Sketchplanations

Explaining one thing a week in a sketch

Starting a Company - Reid Hoffman quote illustration: a brave soul leaps off a tall coastal cliff with only a backpack for survival. On their way down, they quickly assemble a plane from the components in the backpack and pilot it away from the beckoning sea - just in time! Written in the sky is the quote: "Starting a Company is like jumping off a cliff and assembling a plane on the way down."

Starting a company

Starting a company isn't easy. Reid Hoffman, cofounder of LinkedIn, says:

"Starting a company is like jumping off a cliff and assembling the plane on the way down."

But just because it's hard doesn't mean you shouldn't do it. I remember receiving some advice that you shouldn't wait around for the right time to have children as you'll never find it. I suspect starting a company is similar. It reminds me of this lovely quote I have taken to heart from Hugh Laurie:

"It's a terrible thing, I think, in life to wait until you're ready. I have this feeling now that actually no one is ever ready to do anything. There is almost no such thing as ready. There is only now. And you may as well do it now. Generally speaking, now is as good a time as any."

As far as I could tell, unconsciously or separately, Reid's version relates to Ray Bradbury's earlier advice of jumping off a cliff and building your wings on the way down.

This quote, modified to a lovely two-page spread, features with a number of others in my book Big Ideas Little Pictures.

Keep exploring

OODA Loop explained: military strategist John Boyd's framework for action in conflict is shown as a closed loop cycle of Orient, Decide, Act, Observe and back to the beginning. The cycle also applies to business when you reconsider the points on the cycle as Frame, Strategize, Test, Gather.
Feedback fear illustration: A poor soul goes through all sorts of internal doubts about what they might have done wrong and how they might have failed when someone gives a friendly suggestion to ask what others think
Affordance illustration: one person effortlessly pushes open a door with a flat plate while a victim of poor design struggles to pull open a door with a bar handle and a discreet push sign
The tomato slicing test to see if you need to sharpen your knife. A knife running over the surface of a tomato followed by a disaster needing sharpening or some perfect precise slices
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