Is Success Worth Half Your Spleen?

This time last year, on the way to edit our film, I was involved in a serious car accident. With a brace around my neck and an excruciating catheter, the doctor removed half my spleen. What I learnt making the film was that learning is a contact sport.

Kevin Roberts, the CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi told me that its not enough to world class, you have to be ‘world changing.’ During the making of the film I was mugged, pick-pocketed, had the aforementioned car accident, ignored my friends and family and aged a significant number of dog years. Very few of us truly understand the cost that comes with trying to change something. I do now.

Was it worth it? Well, a team of four made a transatlantic, feature length documentary on a shoe string, a film with Nobel Prize Winners, Celebrity CEOs and rocket scientists, a film that we hope changes business forever.

What happened after the film is even more interesting. We launched a new company called The Outside View. The film pointed out that there was a gap between what science knows and business does. The new company set out to solve that problem.

If making a film is difficult, making a product is harder. Hiring a great team is hard too. But now we’ve got the smartest people, working on the toughest problems.

Being a good entrepreneur is often about being a good storyteller. You have to paint an image of what the world will become. If my film was a call to arms, the company is an arms race. And our case the arms are algorithms, making machines work harder so people can work smarter.

Some people have asked me whether I’d make another film. The answer is always yes. Just don’t ask me for my kidney.

This article was syndicated from Business 2 Community: Is Success Worth Half Your Spleen?

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