Sticking My Fingers

A while ago I posted a story about the team and the leader taking over some of the tasks from the team members. This is what I do quite often. And some friends of mine, who are professional team managers advise me not to do it. This conventional / professional wisdom may be true for slow corporate behemoths. But when you are a startup aiming high to conquer the world, you have to violate the rules. You have to race like the Formula 1 team to win.

The Formula 1 analogy is not that fa stretched. I recommend the 2013 movie Rush to every startup leader. Especially the scene when Niki Lauda enters the BRM garage and overnight revolutionizes their car, gaining the unbelievable 2.3 seconds advantage in race conditions:

[the mechanics shows Niki his car, a red and white Marlboro sponsored car]
Niki Lauda: How much does she weigh?
BRM Mechanic: Six hundred kilos.
Niki Lauda: But that's crazy. Why so heavy?
BRM Mechanic: It's a V12 engine. That lump normally weighs a hundred and ninety kilos on its own.
Niki Lauda: Okay. What horse power are you getting? Four hundred and ninety?
BRM Mechanic: No, four-fifty.
Niki Lauda: Well, that not enough, it needs to be five hundred. And the engine needs to be twenty kilo lighter.
BRM Mechanic: We already tried.
Niki Lauda: Tried what?
BRM Mechanic: Everything. We replaced the entire exhaust system, it didn't make a difference.
Niki Lauda: Are you using magnesium parts?
[the mechanic doesn't respond realizing that he hadn't considered this; Niki then proceeds to make the mechanics work all night to strip and rebuild the car to his specifications]
Niki Lauda: Now the engine blocks, they need mounting and fixing, please. Strip them out also. When you've done that, we have to look at the aerodynamics. Front and rear end.
[after working all night, Niki and the mechanics step out of the workshop in the morning the mechanics look exhausted]
Niki Lauda: Okay, thank you. Good night.

This is what personally I love doing and have been doing all the time. And will always be doing. The team deserves to be the winning team. Helping them making it to the top is the right way to go!