Hope is not a strategy… but it is the starting point
Written by: Brad Pedersen & Vijay Krishnan
Vijay fondly remembers his days in CPG & retail marketing as he worked with incredibly smart people. Brad has memories of working with some of the most iconic and prolific entertainment brands in the world, including: Disney, Universal and Warner Brothers.
Through our collective experience we worked on growing great brands, leveraging robust advertising budgets, engaging with top-shelf agencies and selling through world class retailers. While the experience was awesome, we also have less-than-fond memories of having to review poor business results with the senior executives of these key stakeholders.
We had intended for the product launches to be successful and had set out strategies based on what were believed to be solid, innovative, data-informed & growth-oriented plans. When it was clear that we had fallen short of expectations, our response needed to be equally thoughtful, taking into account the learnings and then applying the necessary course corrections.
At no point in a monthly results review would anyone on our team have been caught dead saying one of the following:
“well, it didn’t go as we hoped”
“sales are down but we’re hoping for the best”
“It's been a bad month but hopefully next month will be better”
If we had made one of these statements, the response would have been: “Hope is not a strategy! Come back when you have something clear and tangible!”
Fair enough. Hope is not a strategy.
But it is the precursor required for setting your strategy.
What do we mean?
Hope may not be an effective strategy but it is an incredibly powerful motivator. And it is a much-preferred option to its arch-rival; the ominously effective (but ultimately destructive) motivator of fear.
Fear is a natural response when we face uncertainty in our lives, however it is not optimal. It creates a scarcity mentality that drives reactionary decisions that rarely serve our long term well being.
Said another way, approaching the challenges and opportunities of our daily life with a starting point of hope instead of fear, will make all the difference in our outcomes.
This is not about positive thinking, but a choice to approach every day, every opportunity and every set-back; in which we can choose a response fueled by hope.
In chapter 5 of StartUp Santa we discuss the idea and the importance of hope and we use the Etch-Sketch as a reference point. We propose that the real magic of Etch-a-Sketch is that no matter the mess we have created in the past, there is always hope inspired by the opportunity to start again. For the sake of this conversation, let’s use this working definition of hope: Imagining a better future that instills belief that we can in turn create it.
Everything in our lives is created twice; first in our minds and then through consistent effort it is manifested into reality. It all starts with engaging our imagination for creating a better future.
Hope cannot exist in the past; that is regret. Hope cannot exist in the present; that is experience. Hope is only something that can be built into the future, as we use this lens of abundance, to project through our minds eye, the life we wish to create.
Hope enters every interaction with a conviction that something good can come out of the event, conversation or meeting.
Fear enters every interaction with suspicion (what are they really about?), insecurity (I’m not good enough) or doubt (this will likely not go well).
Hope responds to setbacks with resiliency, knowing that challenges are part of the journey and failing doesn’t mean “I’m a failure”.
Seeing a future that is worse, is what produces the anxiety that fuels a scarcity belief system that leads to poor decisions or stalling us through indecision.
Hope is a willingness to see a better future but on its own is not enough. That is why hope is the precursor to the strategy. If we hope but lack the drive to act, then we are merely creating a future that is a fantasy. Hope must be followed by courage which is a willingness to take action despite the uncertainty. The courage to act is the only way to see our hopes manifest into reality as we start to do the work to lay the building blocks that create the better future we imagined.
Fear over-values what you presently have in your hands and undervalues what you’ll gain by investing it.
Hope is a willingness to pass on the immediate good opportunity in order to wait and endure to build the great idea that you believe you were destined to reveal.
Fear can impulsively say yes because it believes that opportunities are scarce and time is running out.
AND
Hope knows that your story is part of a much bigger story that is being Divinely interwoven with the lives of others. Therefore nothing is meaningless, lost or wasted.
Fear has a short-term, here-and-now mindset, triggering our reptilian instincts that are designed to protect you from physical, mental and emotional harm.
To be sure, fear is an excellent source of fuel. It can keep you working hard, working late and plunging headlong into what’s next. But over the long-term fear will end up using you as fuel. It will stress your relationships, your body, your spirit and your mind. It will make you leap when you should stay still. It will hold you back when you should go all in. It will isolate you from the people you need most.
Ask yourself, in what ways and what areas of my life am I motivated by fear:
Fear of rejection.
Fear of not having enough.
Fear of being irrelevant.
Fear of being alone.
Fear of missing out.
Fear of __________.
None of us are immune to this. And it’s impossible to rid ourselves completely of it.
But Naming our fears is the beginning of neutralizing them.
And uprooting the weeds of fear makes space for hope to be planted in its place. Until Next time.
Fully,
