THE MESSY MIDDLE

The Messy middle

Scot Belsky

One of the greatest joys of life is finding the seed of an idea, and seeing it fructify. The start is full of heady excitement, anticipation and exhilaration and the end is beautiful like a podium finish, where we are showered by applause and looked up as someone who was able to follow his or her dreams to achieve success. Between these two extremes lies the middle, the grey zone where our resilience, character and fortitude is tested regularly. Here we are navigating through the unchartered seas without knowing for sure that the path we have chosen is the right one. Author Scott Belsky has given us a gem of a book that gives us insight into this very area of any project that we may carry out in our lives. With his hands-on experience in the field of entrepreneurship, this book is filled with advice for all of us as we face the various uncertainties that come our way, be it starting a new phase in life, writing a book, running a marathon etc the applications of what he writes are endless. The language is lucid and easy to grasp and this makes for a wonderful read, at any stage of life.

The notion of linear progress is dispelled in the early part of the book where we are introduced to the highs and lows that accompany us in this middle zone. This is the volatile phase where every small advance forces us to face a new shortcoming. Our conviction and your intuition is our only compass. The process of creating something from nothing is very aptly divided into four parts they are Start, Endure, Optimize and Finish. The journey in the middle is one of endurance and optimization where the author asks us to endure the troughs and optimize our crests in our journey. The three parts of the book are Endurance, Optimization and finally The Last mile. The chapters are an easy read and full of little insights that make you realise that whatever anguish you might be going through; someone has been through that before and survived.

The first part is about Endurance where we are advised to invest in the process, not on the outcome. Though we are advised to celebrate incremental victories however small they may be, we are also warned against the sugar coating of our progress. A distanced perspective that relishes negative feedback is desired. We should be a sceptical investor for our project where we look for our weakness as well as our strengths. Financing is a goal for weak companies whereas it’s a tactic for strong companies; this is explained in great detail. There is a hint of stoic philosophy by the author where we are asked to commit to long term suffering which at times is as important as passion and ingenuity. One of the most interesting chapters talks about corporate obesity where some of the indicators of the same have been given to us. Examples of the same are when in an organisation, who reports to whom is more important than how things are to be done, time is spent in figuring out how to circumvent other teams rather than everyone getting aligned etc. The biggest causality of this obesity is that the progress comes to a crawl. My personal favourite was where the importance of self-awareness as a sustainable competitive advantage is elucidated. During times of success our sense peaks and complicacy seeps in, ego takes centre stage likewise during our difficult periods our superpowers turn against us and we become overly self-critical. Both these are undesirable and during such times self-awareness of our strengths and limitations along with a balanced perspective helps us endure our predicament. As human beings, we have a tendency to try and fit in and this very thing stifles innovation, we are asked to embrace being weird and being on the fringe. As the author says that it's in the fringe only where the future is made. Enduring is like a marathon where we need to get ready for a long haul, with no easy path. We are advised not to look for the easy path as that will lead us to an ordinary place, with and look for playing a long game, which is difficult to play and most bountiful to win.

If we need to endure our setbacks the second part goes on to tell us how to optimize our small victories, our team, our product and ourselves. To make a more effective team the importance of being resourceful, and placing a premium over initiative over experience is explained in detail. Personally, I found the chapter on team friction extremely engaging. Creation is a contact sport and if we are avoiding conflict for the sake of maintaining peace we are avoiding bold outcomes. Creativity is born in struggle and we must be willing to tolerate its residue. In fact, if sparks are flying in your team then it is a definite sign of progress. Talent in a team need to be grafted and some of the measures for the same are explained in detail. One of them is the concept of psychological safety where every team member feels free to share his ideas without the fear of being admonished. The merits of slow cooking are explained by the author, where he has said that time adds value to a creative work that cannot be replicated by any other way. We are asked to always have some slow-cooked projects in our lives that we need to keep coming to checking them every now and then and making subtle changes over a long time. The author has placed a premium on conviction over consensus. At times we need to forget what we know or what seems correct and go with our gut feeling. We are asked to We should respect our conviction as it has developed over our life’s experiences, and it will take us where consensus never could.

We are then given some concepts for product optimization. Here at the outset, we are asked to identify what we are willing to be bad at? Our competitive advantage is not only what are our strengths but also the admission of our weakness. It's choosing as to what we have to let go to work on our strengths and devote more time and resources to them. Keeping our product simple is something that has been reiterated time and again, to this effect we need to make a subtraction for every addition to our product. Working on the first impression of our product is a continuous process, as the author calls it the first-mile experience of our product. The consumers are lazy-vain-selfish in that order and to acquire a new one we need to go past these attributes. We need to create a hook for them to want our product. Be it a book cover, a headline or the way products are displayed in a store etc. This principle holds good for all kinds of products online and offline. We are encouraged to look for problems that need solving for that we need to have empathy with the consumer, not only passion with our own ideas. Every product has a story and an ethos that needs to be worked upon, this is what makes anyone buy the product beyond its utility. The need to hit the streets for generating sales is explained in a very candid manner when we are asked to be at times less cerebral but more proactive about our product. Though being a first in a market has its advantages, it is better to aspire to be best in the market to ensure long term returns on your product.

The author then goes on to give us some ideas regarding optimizing ourselves, where one of the first things he brings out is the importance of planning along with having the flexibility to change those plans. Every engagement of our time should add value to our long term goals are in terms of a skill or a relationship. Towards the same, at times we need to learn the craft of saying no and choosing wisely. We are encouraged to ignore the sunk costs of any project that is not giving us the desired returns, it is said that it is better to cut your finger in time than cutting your hand later. Though the time, resources, the reputation that we spend on a project makes is cling to it at times in a fast-changing environment holding on will cause us a greater loss. All advice is context-driven and to blindly follow a piece of advice even from an expert is a sure way of failing. The best advice does not instruct, it provokes. Being humble and grounded is reiterated time and again especially when sharing credit with your team. Too much attention or focus at times makes us have a myopic view of what is happening around us, here we need to move away and see the larger picture. There are moments when we need to switch off completely to get a clearer perspective.

The last part deals with the finish which the author describes as a different sport. Just like we fear failure closer to our goals we get scared of success. We are asked to reposition our goals as far as we can to enable continuous improvement and learning. We all will like to have a fairy tale ending but at times we will find ourselves on the wrong side of history, this point is brought about in the chapter of ending gracefully. I found this one of the best pieces of advice in this book. Never let your anger, shame or anxiety prevent you from bowing down with dignity if you handle it well failure is merely a step in the right direction. We as human beings tend to identify ourselves with our work and titles, but we need to remember that we are not our work we are much more, and letting go of our work to become what we are, our values, our curiosities are tools for what comes next. Time is precious and we value the same as we grow older, family, friends, relationships all need investment in terms of time and us living a full life.