Thursday, February 09, 2012

Don't confuse passion with competence

A nice read from HBR - Scott speaks about something which I debate all the time when I'm advising VCs/ entrepreneurs.

http://blogs.hbr.org/anthony/2012/02/dont_confuse_passion_with_comp.html

For me equally interesting was a comment in there

"Speed does not matter if you are going in the wrong direction. Finding the right direction needs competence and increasing speed needs passion! However, both are necessary but not sufficient conditions for innovation. A bit of luck and divine intervention are the catalyzing ingredients."

I believe our's is a generation that has systematically underestimated luck - 80% of stuff I hear in business television these days makes me laugh and throw my hands up in the air. The kind of stuff Taleb had laughed about in his ingenious Black Swan.