I thought I was swimming fast. Suddenly, with my peripheral vision, I noticed someone passing me on the left. A skinny fifteen-year-old kid was moving in the water like a seal. I had to kick into turbo mode to still finish first. Although over a long distance, this swimmer would have beaten me. All else being equal, strength, endurance, and experience give the upper hand. But when a person dives into a different environment, all their advantages melt away.
Similarly, a powerlifter might bench press 440 pounds, but on the tatami, he might lose to a nerd who has earned his Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt. American rock climber Alex Honnold, famous for his solo ascents of Big Walls, showed a modest result on the grip strength dynamometer. Yet, besides Alex, no one in the world can ascend solo (!) without safety ropes (!!) on El Capitan rock. The thing is, expertise is usually specific to a narrow domain and doesn't transfer well to another.
In this sense, serial entrepreneurship intrigues me as a phenomenon. A person creates a series of successful companies in unrelated industries. Clearly, it's not about knowing the nuances, accumulated experience, or having connections. I believe serial entrepreneurs don't just build a business each time, but extract a meta-pattern. It's a kind of business equivalent of biblical knowledge of good and evil, the ability to distinguish the essential from the secondary, function from form.
Sincerely yours,
-Alexander
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