From Ally To Accomplice
Image by Warren Griffiths from Pixabay
When you’re growing a business, it’s no surprise that you need friends who will advocate for you. I’ve relied on more than my fair share over the last 15 years as I’ve built the business - friends both outside the firm as well as within it - and they’ve been essential to the success that we’ve achieved.
A subset of these friends have gone above and beyond - they’ve truly put themselves out there for us. These are individuals who’ve (certainly in our early days) put their reputations on the line, or gone out of their way to help the firm, or given materially of their precious time to further our goals.
In other words, they were far more than allies, they were accomplices.
Seth Godin wrote about this idea in a recent blog post, and his article referenced an excellent Medium piece by Willie L Jackson. Jackson discussed this notion in the context of race relations, something of far more consequence than building a business, but the points he made were fascinating and relevant in many other change contexts, both social and economic.
His thinking behind the “accomplice” label is that, while it historically has a negative connotation, the reality is that in the right context, disruption of the status quo is necessary to achieve difficult objectives:
“Disruption isn’t easy or polite...the work of being an accomplice might cost you something. Perhaps your comfort or social standing, or maybe even your safety. Real advocacy and comfort rarely go hand in hand.
Of course, I recognize that this isn’t a blog about race relations, and I certainly am not trying to equate the risks one takes on in that important context with the risks we take on in economic endeavors. But the issue of gaining not just alignment but more meaningful commitment in the pursuit of a specific goal (through this idea of accomplices) is a compelling one.
In order to achieve our goals, we need more accomplices. And the more accomplices, the greater the odds of success. (Still not guaranteed, but certainly materially greater.)
Of course, accomplices don’t come easy. They’re about more than the economic: just becoming the next billion dollar company doesn’t mean you’ve created more accomplices, but pursuing real change (in the right context) does.
You can’t buy accomplices, not in the real sense. There has to be an underlying commitment, something that incents them to give of themselves both mentally and physically.
Fundamentally, they have to buy into the mission, that there is a broader sense of purpose.
They have to believe that a future with your goal is far better than one without it.
They have to believe that those leading the effort are committed to the cause, that they truly believe in it and will give their all in its pursuit.
For accomplices, the odds of success are irrelevant. The work is done despite the odds.
It’s an idea worth thinking through for our own goals. Certainly, it’s good to have allies, but do we have accomplices?
