Do You Need An Adversary to Succeed?

The other night I was having drinks with a friend who has started a thriving business in DC. Our conversation meandered  touching upon business and just general catch-up. But somewhere in the middle they asked me, "Do you have an adversary?" I kind of brushed it off but the question has stuck with me since. "Do I?" And if I do, who is it and what purpose do they serve?

My friend likes having an adversary. In fact, in round about terms, they not only like to have one, they like to crush and destroy them. They take joy and delight in seeing a competitor fail and fall by the way side. Perhaps this is their secret motivator. Who knows. It's certainly working for them.

It does make sense, some of the best work in history has been produced by competing rivals who peak at the same time and push each other to new heights. Borg and McEnroe. Frasier and Ali. Google and Apple. Apple and Samsung. Stars Wars vs Star Trek. The entire super hero film and comic book industrial complex. Obama va Boehner, and so on and so on.  We live in a world of rivalry. Arch-rivals in fact. Two of my favorite artists, Warhol and Basquiat mockingly played up the whole rivalry concept as only artists could in a show they did together during the height of the '80s New York pop-art explosion.

Otherwise known as the “Fire Vs. Ice”, the Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe rivalry consists of a total of 14 matches through the careers of these two athletes.

So I thought about it. Yes. ArtJamz definitely has rivals. When my friend asked me who my biggest rival was, I said LivingSocial. How could they not be? They are a half billion dollar VC-funded 800 pound gorilla with millions of dollars of city tax breaks that decided to replicate our business model and do painting and sipping classes. Did LivingSocial's move into our area cause some consternation? Sure. Did I send out a biting press release the same day they launched their competing product? Sure did.  Did I talk shit about them with my friends? Guilty. But, aren't there 5 or 6 other paint and sip businesses that have popped up since we started? Yes, there are. Aren't they also also rivals? And what about that person, and that blogger, and that vendor, and so on and so on. You see, having a rival can be a slippery slope. Emotion can be a motivator, but it can also be a hinderance.

The drive to destroy your competition at all costs! is ultimately wrought in anger and negativity. An entrepreneur should be motivated by creating the best possible product, business or service possible. They should be injected with the adrenaline rush of ownership by the over-powering need to create something amazing and profitable, not by reveling in the havoc of an adversary. They should be driven to engage their audience or customer better each day, providing them with something they haven't experienced before, not be obsessed with what their competition is doing. Business owners should get out of bed in the morning wanting to create a better place for the staff that depend on them -- not devising Machiavellian plans for the competition's demise.

Poster originally produced by Tony Shafrazi Gallery, New York and Bruno Bischofberger Gallery, Zurich in 1985. Advertising an exhibition of the paintings produced collaboratively by Andy Warhol (1928-87) and Jean Michel Basquiat (1960-88). 

Don't get me wrong, I'm fiercely competitive. I played soccer my whole life, captain of the high school soccer team, etc. I could not stand losing. It hurt. Viscerally. When I'd lose, I wouldn't eat or talk to anyone for hours. I hated the teams that beat us. I still hate losing, but as I matured, I learned to channel my competitive fire. Like Tai Chi, I try to use the force of the punch from our opponent against them.  Or like Bruce Lee said, "be like water."

In the case of LivingSocial -- I could have turned my feelings to hate, and sat there and stewed, or even threw in the towel. But instead, I turned the other cheek and looked on the bright side. In fact, I should probably write them a thank you letter. Business has boomed since they started doing all our marketing and promotion for us for free. Nothing like having your competitor send out millions of emails promoting the same business concept as yours, but then only be open a few hours a week to actually do it. It also provided the inertia for us to evolve our business model. As soon as LivingSocial started doing by-appointment only paint and sip classes, we changed from the same structured art class model to an open-7-days a week public art studio and lounge, where you can walk-in any time. I used the energy from their punch to morph into something they aren't. Which means that all those people who see a LivingSocial paint and sip invite and decide they want to go, but can't fit into the tightly scheduled windows provided -- or go and want to go again, but LivingSocial isn't running "a deal" -- they Yelp! or google "Paint and Sip", "Paint Party, or "Paint and Drink", what have you, and ArtJamz comes up,  because we decided to take our battle to the SEO front. LivingSocial also undercut all our competitors, who had been living off daily deals, essentially, doing us a  huge favor by marginalizing our competition. They also have lots of market research about what customers will pay to paint and drink, so when they set their price at $29, we added multiple options for customers that range from $22 to $40. Recently, we launched an ArtJamz Academy where we replicated their business model by offering crowdsourced art classes. So, you see, you can have a rival, but don't let negativity, anger or schadenfreude drive you. In the end, I wish LivingSocial well. I hope they create more jobs for the city. But the most satisfying and motivating thing you can do is stay two steps ahead of your competition by focusing on being the best you can be. Because the thing a rival fears the most, is a rival who has no fear.

5 Steps to Better Focus

An entrepreneur's perpetual to-do list can be daunting.  In fact, you could probably spend an entire day just creating and prioritizing to-do lists. For me, this process manifests itself in the daily prioritization of tasks. In order to make sure that I spend as little time as possible deciding "what to do" instead of actually "doing," I've – through trial and error – developed a vetting process and come up with some guideposts to help me weed through the never-ending morass of tasks in order to bring it from its scarily overwhelming hypothetical state of "need to do" and into the wonderfully satisfying state of "done."

Sometimes your daily tasks can look as frenetic and disjointed as this communal painting that over 100 people contributed to over 3 hours at our ArtJamz Underground Studio opening in Crystal City. (Photo credit: ArtJamz, 2013)

WILL IT DRIVE REVENUE
One of the positives of bootstrapping / self-financing is that you don't have millions of dollars of angel or VC money to blow through – your choices are constrained and focused because of budgetary limitations. Of course, one of the negatives about bootstrapping / self-financing is also that you don't have millions of dollars of angel or VC money to blow through. This means that your decisions should be driven by the bottom line. Essentially, if I'm looking at 10 things to do, I ask myself "which project is going to lead to revenue generation the fastest?" Cash flow is king ... or queen.  One draw back is that this question tends to get applied mostly to short-term operational must-haves, such as inventory and restocking of merchandise. For example, we serve wine at the studio and sell merchandise. If we run out of those, we don't make money selling wine and merchandise. So, the task "restock wine and merchandise inventory" fits squarely under the "will it drive revenue" filter and gets bumped up the "importance totem."

IS IT LUXURY OR NECESSITY?
I applied this mantra liberally during two recent build-outs of ArtJamz studios, but it applies to the daily operations of the business as well. Just ask yourself, is this something we "really need" or  can we get by with our current system / situation? Yes, we needed a refrigerator for our wine. Could we use a $4,000 bar back refrigerator? Sure. Did we need one that expensive to get done what we needed to get done. Nope. We found a solution for $400 that works just fine. We could have easily spent $250K on the new ArtJamz studio build-out. We spent about $30K. People love it. We're doing just fine. Using the criteria, I have kicked a few large projects down the road a bit – one such project is the implementation of a new POS system.  We need a new POS system, badly. One that is cloud-based and scalable across multiple franchises and enables us to operate like restaurant, with assigned tables, tabs, tipping, etc. etc. I found one I like. Took about a year of research. But it's very expensive and will take about two months to fully integrate with our staff as well as back-end accounting system. Our current POS – a $29 app – works just fine for now.  We will eventually switch over in the next few months, but there were other "will it drive revenue" issues I decided to focus on first as I deemed the new POS as a "luxury" instead of a "necessity," which it will eventually become.

IS SOMETHING DUE?
If you're growing and expanding chances are you are spending a lot of money and you have multiple vendors to whom you owe money – inventory, legal, accounting, taxes, etc. etc. The list is never-ending. Obviously, if something is due, it gets put on the top of the to-do totem. Stay current. Stay in the green. Pay your bills and handle your responsibilities on time.

IS IT SOMETHING YOUR TEAM  IS PINING FOR? 
One of the many traps a business owner can fall into is retreating into hubris and amusing you know what's best for your business 24/7. In the case of ArtJamz, where we have a retail location that I'm not at 80% of the time, it's important to listen to your team who are in the trenches and operating the location and interacting with your brand and customers on a daily basis. When they come to you and say "We really need to XYZ." Listen to them. Evaluative. And then get it done and implemented.

WILL IT LAY THE SEEDS FOR FUTURE GROWTH?
The "will it drive revenue" question above tends to get hijacked by immediate short-term needs. But, an entrepreneur solely focused on the operations of the here and now will lose the big picture and slip when it comes to strategic thinking. Long term projects that create additional revenue streams also fit under the "will it drive revenue" question and shouldn't be drown out by immediate needs. I'm currently spending a lot of time building two new revenue generating initiatives: The ArtJamz Academy – an online crowdsourced art-class marketplace and our Artz Bazaar – a more digital way to sell art. Both will generate new revenue for us. I deemed the time, resources and investment needed to incubate and develop these additional revenue streams as crucial to our long-term survival. So, these projects get bumped up the important totem pole too.

Whatever system works for you is up to you. But don't get overwhelmed by your task list. Find a consistent way to evaluate what's important and then allocate a set and consistent amount of time each week getting them done. Trust me, all will get done if you keep chipping away at it. And remember, it won't get done in one day, so, for goodness sake, save time for having fun and kicking it with your loved ones and friends – this should always be at the top of the list!