My last day at Olapic
Today is my last day at Olapic, the software company I started with my cofounders 10 years ago. I was lucky to share this journey with many talented people who gave it all. I poured my heart into it and, as a result, I feel a weird combination of sadness, guilt, happiness, and pride. If this feeling were a cocktail, I would name "Going for seconds": weirdly satisfying and regretful at the same time.
What now?
The short answer is: I don't know. But i'm drawn to exploring and doing things i haven't in the past. Maybe run a newsletter? ;-)
As I ponder on what i could write about, i am tempted to distill some of the learnings we got out of our experience, distill it into advice that may be useful to others. Enter Optimism without Hope. The perfect title for setting the expectations of the likely outcome of this newsletter: shutdown.
Will this exercise deliver the expected value? can these learnings be applied to the starting and growing of future companies? Can they bring wisdom and value to others? The answer is: probably not. But according to James March that should not stop me from doing it anyway.
We need the illusion of control
Who is James March? a professor at Stanford University that died a few years ago, he believed that the world is too complex for leaders to have a direct influence in the outcomes of the enterprises they manage. However, he also believed leaders have a specific purpose: we need to tell stories that glorify the human condition, even if those stories give a false sense of control.
James suggested that we should put our best effort forward, even if in the back of our minds we know it may not really accomplish what we want. Or as he puts it: Charge decisively, but with skepticism. We shall have optimism, but without hope.
Acting as if it can make a difference
As an engineer, i love frameworks, formulas and processes. They are deterministic and help instill reason and causality to seemingly random events. As such, I've lived in the idea that most of what we built at Olapic was driven by well thought out strategies/frameworks/plans (some of which i look forward to summarizing in this newsletter) and i like to think that these led to what some consider a successful outcome.
Thus, as i embark in this -seemingly futile- illusion with you, remember that it is highly unlikely my advice will lead to a specific outcome. But that should will not stop me, nor you, from trying it out.
Charge ahead!
Abz
Pau
PS: hi Abe! i think you are my only subscriber.