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Lesson #4: In Order to Get Ahead, You Must Take the Lead

Article Overview: “It's not like you just sit back and eventually it's going to happen,” says Case. “It's going to happen when people make it happen, and you have to kind of have a strategy that is pragmatic at one level, so you can hang in for the long run, but proactive in another level, so you can actually try to accelerate the pace that it's going to take for something to take off.”

Lesson #4: In Order to Get Ahead, You Must Take the Lead

“It's not like you just sit back and eventually it's going to happen,” says Case. “It's going to happen when people make it happen, and you have to kind of have a strategy that is pragmatic at one level, so you can hang in for the long run, but proactive in another level, so you can actually try to accelerate the pace that it's going to take for something to take off.”

Case understood that in order for him to both stand out and become a success, he would have to be willing to take risks and innovate to place himself at the front of the pack – especially in the rapidly changing industry in which he found himself. “If you believe that some day it's going to happen, some day it probably will happen,” says Case. “You just have to make sure you're there when it's happening, and ideally you're at the front of the parade, and the principle beneficiary of when it happens, but it's not a kind of thing where you just sort of sit back and wait. The actions you take really help influence the pace at which it gets adopted.”

From the very first day that he began advocating the essential nature of built-in modems in computers, Case has been an innovator and has been willing to take the risks he knew would push him ahead. “It took us a while, but if we hadn't done that I don't know where we'd be today,” says Case. “But I know we would not be the kind of interactive society we are today, because that was a major kind of breakthrough.”

Case became an evangelist for built-in modems at a time when no other company was preaching along those lines. “We took the lead in doing that,” he says. “That’s true in any new, innovative area. Somebody needs to step up and take the lead, and ultimately they end up benefiting, and others end up benefiting as well.”

The process of growing AOL was a slow one; it took nine years to get one million subscribers. However, in the next nine years, that one million grew to over 35 million. It was only after much innovation and risk-taking that such growth could occur. The merger with Time Warner was not a risk-free one, nor was it a guaranteed success. Nevertheless, Case felt that it was a gamble worth taking. Time Warner would allow AOL to become a leader in broadband Internet connectivity, and becoming a leader was what Case was all about.

And, for Case, it was precisely that innovation that made his job fun. “When I think about AOL, I really think of it as being a 20-year journey,” he says. “Even though the second 10 years were when the fame and fortune set in, it was the first 10 years, the pioneering phase, that I enjoyed more and thought I was better at.”

Today, Case carries his quest for innovation with his new company, Revolution. “I continue to be hopeful that we'll be able to lead the pack, just as we did in the days when AOL emerged and led the pack in a new direction,” he says. “I'm hopeful this company will be able to do that as well.”

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Article Tags: beneficiary, breakthrough, essential nature, evangelist, innovation, innovator, interactive society, million subscribers, modems, nine years, one million, pace, principle, proactive, risk, take the lead



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