customers and customers? I have a different way of testing startup founders, though, and it’s not complicated. I'm looking for signs of a particular trait. Not IQ, not EQ. It is a matter of flexibility: how one responds positively to the inevitable change, and much more.
This is one of the most important decisions for me. I subscribe to the belief that adaptation itself is an intelligent approach, and our adaptation quotient, or AQ, is something that can be measured, tested, and improved.
AQ doesn’t just work for startup founders, though. I think it’s more important for all of us. Because the world is faster. We know that the rate of technological change is fast, forcing our brains to respond.
Whether you’re wandering into changing work conditions brought on by automation, changing geopolitics in a globalized world, or simply changing family power and personal relationships.
Each of us, as individuals, groups, corporations, and even governments is forced to undergo more changes than ever before in human history. So, how do we assess our flexibility? I use three tricks when I meet the founders.
Here is the first one.
Think back to your most recent job interview. What kind of questions are you asked? Maybe a bit different from, "Tell me about that time," isn't it? Instead, negotiate accordingly,
I like to ask questions like "what if". What if the spread of your big money stopped overnight? What if a heatwave prevents all individual customers from visiting your store?
Asking "what if," instead of asking in the past, forces the brain to mimic.
Capturing many future genres. The power of that vision, as well as the number of different events that one can imagine, tells me much. Practicing simulation is a kind of safe test environment to improve adaptability. Instead of testing how you import and store information, such as an IQ test, it tests how you use the information, given a limit, to achieve a specific purpose.
The second strategy I use is to check the adaptability of the founders to look for signs of illiteracy. Uneducated students want to challenge what they think they will be able to do, and instead, they are writing more data on new information.
Kind of like a computer that performs disk cleaning. Take the example of Destin Sandlin, who adjusted his bicycle to the left when he swerved to the right and in the same direction. He called this his Back Brain Bike back, and it took him just about eight months to learn to ride it, the normal type.
The fact that Distin has managed not to read his regular bike in favor of a new one yet shows something surprising in adapting to our circumstances. Not fixed. Instead, each of us has the potential to improve, with dedication and hard work. On the last page of Gandhi's history, he wrote, "I have to lower myself to zero."
In many areas of his full life, he still wanted to get back to the minds of beginners, to zero. Illiteracy. In this way, I think it is quite safe to say that Gandhi had high AQ scores.
The third and final strategy I use is to test the orientation of the founder to look at people who put testing into their lives and businesses. There is a kind of natural conflict between experimentation and exploitation.
Together, we all tend to overreact to exploitation. Here is what I say. In 2000, a man recently entered into a meeting with John Antioco, chief executive officer of Blockbuster, and proposed a partnership to manage Blockbuster's newly online business.
Chief John laughed at him and stepped outside, saying, "I have millions of existing customers and thousands of successful stores. I really need to focus on money." The man at the meeting, however, was Reed Hastings, Netflix CEO.
In 2018, Netflix brought in $ 15.8 billion, while Blockbuster filed for bankruptcy in 2010, exactly 10 years after that meeting. The chief executive of Blockbuster was so focused on using the already successful business model, that he no longer saw it in the next corner.
Thus, his previous success was an enemy of his ability to adapt. For my co-founders, checking Iframe is a must-have. Never fall in love with your victory but instead continue to desperately seek out what can kill you next.
When I first started experimenting with adaptability, what I found was very exciting that we could improve. Each of us has the capacity to adapt to new circumstances. But think of it as a muscle: it should be used.
And don't be discouraged if it takes a while.
Remember Destin Sandlin? It took him just eight months to learn to ride a bicycle. Over time, applying the techniques I use to developers - asking "what if" questions, diligent study, and prioritizing overuse of testing can put you in the driver's seat - so that the next time something big happens, you're ready.
We envision a future where IQ and EQ are both more important than how quickly you can adapt. So I hope these tools help you grow your own AQ. Thank you.
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