“He had the power of most great inventors – the ability to visualize the parts and how they functioned together.” – Robert Greene, Mastery
This was a comment about Henry Ford’s brilliance in putting together all the pieces to make Ford work. Everything from the mechanical design to the business structure, relationships and assembly line needed to be brought together for building early automobiles. It is a truly great American story of the entrepreneurial journey.
While our world has changed dramatically in the technological sense, the mindset of approaching complexity and mastering different domains is critical. The opportunity today is not for the person who can merely learn how to operate social media or use the next neat product from Apple. Everyone has access to these tools. Technology is not so special anymore.
No, the value lies behind all the technology into the strategy for how to put the pieces together and see how they can work together to solve complex problems. Such talent is scarce, yet if you want to make an impact, find those crevices amidst all the noise. Where you see complexity, there is great opportunity for the person who will commit to mastering the various parts of a system and then implementing a system that works together as a whole in a novel and compelling way.
A lot of the problems I work with clients on are not necessarily articulated. Yet, they are felt. It’s a frequent experience and I think it comes from the nature of the overwhelming complexities we face.
Part of the challenge today is to avoid distractions and commoditization. Take on the hard problems that require deep mastery and understanding. It is not much different than Henry Ford’s challenge. He saw new possibilities and worked deep within the guts of the problems of his time. He created extremely high value as a result of such commitment and focus.
If you think about your path, are you finding high impact places or just going after the easy stuff?
