W.H.Y (not) me
AtomicIdeas from 'Backable'
Why are some people able to achieve so much, while others who are equally talented (or even more) struggle?
Why are some startups (with not so great ideas) able to raise soooo much money while the ones with real stuff struggle?
Why is it that the one who isn’t the most deserving gets promotion while the ones who worked hard / showed results..failed to?
Well, the answer to all this lies (and this is an eye opener) is in backability.
The key to success in business isn’t talent, connections, or ideas – it’s the ability to persuade people to take a chance on your ideas.
Sharing AtomicIdeas from the book: Backable by Suneel Gupta (Harvard University).
Drawing lessons from hundreds of the world’s biggest thinkers, Suneel shows how to craft a story that will make your ideas irresistible, and teaches techniques that will help you overcome objections, close deals, and bring your ideas to life.
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No one makes it alone. But there’s a reason why some people can get investors or bosses to believe in them while others cannot. And that reason has little to do with experience, pedigree or a polished business plan. Backable people seem to have a hidden quality that inspires others to take action. We often chalk this up to natural talent or charisma . . . either you have ‘it’ or you don’t.
But that’s not true.
AtomicIdea 1: Convince Yourself First
What moves people isn’t charisma, but conviction. Backable people earnestly believe in what they’re saying, and they simply let that belief shine through whatever style feels most natural.
If you don’t truly believe in what you’re saying, there is no slide fancy enough, no hand gesture compelling enough, to save you. If you want to convince others, you must convince yourself first.
As you’re figuring out whether an idea fits you, ask yourself if you’ve fallen in love with it. And as you dig in deeper, keep checking in with your elephant, paying attention to whether new challenges are fueling you or depleting you.
AtomicIdea: Cast A Central Character
Bill Gates once showed his daughter a video of a young girl with polio. The girl was holding a pair of dilapidated wooden crutches and trying to walk down a dirt road. After watching the video, his daughter turned to her father and said, “Well, what did you do?”
Gates told his daughter his foundation was eradicating polio. He shared the numbers with her—the hundreds of millions of dollars they were deploying, the goals they’d set, and the metrics they’d already hit, including shrinking the number of cases in Nigeria from seven hundred per year to fewer than thirty. “No, no, no,” interrupted Gates’s daughter. She pointed back to the video and asked, “What did you do for her?”
Great storytellers don’t just focus on a central character, but also a central reader. Instead of addressing millions of people, they’ll imagine they’re sharing the story with one specific person.
AtomicIdea: Find An Earned Secret
How you arrive at an idea can be as important and meaningful as the idea itself.
So when you’re sharing the insight that led you to your idea, ask yourself, Is this google-able? If it is, then take your research deeper. Set up interviews with experts, take a trip, join a nonprofit that’s relevant to your idea.
The craziest ideas—the ones that are most likely to change the world—are often the hardest ones to sell. But that doesn’t mean we stop trying. We build the skills and invest the energy to make ourselves backable. And we realize, as all backable people eventually do, that when you get dismissed, there is always another room.
If you’re interested in cryptocurrency, don’t just read a report; set up an account and start making trades. If you’re interested in autonomous vehicles, don’t just subscribe to a newsletter; visit a factory, drive a car.
Go beyond Google. That’s where the secrets lie.
AtomicIdea: Make It Feel Inevitable
Daniel Kahneman won a Nobel Prize for helping the world understand how we make decisions. One of the key underpinnings of Kahneman’s contribution is what scientists call “loss aversion,” which suggests that, psychologically, the pain of losing is twice as powerful as the pleasure of gaining. Kahneman points out that most people will “reject a gamble in which they might lose $20, unless they are offered more than $40 if they win.
If the fear of betting on the wrong idea is twice as powerful as the pleasure of betting on the right idea, then we can’t neutralize the fear of losing with the pleasure of winning. We can only neutralize the fear of losing with…the fear of losing.
Enter FOMO, the fear of missing out. For backers, the only thing equally powerful to missing is…missing out. No one wants to be the Hollywood studio that passed on Star Wars, the university that rejected Albert Einstein, or the executive at Blockbuster who passed on buying Netflix for $50 million.
AtomicIdea: Flip Outsiders To Insiders
Most great political speeches include three stories: the “story of me,” “the story of you,” and most important, the “story of us”—what happens when we join forces and work together.
Backable people highlight three steps to showing backers they are a pivotal part of your plan.
First, identify a gap in your idea that relates directly to a strength in your backer. A gap could be anything from needing to figure out the right marketing strategy to hiring the right people.
Second, learn as much as possible before your meeting. Although you will be highlighting a gap, you still want to be able to engage your backer with the right questions and discussion. This takes preparation.
Finally, when you meet with your backer, be sure to directly express the “story of us.” Explain how your gap and their strength fit together to unlock your idea. Don’t assume that they’ll connect the dots. Even if they do, it’s worth them knowing that you understand why you two fit well together.
All the best!
-Ashish.