Amsterdam! The city that started it all for Alexander and Streamline! In this episode, we discuss how being an entrepreneur is more than having an idea. That it takes a real understanding of the challenges, you will face and what you will need to have inside to prosper.
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Nothing big ever gets done alone. Teams are the nucleus of everyday life. Our families. Our jobs. Our relationships. They are living testaments to the collective power of people coming together with a purpose. Though we live it every day, we seldom think about what makes a team work.
Central to every great team is a mutual understanding of what’s at stake. The premise. It’s not some meta idea. It’s as raw and clear as knowing a lack of food leads to starvation. It serves as a rallying cry and benchmark for all decisions. This kind of understanding does not develop overnight. It comes through constant conversation, practice, and reinforcement. When achieved, teams gain full-court vision and can build a shorthand that accelerates their work. My partners and I have been together for almost two decades. During that time, we have developed a frankness towards what’s at stake. We look at things for what they are, not what we hope they might be. This leads us to make decisions that succeed big or fail big. It mitigates analysis paralysis and accelerates decision-making.
Teamwork is a full contact sport and requires direct feedback. It stings. It hurts. It burns. People are resilient, and the best teams are as well. Communicating with the fewest words possible and still being clear and respectful is key. What’s surprising is it’s not only the communicator that matters but also the receiver. Exceptional teams set the baseline of respect and always consider it when engaged. With this baseline, any perceived slights, friction, or time wasters are avoided. In the end, when teams are direct with each other, alignment happens.
At Streamline Studios, finding common denominators amongst 31 nationalities isn’t easy. It forces us into adopting a direct communication style. We strip away decor in favor of utility, bringing forward an easy to understand style for all. No one needs to guess what another person means. It’s as clear as day.Straightforward no frills communication is not for everyone. Experience has showed us how great a tool it is for weeding out those who don’t belong.Great teams learn and have relentless ambition. They go from one challenge to the next, pausing for a moment to survey what worked and what didn’t. They find key learnings and apply it to the next challenge. They never get to the final destination because they set new goals as they achieve old ones. Their ambitions are never quenched, only satisfied for a moment then they’re off looking for the next level, the next challenge, the next goal.
People are gob smacked when they learn Streamline Studios is 16 years old. Once their initial shock has worn-off, they ask when will it be enough? As a young entrepreneur, I may have responded with a common exit strategy retort. As I get older, I know it’s when we decide we’ve had enough. I can say from my heart it isn’t anytime soon.
The odds of us surviving as a business were low. Game developers have short life spans. I pin our longevity on learning and understanding the nature of teamwork early on in our history. It allowed us to remain flexible, absorb critical hits, and maximize opportunities. I know firsthand that any team applying the learning above will get further than those that don’t.
The romanticism placed behind startups these days makes it easy to believe in overnight success, but anyone whose built a successful enterprise will tell you otherwise. For most it's an unforgiving grind that spits out the best of us while those who make it through each business stage attest to rarefied air that making it another year brings. At one point you look around and realize nearly everyone in your cohort didn't make it. At those points it's important to reflect and remember what it took to get to where you're at.
I was fortunate that the good people at Google Startup Grind asked me to share my journey with a group of entrepreneurs. Reflecting back on the journey was refreshing as well as eye opening. You can see the talk in its entirety below and I've summed it up here: It's been a hell of a lot of work that at times was scary, crazy, and stressful- I don't really remember those days well as much as the emotions. What outweighs it all has been the sense of purpose, accomplishment, and wonder that has come with a life lived on my own terms.