Introduction
Customers of iStill and students of the iStill Distilling University often tell me that I should share my stories and experiences with the wider craft distilling world, as iStill’s success may serve as inspiration – or at least education – to others. We published a few articles on the iStill Way of Doing Things already. Today it is time to get some personal learnings across. How was Odin’s Journey as an inventor and entrepreneur? What did he learn and can others benefit from me sharing that experience? Well, fingers crossed that there is a benefit. Please let me know, for the positive and the negative, so that I can manage my time (and your time!) intelligently!
Not a young man anymore
Close to a decade ago, the company and me, well, we were pretty much completely intertwined. Odin was iStill and iStill was Odin. To the extend that I was involved in pretty much anything and everything. I remember how abruptly that needed to change, when I learned I wasn’t a young man anymore …
What happened? It was late at night, and I felt compelled to assemble an iStill 2000 in Hal2 of our iStill Technology Center. It probably had some innovations that I wanted to see in action. Something like that, I do not remember the specifics.
What I do remember is that, as I tried to put the column cooler in place, standing with the tip of my toes on the boiler plate, barely able to reach the top of the column … I fell and so did the column cooler, that I was trying to push in its place. As I smashed onto the concrete floor, over two and a half meters lower, on my back, the column cooler crashed beside me, just inches from my head.
I moved my toes and they worked. I then moved my legs and they worked a-okay. Fingers, hands, and arms? Dito. Apart from some bruises, I wasn’t hurt. But landing on your back and with a very bulky and heavy column cooler crashing into the floor (from 4 1/2 meters up) just beside my head, I learned two things:
- I am getting too old for this assembly shit;
- I need to start to learn how to delegate.
Stretching yourself … and learning how to unstretch
To prevent myself from killing myself, and to allow my company iStill to grow, I needed to learn how to delegate. You cannot do everything by yourself. First of all, everybody has their specialties and preferences. Secondly, we are not all created equal.
I was pretty darn good at inventing and innovating, did a decent job as a boss, and had enough commercial and marketing savvy to position iStill as the so-called “Angry Young Men” of the distilling industry. But I am not handy and I suck at administrative tasks like Finance and Contracts and Human Resource Management.
By doing everything myself (or trying to, at least), as iStill grew, I was becoming the handbrake to my own organization! The fall down the iStill 2000 taught me that I needed more engineers that I could delegate tasks to that I sucked at to begin with. As my head cleared up, I also realized that we needed someone to help with Legal and HR tasks, and a Financial Controller.
As I overstretched myself trying to build out iStill, I learned to delegate, and I loved it! I could focus on innovations and on iStill’s commercial activities. The company grew in numbers, in innovations, and in stature. As I became less overstretched, the things that were kept under my responsibility became easier to attend to. And I imagine that my engineers and assembly workers loved that I wasn’t trying to do their job any longer.
Everybody happier? For sure. And that was much needed to achieve the next growth phase, where we quickly changed from market challenger to market leader. Or maybe I should reframe that: the next growth phase might have only been possible BECAUSE I learned how to delegate and empower others in responsibilities that had previously been mine!
Entangling yourself … and learning how to untangle
A second problem or challenge that I faced was that, with us becoming market leaders, people were pushing for more adult behavior from our end. They wanted me to stop bashing the status-quo. They wanted iStill to become “mainstream” and “behave responsibly and moderately, as can be expected from the industry leader”.
As we grew from a challenging to a leading role in the craft distilling industry, the “Angry Young Men” approach seemed not to work that well anymore. A more professional, toned down communication style was asked for. And even though, yes, rationally I got this, and I even tried to comply for some time, it made my live miserable. I felt handcuffed and constrained. For quite some time I was not happy.
How to resolve this? The new, expected role of iStill towards the greater industry on the one hand, and my somewhat antagonistic personality on the other hand? I needed to do a lot of thinking on how to position iStill … and I needed to do a lot of soul-searching to define my own role.
The break-through came when I realized what triggers my sometimes antagonistic behavior. I easily become angry, when I see injustice or unfairness. And as there was a lot of that going on in the craft distilling industry, and there was a lot to improve, the more confrontational traits of my character served a goal. My character, as in Odin’s character. But not necessarily iStills character and positioning!
Understanding this, I could untangle myself from iStill. My company iStill claimed its scientific, professional, and objective position in the industry. A more mature stance, just as was asked from us. I could remain my good old self, and still had a cause to fight for: not just leading iStill, but leading the industry by empowering it and calling out what’s wrong. I could maintain my Robin Hood righteousness and my Peter Pan playfulness, AND be of worth to both my company and (hopefully, but you need to be the judge of that) the industry. Most importantly: I could be me and in the beginning and the end, that’s all I have to give. No role-playing for me. No fake images. What you see is what you get & what you hear is what you deserve, whether you like it or not. Dutch directness on steroids.
Another challenge ahead?
As iStill grows, the tasks that I perform grow as well. As iStill’s CEO I am responsible for strategy and management. As CMO I am responsible for commerce and marketing. As CIO I am responsible for our innovation agenda. I once started out with an invention, so as an innovator. I then had to set up an organization to market that invention, which made me an entrepreneur. I know that as my company grows, it needs more professional management skills. As we grow further, a more director-like management style may even be needed …
See what’s happening again? I am overstretching myself once more. Like butter scraped over too much bread. Not for a few months now. Probably closer to a few years already. As my commercial and managerial responsibilities grow, where do I find the time and peace of mind to innovate? And who am I, when I could choose freely? The innovator, the entrepreneur, the manager, or the director? And what prevents me from choosing freely? Well, what iStill needs of course. But iStill needs all of it, so what do I want? What is my happy place?
I see myself foremost as an inventor and innovator. It is what gives me the most energy and it is what I am best at. I also like the entrepreneurial part of bringing a new invention to market. I am not sure I like my generic management or commercial tasks so much. I am pretty sure I won’t be a good director.
There you have it. Times they are a-changing. Once more I need to unstretch myself. If only I could find the sales force and the managers, that are innovative, consultative, and creative enough to take iStill to the next level. Where I found the people to help unstretch me before with great ease, somehow, the current entanglement that I am in seems harder to solve. So … if you have any ideas, please do not hesitate and let me know. I am available via Odin@iStillmail.com.
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