Why It’s Time to Start Talking Principles

I learned this week that if I stick to the right level of advice, I’m still relevant.

There is something unfair that happens to each of us as we age. At some point in time, we are judged irrelevant to the generations that follow. This unfairness is first experienced as parents. Years ago when giving advice to my teenager, I was met with, “You don’t get it. The world is different now. What happened to you when you were my age isn’t relevant in today’s world.”

When I was a teenager I remember saying this to my parents. But one day, after starting my career, marriage, and kids, I realized my parents had some terrific advice. Not only did they understand the issues I was dealing with, they lived them. They got it. They were relevant. 

The same with business

As my business career progressed and I added years and experience, people sought my advice. They saw I could help them, and they wanted to meet.

But now I am at a new stage in life, a more advanced age. But I still remember those days when I was in demand. When the “movers and shakers” in our community knew me and wanted to meet with me. The days when they believed I had a lot to offer. The days when I was asked to speak. The days when I was asked to lead community organizations. The days when I was deemed relevant in our startup community. 

And then it happened, seemingly overnight.

My mentor and friend, Jim Porter, is now eighty-five years old. (Click here to see the interview I did with him recently.) He’s been in leadership in the worldwide tech community for sixty years. He participated in every stage of tech industry development. And he did it as a worker, manager, SVP, and CEO. In other words, he’s seen it all.

At fifty-eight years old, he was asked to join the Silicon Valley Bank Board of Directors. Located in San Francisco, this bank was the first to create partnerships with brand name Venture Capitalists who wanted a bit more leverage in their deals. SVB was the first to take the startup’s private company stock as collateral for the loan as long as a credible VC was invested.

This put Jim at the epic center of startup activity. He advised the bank, VCs, and notable startup entrepreneurs on successful strategies and on building management teams that execute.

Then one day, seventeen years into his tenure, the SVB Chairman approached Jim and said, “It is time you move on.” 

Jim told me, “This was one of the hardest messages for me to hear. It felt like I was judged irrelevant. Like my business advice was no longer useful. It was painful.”

Recently I read this quote:

"It's almost always better to learn from peers who are 2 years ahead of you than mentors who are 20 years ahead of you. Life evolves and most insights get outdated."

 I thought, “There it is again. And now they are using the term outdated. But is this true?”

I decided to get an opinion from Mike, a mentor of mine, who is twenty years younger than I am. He is in the middle of a very successful career. He started a company a few years ago and just recently sold it to a public company. I call him a mentor because, even though he is two decades younger, he always has some great advice and a thoughtful perspective. In a word, Mike has the gift of wisdom.

Here is what Mike said about this quote.

I disagree. They are not mutually exclusive.

People two years ahead give different advice. More tactical, maybe more applicable to a current pressing situation. 

People who are farther ahead have great wisdom to share. It can be more broadly applicable. More strategic than tactical.

I think of some wisdom that my wife’s uncle shared with me at a wedding when I was in my early 20s. It still resonates with me.

I think of long-term money wisdom, around debt and investing, that older people gave me when I was younger. Now that I’m 49, I see the value of that wisdom, compounded over years. 

Younger people are just starting to make mistakes with their family and life balance. Older advisers have made them already, or have seen them, and can comment on where you end up if you choose the wrong path.

Younger advisers are pretty sure of themselves, pretty confident, and can be convincing with bad advice. Older advisers have been humbled by life.

Younger advisers can help you to navigate the next rung on the ladder, since they just climbed over it. Older advisers can help you figure out if you’re climbing the right ladder.

So both are valuable but in different ways.

I think he nailed it.

Here’s what I learned from thinking about this topic of advice and staying relevant.

At my age, it is important to stick to sharing principles, not strategies, when asked for advice. The strategies and tactics change with time. Today’s business environment is different. What happened to me and how I chose to handle an issue in the past may not be relevant today. In fact, I believe our values, our laws, our methods, and our tools have all changed. But the issues are still the same. 

And to address issues, you need principles. And principles come with experience. And experience comes with age. And with age comes wisdom.

If I want to stay relevant, I believe I need to stick to sharing principles. Advising people how to do something is for peers. Explaining the principle to follow in addressing an issue is wisdom.

I want to continue to be relevant. And to do this, I need to act my age and share principles. 

As a gift to you, my reader, here are some of my business principles:

1. Focus - Less is more

2. Cash - Goes out fast and comes in slow

3. Stay close to your customer

4. Technology - Simple, intuitive, useful

5. Execution - Setting goals and hitting them creates discipline

6. Selling - You figure it, then hire salespeople

7. Raising money - Ignite the greed gene in the investor

8. Startup purpose - Solve a problem someone will pay to solve

9. Target market - Sell to people who have money

10. Communication - Good news travels fast; bad news travels even faster

11. Profit - If you can’t make money doing it, you will never be sustainable

12. People - Hire slow, fire fast