Want to be Successful? Get Paranoid!

Guiding Motto : Only the paranoid company survives
Author : Andrew Grove
 Year : 1996
Purpose : To keep you in position for unrelenting business success

Are you paranoid, when it comes to business? You should be. Prudent paranoia in business is good for you. It drives you, keeps you on your toes, and makes you work harder for your goals. Paranoid leaders often lead to innovation and stay on top of their game through the tests of time, competition, and market drifts.

All in all, paranoia makes you perform better.

The key, however, is utilizing that paranoia to generate novel ideas. If you are a paranoid leader, you will never be resting on laurels.

In the business life cycle – especially in the early phases – there are peaks and valleys. But if you stick it out, you ultimately reach a point where things get stable and start looking pretty good.

Are you making good money? Are you able to pay the bills without feeling the weight of a burden? And your bank statement – does it let you sleep well at night? Well, this is the point where many leaders and entrepreneurs lose their edge; simply because they get complacent.

In business, complacency or self-satisfaction is akin to death by a thousand cuts. It doesn’t necessarily mean that you are out of business, but a lot of times it is the end of your business growth. It is the end of what caused your business to be great and profit-generating.

This also happens when a founder of the company or business – who was the catalyst and had a healthy amount of paranoia – leaves.

Good examples of paranoid leaders include Starbucks with Howard Schultz and Apple with Steve Jobs. In both cases, they both retired or left, and the company got satisfied and sputtered. However, on their return, that drive, that edge, that feeling of “we will get passed up” was back.

So, are you, too, an entrepreneur or a leader in a position to influence the company’s direction? If this is so, a little paranoia is what you need to embrace.

I have jotted down 5 examples of how being paranoid in a good way can make a difference.

1. Stay Ahead of the Game

Be paranoid about how your rivals are trying to overpower you. Keep one eye on what they are up to and one eye on the future. You need to be vigilant to stay as many steps ahead of them as you can.

Once you have hitched up your paranoia, it’s high time to ascertain that your office culture is ready for the challenge of staying at the top.

Small businesses or companies often stand a better chance of promoting creativity and innovation to launch a product in the market. Hence, big companies or businesses must determine a way to stay quick-witted.

Are you in a senior position? Your job is to empower your team then. However, if you are lower down in a company strangled by red tape, it is time to take risks.

Give individuals – who are creative and talented – the power of decision-making. This requires daring managers or paranoid leaders to break bad policies in order to do what is needed.

2. Have a Plan for Economic Recessions

Economies and markets change. The past recessions have taught that to most of us. However, many tend to forget it. So, it is sensible to be a little dubious and have a plan for downturns. Having a healthy paranoia that the subsequent economic downturn is just around the corner enables you to fuel your hustle.

3. Be Careful with the Spending

If you think things are set in stone, you are wrong. They can change in the blink of an eye. It only takes one smart move for your competitors to get ahead of you. So, it’s okay to be paranoid about your business and to avoid extra spending where you can. Simply put, if your business is doing great, don’t spend like it is going to last forever. Ask most lottery winners how that turns out.

4. Challenge Yourself

Paranoid leaders always have a healthy paranoia that they don’t have all that they require to reach their goals or to succeed, which is yet another thing that keeps them on track.

This kind of paranoia will make you seek out and strive for things you need to attain in order to easily reach your goals. Try to channel constant growth on all levels, even if things seem okay without this extra effort.

When it comes to growing, never quit or stop. Never think of it as “extra effort.” Always remember, complacency is your enemy which acts as an obstacle in your way to success.

Success breeds complacency – Andy Grove

5. Resist Failures

The healthy paranoia of failure – this one is my favorite. I know you have been hearing it time and again, from a hundred mouths, that you must embrace your failures and that you must learn from your falls. And this is what makes failures okay.

But let’s get real. Who likes to fail?! Although, you cannot go through life being scared of it happening to you. So, it is important to accept that it will happen sooner or later. If you have a healthy paranoia about failing, it will push you to take action to prevent it as much as possible.

This paranoia will make you do things that you don’t want to do, but at the back of your mind, you know you will sink if you don’t. It will make you do some extra planning for your business success. Additionally, it will help you to comprehend your strengths and weaknesses better and to stay truthful to yourself.

Examples of Paranoid Companies

Grove, in 1997, asserted in his book that success leads to complacency which in turn leads to failure. Consequently, organizations should be paranoid as to withstand by either being too paranoid about their competition or by unsettling their own markets.

Intel had a healthy dose of what Grove claimed to be essential for success – paranoia – under his leadership.

Microsoft also had that dose of Intel’s paranoia under its CEO Bill Gates as Gates assumed that his company was always less than two years away from bankruptcy.

Similarly, Nintendo has been immensely paranoid since its inception. In fact, when it comes to its cash balance, this Japanese Video Game Company is so paranoid that it could actually operate, for more than 35 years, at $250mn annual deficit, if required. The company’s CEO is paranoid about their competitors that are quite larger than they are, including Sony as well as Microsoft.

Yet another example of a paranoid company – Netflix – uses paranoia to its benefits. Its streaming business was formed as to cannibalize the company’s cash cow –DVD rental business – ages before competitors could do so. Additionally, its founder was paranoid that this business would not be sustainable in the long run.

Final Thoughts

Developing a sense of paranoia – a prudent one – is crucial to business success. So, if you want to be successful and be at the top of the game, get paranoid.