Into the Clutches of Arrogance or How to Ruin Your Business for Beginners and Pros

You think you are a business rock star from Mars and nobody should dare come your way? You believe you are always right and you are the reincarnation of Steve Job? Think again. You might be just a bit overconfident!

Hello folks! I genuinely hope you are doing fine and you have been carrying out your business operations with the expertise and agility that match the real-time requirements of our hectic age. Moreover, I hope you have tapped into the latest trends and you are aware that phenomena such as gamification are going to shape the near future. Hence, my only piece of advice is not to lag behind and keep exhibiting an avid interest in the latest developments. As you might have noticed, the digital world is undergoing constant alternations and those changes always favor the prepared ones. Indeed, we should either adapt or die. There is no middle ground. In that context, I want to introduce today’s topic. It has to do with narrow-mindedness, insolence, the lack of tolerance, and other deadly business sins. In a nutshell, the this subject can easily be defined as the persistent presence of arrogance in business. The latter is a re-occurring characteristic not only of big corporations but also of numerous startups. In fact, there is an extremely disturbing trend among fledgling entrepreneurs who tend to consider themselves way too cool for school. Have you met any of those? Are you one of them? Do you realize how much damage you can do to your business? Are you interested in improving your business operations in general? If so, just read on and do not get too upset. After all, we all have to learn from our failures and if it is not too late, to prevent them from happening altogether.

According to pundits and industrial gurus experience is king. The business world is a jungle and only the fittest (to be read as ‘the most experienced ones’) survive. This argument, however, has been debunked on numerous occasions. Indeed, in a recent article, the business tycoon Richard Branson explains why the lack of experience can, contrary to popular belief, be a great advantage. In addition, there are other important technological and marketing factors, which radically downplay the importance of experience. Indeed, given the current state of rapid digital evolution, abrupt changes are deemed to happen almost overnight. New platforms and brand new modes of interaction and communication often sweep us off our feet. We have no prior notion of how to best use those pioneering tools, so we have learn on the spot. Initially, we might not be able to get the hang of it, but eventually, we can improve our practices and get on the right track. We just need to be agile and be able and willing to adapt to changes. In fact, it should be pointed out that often, field experience, or expertise acquired through the trial of fire, coupled with the determination to broaden your horizons and learn from your mistakes and the errors of others, can help you advance your career and take your company to yet another productivity level. This, in a nutshell, is the perfect formula for success in business. Attention! Bear in mind that all the variables I enumerated must be in place. If, however, the constant of arrogance, surreptitiously sneaks in and it substitutes any of the factors required for triumph, you will be having a huge problem and you will be taking your business down the road to ruin. How? Why? Well, I will take the next couple of paragraphs to elaborate on the issue of destructive hubris.

On Hubris and downfall

Arrogance is a tricky notion. Any dictionary would define it as possessing an exaggerated sense of one’s own abilities and importance. Yet, I am here to tell you a business-related story, not to give you a vocabulary lesson. Thus, I need to go deeper and explore the notion of arrogance in business. As you might already know, it comes in different shapes and sizes. Some see it in the reluctance of big corporations to adapt to the new age requirements and open up to the social media. Others find it in the unwillingness of renown brands to relinquish the old outbound marketing methods, their inability to cease shoving annoying ads down people’s throat, and their failure to stop faking being hip and cool. Still others, consider it offensive that huge companies do not really care about their consumer base and customer complaints often fall on deaf years. Whereas most of those accusations pinpoint problems and challenges that industrial giants are still trying to tackle, some of the ‘guilty’ companies are trying to improve their practices and don the social garb. Yet, this is not the very essence of arrogance in business. It is not plain nonchalance either. Those particular hardships could be best described as evolutionary difficulties. They usually stem from the extremely complex corporate dynamics and processes, which effectively stand at odds with the openness, freedom, and real-time implications propagated by the inbound marketing doctrines and postulates. Moreover, the paradigm shift in business models and the rapid growth and imposition of the consumer-centered business model put companies on their knees and force them to either adapt to the requirements of the new social age or perish whilst still clutching at the old ways of doing business. Nonetheless, some brands simply choose to ignore changes, hoping that cataclysmic events will bypass them and they do not need to do the mandatory business restructuring and re-organization. This could be an example of arrogance, substantiated by reluctance to take a new course, unwillingness to abandon the familiar organizational surroundings, a lack of trust in this new age mumbo jumbo marketing, and a fear of failing.

Whereas a lot of thought has been given to analyzing the travails of the industrial titans and their policies and failures to adapt have been scrutinized and ridiculed, very little attention has been paid to the fledgling startup scene. Some disturbing patterns have emerged there as well. Indeed, while young entrepreneurs should be the cool, the creative, and the ambitious kids on the block, many of them tend to exhibit almost disturbing narrow-mindedness and complete unwillingness to listen to anybody’s voice but their own. Indeed, some of them are already dizzy with the taste of their eventual success and they are pretty sure they are about to make it. Therefore, they are not prone to take anybody’s advice and they think they can handle it all. Yet, they are unable to do so. Why? Because they display a tremendous degree of arrogance and they believe they know it all.

Do not tell me what to do

Some time ago, I was asked to do some basic marketing for a community initiative. I accepted the challenge and I prepared an extensive marketing analysis, which pinpointed the issues that needed to be addressed and the major problems that had to be solved. Given the kind of audience I had, I decided to explain my approaches in detail to justify my rationale for opting for a particular set of marketing techniques and tactics. Moreover, I harbored the hope that my ramblings might get those folks started and they might decide to take their marketing seriously. Yet, my analysis was unheeded. The community leaders, who are supposedly hip, young, cool, and savvy, decided that they were not going to read something longer than a page. Moreover, one of them admitted he actually did give the documents I had furnished him with a read but in his words ‘you do not tell me what to do or how/what to think.’ Well, cowboy, ain’t that a little contradiction? After all, you came to me for help, just to tell me later that you actually do not care about it because people are advising you how to proceed? What was the point? Never mind.

Paradoxes, quite similar to this one abound within the startup scene. Sometimes, you can be taken aback by the ‘I-know-it-all’ attitude of the majority of young people. Moreover, it is quite disturbing that most of them are unwilling to expand their intellectual horizons and they are quite reticent to listen to somebody else’s opinion. Furthermore, some fledgling entrepreneurs are extremely resistant to learning new things as they believe they have it all figured out and anybody else’s contribution is unwanted, even if they ask for it in the first place. Maybe they see it as a digression that will just stray them from the path they have chosen to follow.

What seems to be the problem, Mr. Officer?

Warning: The following paragraphs contain some strong language and some general statements based on extensive personal observations. They are meant for mature readers, who are able to acknowledge that to err is human and come to grips with the fact that they are human beings.

So, is there trouble in startup paradise? Yes, there is.

What are the sources of this trouble? Where does it all come from? The answer to these questions is quite intricate. There are multiple factors and there is no single root of evil. Yet, some of the problems seem to be caused by the entrepreneurs themselves Why? Because overall, most of them are into flashing their mobile and/or tablet devices, into praising their unique and super-ambitions projects, into talking the talk on Twitter, and into walking the walk to cafes or bars that host the regular drinkups. They hate anything even remotely related to the big evil corporations, yet they are asking the very same industrial villains to sponsor their events. They say they are digitally-savvy but their sites are nothing more than a standard Tumblr/Wordpress generated template. They know about social media marketing and viral marketing, and they are familiar with content creation, but they are unable to produce more than one or two short blog entries in general. They always have a lot of opinions. Yet, they never seem to have the answer. And oh, boy, they sure have a huge problem accepting constructive criticism. In addition, their social lives are so very dynamic -presentation here, conference there, drinks all around at the bar next door- that they barely have time to work and they are forced to pull all-nighters and complain about the ratio between workload and time left for sleep. Is that the future? I hope not.

Because of my personal observations, which paint a pretty black picture, I dare criticize Richard Bransom’s view on the advantages of inexperience. While he is right, he takes for granted the discipline factor and he believes that ambitions can create a sense of order and stimulate perseverance. Yet, it does not seem to be so in the majority of the known cases. Hence, the lack of any relevant experience might be a problem because of the dearth of one of its implied characteristics, which is none other but discipline. Indeed, experience might do little more but teach us discipline, including how to learn from our mistakes, which appears to be crucial. The lack of discipline in business is critical and it makes us underestimate situations and downplay problems. It could even cloud our minds to such an extent that we can take ourselves too seriously. With arrogance unleashed and rampant, chaos reigns. And with chaos come problems.

Lose your illusions

Now that I set the stage for further discussions, I will provide you with some remedies for arrogance. Whereas some of you might argue that being overconfident is a state of mind, which cannot be cured, I believe that each and every reasonable individual is willing to pursue his or her enlightened self-interests and avoid trouble. Therefore, read carefully my list of tips that can get you down to earth and help you deal with overconfidence and decide whether you want to make use of it, or you simply do not need to read it ‘cause nobody should tell ya what to do.

• Do not forget your place and do not take over tasks, which you are not qualified to carry out. It is somehow lamentable and even heart-breaking to single out the young entrepreneurs class and direct this particular piece of advice at it. Yet, people need to face the truth. It is completely understandable that startup founders are short of resources. It is perfectly normal to bootstrap and fill in several vacancies at a time. It is not very advisable however, to have too much on your entrepreneurial plate. Indeed, you cannot be the lead developer (unless you are actually a developer by trade), the marketer, the salesperson, the brand ambassador, the conference speaker, and the designer. If you are juggling more than three different roles, you are likely to get a multiple personality disorder. Moreover, you will not do a great job. Just make sure you know your place and you do not bite off more than you can chew. Not all of us can be hackers and founders at the same time. Hence, do not be afraid to ask for help and/or make some investments in the future of your company. You cannot handle it all, no matter how versatile and smart you are. In addition, time is your mortal enemy. In contrast, companies that can afford to hire pros, often end up hiring the wrong people. Indeed, a new cult is rising from the debris and wreckage surrounding befallen or injured industrial giants. Its name – the cult of mediocrity. Yet, I will talk about this disturbing trend some other time. The bottom line here is that if you have money, make sure you are hiring a good professional who knows what he or she is doing, not somebody who has 10+ years of experience of doing virtually old and jaded (by today’s standards) tasks for a multinational company;

• Learn to accept constructive criticism. This one goes out to everyone who is in business, but once again, stubborn young founders form the core of my moving target. Dear entrepreneurs, sometimes people are literally warning you against an imminent fiasco, but you are so blinded by the delusions of your own grandeur that you just do not see things straight. Lose this attitude or perish. There is no other way around. Alternatively, your rich counterparts, a.k.a. the corporations, also have a hard time dealing with constructive criticism. Yet, they can afford to pay a high price for their haughtiness and their utter lack of understanding of their consumer base;

• Learn to listen and respect other people’s opinion. Otherwise, others will treat you the same way you mess with them. It really will not hurt if you give up picking fights on Twitter and stop arguing with everybody else once in a while. Some young founders have the nasty habit of directly insulting others on the social media. Well, if you do not like what you are reading, press the unfollow button and carry on with your life. Presumably, you are running a business and you should focus on that;

• Never underestimate the role of marketing and the abilities of marketers. By now, we know exactly what’s wrong with corporate marketing and why big businesses have been struggling and failing. Yet, little do we know about the real reasons why seemingly cool startups have been dying like flies. I know why this is so. Indeed, the majority of startups simply do not care about marketing and they view it as a vestige of the corporate world. Furthermore, most of the young founders are more than convinced that having a Twitter account, a Google+ Profile/Page, and a Facebook page is all they need to have. Oh, and their website should be generated by [Tumblr][6] (nothing wrong with Tumblr, yet it is more of a platform for personal use rather than a business tool) and it should feature their photo as a background because it goes to show their artistic side. Well guys and gals, I hate to break it to you but this is not marketing. Neither does it do your business any good. Seriously.

• Do not be too cool for school. This, is something that both corporate giants and fledgling entrepreneurs often have in common. In a nutshell, they do not want to learn new things and they tend to turn a blind eye to certain changes. While the big brands and their CEOs are somehow afraid of restructuring and re-organizing their businesses as they harbor the secret hope that their consumer base is too big and they will be making profit anyway, some young founders just think they know it all. At the end, they all pay a high price for their arrogance;

• Do not be too social. Do not let your social life drain all your energy and prevent you from working on your products and/or services. Attending too many meetups, going to a lot of conferences, and signing up for every event in town will rob you of precious time you can spend on your immediate business tasks. While some claim that little ain’t enough, I dare argue that too much could be quite enough;

• Respect others and do not burn your bridges. You never know whose help you might need in the future. Once again, bear in mind that people will normally treat you the same way you mess with them!

• Make compromises. You cannot make an omelette without breaking the eggs. Hence, learn to negotiate and always aim to settle for a fair deal. Bear in mind that greed will get you nowhere. Moreover, a little is better than nothing;

• Do not take yourselves too seriously. Learn to live with the thought that we are all expandable. There is always somebody who is much better than we are in what we do. So, get used to it and do your best to improve your practices because competition is really stiff.

Well, this somehow does it for today. Whereas arrogance in business is a controversial subject that can be explored in further detail, I just tried to delineate the contours of this anti-business sentiment. I would be really happy if I have left you with some food for thought and I might even do a follow-up on this topic. Hence, this contribution will have an open end and I will refrain from drawing any conclusions. This is something you should do yourselves. You can share your opinion in the comment section below, pick a fight with us on Twitter (just joking), criticize us on Facebook, or praise us on Google+. Or any of the different combinations above. If you happen to have an iPhone or an iPad and you like the Rock Steady blog frequency, we have a surprise for you! You can download our great looking universal iOS Rock Steady app and interact with our content in a brand new way. Don’t take my word for it, give it a try yourselves! Oh well, time for me to say good bye. Yet, I want to share the topic I will be discussing in about a week. Remember those weird looking black and white squares you see on building walls? No, those are not secret codes. These are just the immensely popular QR codes. So, I will try to access their viability or the lack of such next time around. Meanwhile, stick around, subscribe to the feed that rocks, read the stuff we say, and have fun!