Throughout this post will be my thoughts on my past summer and the knowledge I have drawn from the experience. Also, I will speak largely to leadership. Leadership is a point of major interest to me, because I have receive that euphoric feeling that most feel on a roller-coaster when I see a team run effectively. This is why I am such a logistically inclined guy. The spring semester of my junior year in college, when I studied abroad in Barcelona, Spain, I spent many of my days riding my bike down to the port. There is a long stretch for walkers and bike riders, where people could either look at the highway and port, or they could look out over the picturesque and crystal blue water of the Mediterranean sea. I looked at the port. I would sit on the ledge and look out over the operations of the port for hours at a time. I was mystified, while also starry-eyed by the logistical network that existed in this port, as well as those feeding into and out of this port. When I see a street, I do not see it like a chemical engineer would and break down the materials, but instead I would see millions of logistical networks connecting and disconnecting. This is a reason that I like Amazon. Their logistical network is impressive, to say the least, but I primarily admire their name. The Amazon is one of the largest rivers, containing a seemingly innumerable number of tributaries stemming from it. Similarly, Amazon, the e-commerce behemoth, has achieved massive growth due to their ability to expand into an online Wal-Mart, providing nearly anything you could ask for. Leadership, Logistics, and failure, are the three pieces that make up my puzzle.
This past summer, I worked with two different startups, one for-profit and one that was a non-profit. The for-profit was a company called Cerebrum, which was founded by several good college friends eager to start their own venture. The non-profit, which I am still very actively engaged in as the acting Treasurer, is called Ours to Change. Ours to Change was also created by a college friend, but was established years prior. In both cases, I learned that you enter a company because you believe in what they stand for, and not simply what they could be. With Cerebrum, I did not ask their long and short-term goals for achieving their objectives. Also, I went into the company to work with my friends for the summer. Do not work with your friends, unless you have worked with them before successfully. In each of these scenarios, I was lucky enough to experience the wave-like functionality found in a startup. I learned of the importance of a strong founding vision and the need for both a capable leader and capable workers. Without this dynamic of leaders establishing what must be done and employees enthusiastically fulfilling the requirements of the job, there is no opportunity for forward movement. This is so critical of a dynamic, and it all stems from the people hired and the culture created in the organization. I discovered this through my experiences with both organizations, as well as my time in Student Government at Loyola. Beginning with Loyola, I quickly learned how important it is to put your beliefs in your leader. This does not assume ignorance on the part of the employee. each employee should make their voice heard when they do not understand an objective or when they do not agree with the direction. But the leader establishes a direction with the best intent of the organization in mind, and while in Cerebrum not all of the team understood this. Also, the executive team from the very beginning was built of six members, all of which felt equally competent to make the decisions for the direction of the organization. This created a substantial problem because each member sought a slightly different path for the organization. No one would follow the vision of one person, so the company was in lingo for the vast majority of my time there. We never saw what we were and where we were going. We saw a vision of grandeur, as all entrepreneurs do, but did not understand how we were to get there. Another problem we experienced was bad leadership. Our initial founder was a great friend, but we immediately discovered that good friends are not always good business partnerships. This founder was great with people, but not a great leader. As an entrepreneurial enthusiast much of his life, he felt obligated to treat the team as if he was the only one capable of properly running a startup. So, we all gave him that liberty, to be the pronounced leader, and immediately realized our mistakes. As a leader, he lacked several crucial leadership characteristics: communication skills and developing a sustainable business model. He could tell you exactly what Elon Musk, Bill Gates, or Richard Branson would have done, or what made them special, but could not do-so himself. In the pitfalls of my friend, I found my leadership strengths and weaknesses. My strengths have always been communication, education, and an enthusiasm to discover the exploitable strengths in each team member. Exploitable traits carries with it a negative connotation- I agree. In the case of how I view it, each person is especially talented in one or more areas, and by them specifying in that area, the team will be in the best shape. It is for this reason that I am very much opposed to racing and sexism. I may not like someone, but if they are willing to work hard and are especially good in a certain area, then I will certainly not allow my ego to stand in the way. Placing the importance of the long-run before the short-run, the team's success will invariably rise, in a collective fashion, when everyone work puts the team before themselves. This is relevant in absolutely every situation. An example most easily understood is in combat. If a team member attempts to be a standout, but instead causes detrimental results for the rest of the team. I came across this understanding of properly working on a team and working to achieve a long-term goal through my experiences with baseball and in my collegiate Student Government career. In baseball, each pitch was with the game on the line, with the ninth inning always veering in the back of my mind. "If I throw a change-up here, as opposed to a curveball or slider or fastball, will he be out on his front foot and roll over the pitch? If he sits back, expecting a change in speed, is he quick enough to get a double an be in scoring position? Who are the next four batters? Are any of them especially dangerous that they could hit him in? If they do hit him in, will we be able to score runs this next inning?" On the mound, I was entirely in my head, but never nervous. I have always been an extremely analytical sports player. I always liked soccer for the physical play, endurance, and the physics that is found in placing particular spins on the ball. But, I digress- back to baseball. As the pitcher, I controlled the beginning, in business this is the initial vision, and placed my faith in my infield, outfield, and hitters, to make the next play. As a leader in any business, you must have complete faith in the work your workers are doing. This is why companies take hiring so seriously, and why many companies are automating the roles that do not require mental rigor, but are instead monotonous, such as the assembling of a car. As a leader, if there are specific people that you feel you cannot trust, get to know the person. Learn their motivations, their intentions,and then decide. If, as a leader, you cannot trust anyone, then you will not be a leader for long. Similarly, this is a two-way street. The employees also must trust that the leader is capable and will lead them to success. Cerebrum's lack of success was not merely the result of a lack of leadership, but primarily a lack of understanding of what we were. Who knew? I certainly didn't. I tried to establish a clear vision, but whenever I did, we pivoted. We were something new each day. Now, it did not help that two of the six people were living two and a half hours away, in Philadelphia. We had an amazing team of enthusiastic, hardworking individuals, but we did not have that opportunity to work twenty-four hours a day, vigorously beating a path forward. We were chickens running around with our heads cut off. There is a lot more that I could speak about from these experiences, but I will save those for another day. As for right now, I will pursue to enhance my skills as they exist, while continuing to view others and do research of what is most likely to lead to a positive result.
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