Who Do You Have to Become to Win?
“Live by the Sword, Die by the Sword”
My father used to say this a lot. I thought I understood it as a warning about the echoes of violent behavior.
If you willfully choose violence, you are choosing to “live by the sword” …and you are telling the universe through your actions that you are willing to “die by the sword.”
The more lives I’ve seen unfold, the more generally it seems to apply.
"Live by the lawsuit, die by the lawsuit."
"Live by the boom, die by the bust."
"Live by the attention, die by the attention."
It is a reminder to consider carefully which games you choose to play, and which arenas you choose to enter.
Because some arenas require seizing a sword to survive.
I know an entrepreneur who immigrated to the USA from India as a boy. He became quite successful.
He wondered aloud if he could also “make it” in developing countries with looser rules, less infrastructure, more wild west. As he described the challenges that he expected, I said the question was not whether he could win… but who he would have to become to win?
Would he be willing to bribe local politicians?
Would he burn down competitors’ storehouses?
Would he choose to threaten or commit violence against other entrepreneurs to protect his market?
What if someone else had done it first?
What if they had done it to him five times?
Would he quit, or adapt to the game on the field?
How lucky he was, I reminded him, to be in a place that provided a context where he could win and maintain his morals.
There are good people doing bad things all over the world, simply because their culture or laws fail to provide a context for ethical wealth creation. They are torn between morality and victory.
It’s important we never forget the innovations and infrastructure that form the walls where we live every day. We often take for granted the fragile boundary that separates us from the cruel and bloody laws of the jungle.
Rule of law.
Right to personal property.
Reasonable justice system.
Dozens more systems that become invisible until they break down.
So, when choosing where to live, where to compete, who to work with…
Ask yourself: “Who would I have to become to win?”
For me personally, those answers are:
“To write books that millions of readers love and recommend, I must devote a surprising amount of time to the craft. I must hold an extremely high bar for quality, spend more effort on my product, and always focus on being helpful to the reader above all else.”
“To be a successful early-stage investor, I have to be a steadfast, honest, generous, and helpful early believer in founders with breakthrough technology. I have to be forward-thinking, open-minded, collaborative, supportive, patient, and positive.”
Neither of those require unreasonable sacrifices to who I need to be to succeed as a husband, father, son, and human.
These are trade-offs that I'm clear and comfortable with, within myself.