The Perfect Business
Imagine two locations on a map. One is today and the current state of your business. The other is the perfect business. The business you want lies somewhere in between.
The Perfect Business
“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?” Said Alice
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.
“I don't much care where—” said Alice.
“Then it doesn't matter which way you go,” said the Cat.
--“Alice in Wonderland”
Imagine two locations on a map. One is today and the current state of your business. The other is the perfect business. Chances are you never set out to build the perfect business, and I applaud your realism; But undoubtedly you do have goals for your business. In other words, a vision of the business you would like to have in the future. That business lies somewhere between those two points, on the route between your business today and perfection.
If a step towards your goal is a step towards the perfect business, having a vision of such provides the lodestar for your travels. A necessary beacon to guide the way on your journey to a great business and being a master of your craft.
Perfection – Decisions and Execution
Professional men’s golf, like many sports, has a few marquee events each season. Four different “majors”, tournaments whose winners immediately find their names etched in the history of the sport. The legends of the sport invariably have several major championships to their name.
Tom Watson is one of those legends. Having won eight major titles, the sixth most of all time. He also happens to be my favorite golfer of all-time. Why? Easy, he was my dad’s favorite golfer and what other reason does a young boy need to start “pulling for” a certain team or individual. What may have started from simple adoration of a parent would later be cemented though by character and craftsmanship on full display.
In 2009 Tom Watson found himself in a familiar spot. Standing in the fairway on the last hole of a major championship. Having birdied the previous hole, he was leading by one shot. The last contender left to complete his round, and on the verge of winning another major championship. All that stood between him and the title was hitting a solid second shot onto the green. A position from which he could easily close out the hole with two putts, a par, and the championship.
There was something unusual about this situation though, and it had caught the attention of golf fans around the world. The average age for winners of major golf tournaments is 32. As Tom Watson lined up for that 2nd shot into the 18th green; The five oldest players to ever win a Major prior were 48, 46, 46, 44, and 44 years old at the time of their victory. That day, Tom Watson was 59. 26 years removed from his last major championship, 11 years older than any prior major champion, and (for any math geeks) a staggering six standard deviations older that the average age of major tournament winners. To put it mildly, he would be an unexpected winner; And it would take something close to perfection to best a field of the world’s best (and much younger) golfers.
For the past 71 holes he had provided just that, the best four rounds of golf ever played by someone his age. One more shot stood between him and one of the most remarkable victories in the history of sports.
Prior to the shot he did what any professional golfer does. Consulted with his caddy, understood the distance to the hole, considered the wind, and the slopes of the green where the ball would land. A master of his craft considering all the variables in play. In the end, the club he selected, the direction of the shot were considered by most everyone to be the correct play. The shot itself was struck beautifully. "When that ball was in the air, I said, 'I like it,'" he would say after the round. The golf world held its breath as the ball flew through the air, and as Watson would later say “landed right where I wanted it to”.
A feeling of inevitable victory quickly spread through the air only to retreat equally as fast. The ball didn’t stop as expected, and groans could be heard from the crowd as it rolled through the green and left him with a very difficult third shot. A shot that would kick off a sequence of events that would have him taking five strokes to complete the hole, finishing the round in a tie with another golfer, and subsequently losing the tournament in a playoff.
The disappointment was palpable. Golf fan or not, Tom Watson was acting as a proxy for all of us on some level. Living out the idea that regardless of the situation, no matter how long the odds, maybe just maybe if we can put together the perfect effort, assembling all we have learned and all our experience, we can come out on top. That day he fell one shot short of showing us all that was indeed possible.
Taking the disappointment in stride. Tom would open his press conference after the tournament, to a quiet room and in front of solemn faced reporters with:
“This ain't a funeral, you know."
Years later I heard Tom Watson give an interview about that shot on the 18th hole, and new information came to light. He recounted that after the tournament he heard from several different spectators that as the ball hit the green, a gust of wind from the same direction blew through. A gust of wind that almost certainly propelled the ball a little farther than intended and turned a perfect decision and a perfect swing into an outcome that disappointed many.
"What I took away from the British Open at Turnberry, among a lot of different emotions, is a real hurt that I did not finish the job. That's the bottom line in any game you play. I hit two good shots on the 72nd hole, and it didn't work out.”
--Tom Watson
No one blames Tom Watson for being disappointed after the loss. Even the most “Zen” of monks on the highest of mountains would have felt some attachment to wanting to win. But I hope he takes solace in that he did all he could do. He made a great decision, he executed just as he wanted, if there is craftsmanship in golf this was it, and it may very well have been perfection.
We’re all entitled to our own definition of perfection. Here’s mine, and though I by no means claim it as original, it was among the most useful lessons learned on my journey of leading a business. Perfection isn’t the result. It’s the highest mark for the quality of your decisions and the performance of your execution. Craft at its finest. Everything else is outside of our control.
Businesses operate in the real world. A world of complexity and unknowable outside forces. Just like Tom Watson’s fateful 2nd shot that day, sometimes one’s perfect decision and execution is spoiled by circumstances beyond our grasp. Staying sane in those situations is the old “Serenity Prayer”…
"God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference."
A useful vision of “The Perfect Business” can’t be defined based on outcomes, but on the quality of decisions made by its leaders and the completeness to which those plans are executed by everyone involved. Making the best decisions we can, carrying them out to the best of our ability, that’s the best we can do. It may not result in the perfect business, but it certainly puts us on the path that leads to there.
More to come in part 2…