The loneliness of command:
where direction is born
Oggi parliamo dell’essere imprenditore e di alcuni aspetti che talvolta ti fanno apparire come un extraterrestre, uno strano, nel suo mondo, comunque fuori dall’ordinario: c’è un paradosso nel fare impresa che nessuno ti spiega nei libri o ai convegni:
the more your company grows, the more you surround yourself with extraordinary people , and the deeper your loneliness becomes. But it is a necessary solitude.
It is the solitude of synthesis.
It's not that the entrepreneur changes or no longer wants to be involved in the team's daily and operational problems; they simply no longer have the ability, and if they are called upon to do so, it means those issues are no longer routine. Instead, they are called upon to direct, to bring value to an ever-growing team managing increasingly complex tasks . To be useful to everyone, they must detach themselves from the particulars and look at the bigger picture.
Critical confrontation: a methodical leadership
Entrepreneurs are called upon to make decisions constantly, almost always, without providing much explanation. But to make correct decisions at crucial moments, they must be able to draw on the energy, skills, and ideas of others. Honest and critical discussion with the supporting team isn't a concession; it's a strategic duty of a true leader. Engaging one's talents in a vigorous debate strengthens methodical leadership: one that doesn't impose from above, but constructs decisions through collective intelligence. This process energizes the team and gives solidity to the decision. It's a circular process, I'd call it, in giving and receiving, reaching the goal through successive approximations and sometimes leaps forward (without listening to anyone, at least apparently).
However, there's a fine line: leadership can't become a slave to the process itself . If the search for consensus becomes a drag, the company stops moving and begins to drag. The risk is becoming slow, and in today's market, slowness is lethal . It's a delicate balance in the decision-making process that must be carefully maintained with the team and oneself.
The loneliness of command: where direction is born
The Silence of Decision: The Unshareable Vision
There comes a time when, after listening to those who matter, you have to go back to being alone.
Here emerges the real difference between those who created the company and those who look at it through an Excel spreadsheet.
The entrepreneur must "unfortunately" be free to make decisions, even informally, following paths they can't or shouldn't always share. It's not a lack of transparency, but rather a lack of vision. The team can be excellent in every operational aspect, but it can't be expected to understand the entire horizon that only those in charge can see. There are thoughts, risks, and future scenarios that the entrepreneur must keep to himself, to protect the strategy and the people themselves.
The possible conflict with finance
This is where the idyll with financial partners or funds often breaks down, regarding working methods and the design of the trajectory, where they pretend to understand everything without actually having the tools, the ability (and sometimes the desire), precisely because of the different roles. They require endless analyses and standardized procedures and sometimes ignore the most important variable: time. They don't understand that a decision made today with 80% of the information is worth ten times as much as a perfect decision made six months from now , and can even decide the life or death of an entire organization.
The entrepreneur, on the other hand, thrives on non-linear mental processes, intuition, and speed; the fund thrives on guarantees. The solitude of #decision serves to protect this instinct: the ability to take risks while others are still calculating the margin of error and to ask questions, sometimes useless or "harmful" to the cause.
Grounding: The collective soul through the value system
Here's the good news for entrepreneurs: once a course has been set, loneliness must vanish; to "ground" the #vision, a corporate culture inspired by charismatic, not authoritarian, leadership is needed.
I've learned that if you want your company to move quickly, you need to have built a solid value system and a delegation process . People don't follow a technician; they follow a leader who embodies values they believe in and then want to move forward independently. Consistent growth isn't just about procedures, but about respect, unwritten rules, and shared passion—a dynamic, rather than unstable, balance.
So what?...
Solitude is necessary to protect the speed and vision of your strategy. But your value system is what allows that vision to break free from a secret, transforming it into a reality lived by people who run alongside you, even when they don't yet see the full horizon but firmly believe in a dream worth realizing.
And I'd like to close with a #fundamental aspect: the value system also brings balance to private life and the balanced, consistent entrepreneur even in his private life has an edge.
Author - Christian Nucibella