Lately, I’ve been reading a lot more about a military strategist by the name of John Boyd. In the practical sense, Boyd is famous for his work in designing the F-15 and F-16 Air Force fighter jets. On the theoretical side, Boyd developed something called the OODA Loop which has become an interesting approach of analyzing strategic decisions.
At the moment, I’m slowly working through Robert Coram’s biography of Boyd and an interesting theme has emerged. Consistently, despite being a raving madman in many respects, he has been saved by two constants: superiors who believed in what he was doing and associates that could do what he wouldn’t or couldn’t. Boyd obviously had his demons throughout his life – yet he found people to balance and protect him.
This has interesting applications to how to start and staff a startup as well. In each case, Boyd was consistent in who he found to back him up:
- they put up with his foibles
- they believed in what he was pursuing
- they were masters at their craft – and used it to challenge him to go deeper, wider and farther
- they believed that the establishment needs an anti-establishment
- they navigated the establishment on his behalf
On the darker side, Boyd’s antics and vindictive ways would have crippled him otherwise. From people I talk to who know of him, they rank him in the same world as Oppenheimer, Nash and Einstein. Hyper-analytical thinkers who almost had their psyche torn apart by their craft.
For the hyper-aggressive upstart CEO – the question should be asked – who holds you back, holds you down and forces you into a wall? Who protects you from yourself and from getting ruined by the establishment? Who believes in your work and suffers your worst faults?
Find those people and devote everything to them. Unless you nourish them, you’ll lose them – and yourself soon after.