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The Entrepreneur As Systems Thinker: Getting Down to Basics

Written by: Michael Gerber

Article Overview: In my last article, I discussed the unique quality that makes world class entrepreneurs different than simply owners of businesses. I said that true entrepreneurs are Systems Thinkers. I then went on to define that peculiar quality of systems thinking that true entrepreneurs are blessed with. (If you have not read that article, please do so. It will provide you with a platform of understanding to better relate to this article: Getting Down to Basics of Systems Thinking.)

The Entrepreneur As Systems Thinker: Getting Down to Basics

In my last article, I discussed the unique quality that makes world class entrepreneurs different than simply owners of businesses. I said that true entrepreneurs are Systems Thinkers. I then went on to define that peculiar quality of systems thinking that true entrepreneurs are blessed with. (If you have not read that article, please do so. It will provide you with a platform of understanding to better relate to this article: Getting Down to Basics of Systems Thinking.)

Systems Thinking is holistic thinking. It puts the pragmatic and the idealistic, the ends and the means, the process and the methods and the people and the tools and the results and the metrics of all of that, under one glass, under one vision, under one perspective, under one entire scan of interest, to make sense out of fragments that by themselves make sense, but only to a limited degree.

Systems Thinking sees things in context with other things, contingent and non-contingent things, intuitively, in a seeming leap that makes no sense on the face of it, but which, when you understand what drives that intuition, that seemingly fanciful leap, that putting together of sometimes unseen and unanticipated pieces, makes absolute, brilliant and wonderful miraculous sense.

A mouthful? Yes, but only at first glance.

One very successful man once said to me, “Michael, no matter how successful I have been, I could only be so one step at a time, by doing one thing, and then doing another thing, and then another, Step One, Step Two, Step Three. While you, on the other hand,” he said to me, his passion for the subject obviously building up, “You seem to jump immediately to the end without seeming to take any of the steps which are so necessary to me. Frankly,” he said, obviously meaning it, “you drive me crazy! What is it that makes it possible for you to do that? ”

I laughed at his obvious frustration, not unkindly, but because I knew what he was saying to be true.

That my seeming “genius” for seeing the un-seeable so clearly was really only a result of my passionate interest in seeing that way. I felt strongly that the only way he could develop that part of himself (if he really wanted to, that is) was to become as passionately interested in doing so as I was, while, at the same time, giving up his intense need, for a time at least, to being so damned successful at everything he did.

In short, he had to nurture the part of himself which wanted to create something for no reason whatsoever other than because it interested him, as opposed to because it furthered his interest.

That’s what the entrepreneur in us does, as opposed to the Technician. The entrepreneur invents stuff, the technician does stuff. Too much doing makes Jack a dull boy.

But, there’s more to it than just that.

The entrepreneur sees things telescopically; the technician sees things microscopically.

Both are necessary, of course, but each view of the world provides a completely different relationship with the world.

The Microscopic and the Telescopic

Think about it for a moment. Look through a microscope. What do you see? You see a microscopic universe, you drill down, deeper and deeper into the smallest of things, into things as they are exactly right now. You look into space, the space that makes up things.

Now, look through a telescope. What do you see? You see a universe, expanding into the past and the present. You see worlds within worlds within worlds. You’re looking both at the present and at the past…you’re looking both at space and at time.

Interestingly, the vast expanse of space and time can easily look like what you see through a microscope. Isn’t that amazing?

It’s just that the one, the telescopic, is so much more expansive than the microscopic.

The entrepreneurial is so much more expansive than the technician.

The entrepreneur looks at the future, the present and the past all as one thing.

That is what systems thinking enables one to do.

As below, so above.

Worlds within worlds within worlds.

The magic of it, the unimaginable magic of it.

That’s what happens when you look into a telescope.

Of course, that’s what happens when you look into a microscope, too.

But, it’s the context of all that which is so fascinating. It’s the whole of it that’s so intriguing. It’s what Amazon.com, or Visa, or Starbucks, or Walmart, or Google must have looked like at the moment of vision, at the moment of inspiration, at the moment of seeing the biggest of things.

More on that next time.

Let me know what you think.

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Article Tags: degree systems, entrepreneur, first glance, fragments, frustration, intuition, leap, metrics, mouthful, passion, peculiar quality, perspective, step at a time, successful man, systems thinker, thinkers, true entrepreneurs



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