Lesson from the universe

In December last year, I took up such a difficult and sometimes ungrateful job as managing a technical team in a startup. It is clear that in a CTO startup you face a lot of different problems and often not even your own.

There is an opinion that the universe often gives us different signs, helps. I recently received an unexpected, but very timely offer to read a book about Apples. I have a business trip from Irkutsk to both our capitals, the flight takes 6 hours. I armed myself with my old iPad, which I had previously written down a book written by Evgeny Butman - “First-person Retail” and was extremely surprised.



I haven’t come across such fascinating fiction for a long time. While still on the plane, I read a book and sketched a number of critical comments for myself in the development strategy of my company. From the text I received a very powerful positive charge of energy, which drove me to work and work hard. These six hours of travel were definitely the most productive ones lately: I read one and a half books (two and a half before the end of the day), worked on the company's strategic development plan and described in detail a number of new risks. Most importantly, I made a number of important decisions on working with staff. To all this, I was pushed by the apple story of Eugene.
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It is clear that Retail never develops software, Butman’s book is dedicated to business, or rather the side about which software developers shouldn’t think in principle. But if you manage people or if you are in a startup then you have to think about: expenses, partners, hiring staff, offices and much more. By the way, right at that moment as I write these lines, sitting in the northern capital of our country, my partner signs an agreement for the lease of our first office in Irkutsk.

The office for our small but proud technical team was chosen by me. Now, after reading the book of Eugene, in which much attention is paid to offices, I think I made the right choice. In any case, the book forced me from a different angle to look at the place in which my soldiers would work.

Butman's book is similar to the story of how kayakers overcome the steepest route possible in nature. I already had experience in a startup and it is almost the same. Both of these situations most of all unite stories of relations with people. The book is just riddled with bloody wars for the staff. And from each story you can make a lot of useful thoughts, for example:

“People listened, nodded their heads, and after the summer vacation, four of them left. With a staff of fourteen, it was a disaster ... ... I was not used to separating work from personal relationships. These were people from my team, Andrei brought three, one - me. And I thought that on their part it was a mean betrayal, a stab in the back. Then, over the years, I changed my point of view on such things. This is work, this is business. People are part of the job. There are no friends, and therefore there is no betrayal. People are free to choose. I did not like their choice, but it was my problems ... ... Low wages, hard labor for the sake of the future - that's what I chose for myself, and it so happened that for them. In the end, inviting people to my startup, I had to take care of paying them a market salary, and no one had to go into my problems. ”

I think everyone will find something he should think about after the story has passed.

The book also contains many stories about relations with foreign employees. For example, one story opened my eyes to a relationship with an employee at a previous job. Immediately after the plane landed, I called my receiver as the team leader and a good friend, and within five minutes I explained why I should fire the diva he inherited. It was the following passage that played the role of the serpentine with me:

“Why didn't we see him right away? The fact is that at that time we still felt and behaved exactly like the provincials who came to the big city - “Europe, ah, Europe”. As soon as they got rid of this piety and began to treat the staff as workers, rather than bearers of European culture, everything fell into place. People are different everywhere - there are better, there is worse. By human qualities, by professional. From those who are worse, we must get rid of those who are better - to promote, motivate and help them. ”

In general, there are scattered throughout the book very useful management lessons that one would have to go through and learn from many managers in companies I know. For example, I was impressed by the story with David and how he solved the problem of delays in payments (this story can be safely applied to the delay in terms and increasing the transparency of relations with customers):

“David again taught me an invaluable lesson. For several weeks from the beginning of the crisis, every day since the morning he wrote a brief report on what is happening in Russia and in our company, and sent it to suppliers. At first, these reports looked frightening, but the main thing was not their content, but that we were not hiding. This set us off favorably against the general background, when many companies simply stopped paying and “went to the bottom”. Hiding from lenders and licking their wounds in silence is a completely natural desire when disaster strikes. But the only right strategic decision is to keep in constant contact with suppliers and let them know that, although there is no money now, you are making every effort so that they do not remain in favor. Then in the next crisis situation suppliers will trust you. ”

And the following story is just a role model for how meetings should be held:

The work of our group was clearly organized, there was a work plan, we met twice a week, each question was assigned to one of us, and the documents prepared for discussion were sent in advance. Everyone had their own point of view, we were completely different in character, mindset and temperament, and disputes often arose. The work was exhausting. Something we did not finish, lacked experience and knowledge. But in sum, it was a very high-quality and necessary work, she completed the transformation of the company.

Unfortunately, many meetings turn into stupid many hours, due to poor preparation of participants. It’s so hard to live with those whom a colleague of mine called duers.

The book pays a lot of attention to relationships with partners, personal relationships and reputation. I tried on a phrase from the book “The main thing a businessman has is his reputation” and was pleased with the result. A developer, like a businessman, also has a reputation and, under the hour, her value is no less important than technical skills. After the phrase “I was in Russia and saw the eyes of these people,” he said. “And I propose to believe them.” I think that I did the right thing when I went on a business trip to build personal relationships with future consultants and partners.

I warmly recommend reading the book by Evgeny Butman - “First-person Retail” from the publishing house Mann, Ivanov and Ferber to all those who are faced with creating a startup or running their own business. I got great pleasure from reading this book and it is possible to sort out the lessons that I learned in the process of reading this book, but I’ll dwell on the last one. After reading the phrase “Venya can do everything, but cannot do everything at once,” I laughed for a long time, since it was very similar to me, and it was at that moment that I decided to hire one more person for the team. Now I will finish publishing this post and dial its number to arrange a meeting.