This is a scene from Iron Man 3. At the very end of the movie, after throwing his ARC reactor into the ocean, Tony Stark returns to the remains of his home and finds a little screwdriver. Tony says “You can take away my house, all my tricks and toys, but one thing you can’t take away… I am Iron Man!
Pic from IronMan 3 movie @Mavel Comics
The world has seen wars, natural disasters, destructions that can be felt, houses being destroyed, towns being burned and innocent civilians being killed by human greed for power, but never have we in the recent century known an enemy, which cannot be felt or seen by the naked eye!
‘Being brought to our knees’ – a phrase we have learnt since school has gained new meanings courtesy COVID. It has brought everything we thought as ‘essential’ to the working of our world to a complete halt! All the technology, AI and the mad scramble for progress that we have been after wasn’t able to warn us or even protect us from this tiny little Virus.
As humans, under pressure, we are programmed to stress, fear and danger; we either fight or flight. Our reptilian brain slips most of us into the flight mode (a survival tactic that helped species survive) and we call people who fight ‘Super Heroes’! Some of them are called ‘Entrepreneurs’ Rather than waiting to adapt to change, actively seeking out opportunities is what defines the attitude of an entrepreneur. It is built on the premise that no idea is a bad idea and the necessary agility to pivot umpteen number of times before arriving at the right alignment with the right path.
As an advisor for various start-ups, I do emphasise on the need to strategise & plan. However, as an entrepreneur, I know you shouldn’t also spend lot of time weighing your options or over thinking. While you do all your research to take critical decisions, there will be a time, the time to take the plunge. That time is crucial and shouldn't be spent re-reading research to be doubly sure. Psychologists call this situation ‘analysis paralysis’ where we end up thinking about potential consequences that are not yet happening thus creating certain imaginary outcomes — which eventually stops us from taking action. Some projects will fail, even steady economic models in the world came to a halt in March 2020. Plan A, plan B, Plan C; no plans are ever going to guarantee a 100 percent success, yet the entrepreneur seeks new opportunities. The entrepreneurial spirit is about moving on, jab, jab, jab, right hook as Gary V says or as boxers punch!
Crisis creates opportunities. Are we planning or attacking?
The worst of the lockdown is over or probably yet to come, but this crisis will end. Our future depends on how we plan and also on how we attack.
In the movie:
Steve Rogers: Stark, we need a plan of attack!
Tony Stark: I have a plan: attack!
And he jumps off a plane, with his suit on obviously.
The kind of superheroes that an entrepreneurs are – they will jump off a cliff and assemble an IronMan Suit (probably now Hazmuts) on their way down.
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