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My Real Network
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Names, not a feeling.
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Tool 54 · Develop your mission
Who are the first ten people?
A guided 16 to 20 minutes conversation, here in TAIU. This exercise does not produce an organisation chart and does not assume you need a team before you begin.
Who around you would actually tell you that you are wrong?
If the answer takes more than a moment, that is the gap.
Waiting for the right team is one of the more respectable ways of not starting.
What you'll look at
- 01What you are making possible
- 02Who has already helped
- 03Who would argue with you
- 04What you can offer
A note from Mark
The first thing I would do is count. People almost always undercount who is already around them, because help that arrives unasked does not register as help. The person who keeps asking how it is going is part of your coalition, whether you have thought of them that way or not.
Then I would test whether you need a person or a decision. I have sat with plenty of capable people who were looking for a partner when what they actually needed was to choose something by Friday. The search is entirely genuine. It is also, quite often, a very sophisticated way of waiting.
Read my full view ↓
The one I care most about is challenge. Everybody around somebody with a mission is supportive. It is pleasant and it is worth almost nothing. If there is no one who will look at you and say that is a bad idea, that is your gap, and it is more urgent than a hire.
And make the ask small and specific. Nobody knows what join me means. An hour on Thursday, an introduction to one person, a name. People say yes to those constantly.
What you'll get
This will not sort you into a personality type.It will give you answers about your own life that you can test.
01
What it requires
02
Who is already here
03
Person or decision
04
Three approaches
+
Your TAIU handover: a summary of what the conversation found, written so you can take it with you.
See everything included ↓
- 01What you are trying to make possible
- 02What this actually requires
- 03Who is already here
- 04What they give you
- 05Where the real gap is
- 06Who would challenge you
- 07What you are asking people for
- 08What you are offering them
- 09The first three approaches
- 10The rival reading
- 11What deserves protecting
- 12The credible alternative
- 13What this exercise cannot decide
- 14What remains unresolved
- 15Where this goes next
When you finish
Bring it back to your tree.
Your tree is where TAIU keeps a picture of your whole life, in parts like work, money and health.
At the end, the conversation asks how Work and purpose feels for you right now, in your own words. It also asks what, if anything, would feel different. Nothing changes on your tree unless you say it changes.
The conversation writes this summary for you. Keep the sheet, print it or paste it into My Tree. Nothing from the conversation is stored by TAIU.
- Session
- Date
- The part of life this belongs to
- How you described it
- What would feel different
- What we found
- The alternative we tested
- What deserves protecting
- What should change, if anything
- Next actions
- What to notice or find out
- What remains unresolved
What now?
01 · Save it
What the mission actually requires from other people.
02 · Test it
List everybody who has helped in the last six months, however small.
See more ↓
What I would do
- 01
Write down what the work needs, not who you want.
- 02
Count the people already helping. It is more than you think.
- 03
Find the person who will disagree with you and keep them close.
- 04
Make the ask specific. An hour, a name, a Saturday.
- 05
Do not wait for a team to begin.
Test it
- 01
What does this actually require that you cannot supply?
- 02
Is the gap a person, or a decision?
- 03
Who would tell you that you are wrong?
The alternative
The expected conclusion is that a co founder or a first hire is needed. Frequently the evidence says otherwise. The gap turns out to be a decision the person could make this week without anybody's permission, and the search for a partner is the shape avoidance takes when somebody is competent and unsure. The other common finding is that the missing element is not skill at all. It is challenge. Almost everybody around an ambitious person is supportive, which is pleasant and close to useless, and one honest sceptic is worth more than four more supporters. Occasionally the real answer is simpler and more human than either: the work is lonely, and that is worth naming rather than solving with a hire.
Think about this
- What this genuinely requires, in capability rather than titles.
- Who has already helped without being asked.
- Whether the gap is a person or a decision.
- Who would actually argue with you.
- What you have to offer in return.
Take this to Ask Mark
You have done the exercise. Now look again at what it found.
This looks at what you found and helps you understand it. It is not another exercise to repeat.
Take this to Ask Mark →Want to go further?
READ · BOOK
Governing the Commons
Elinor Ostrom
Field evidence that ordinary groups do organise themselves successfully, under identifiable conditions. The counterweight to assuming nobody will ever care enough to act together.
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READ · BOOK
The Founder's Dilemmas
Noam Wasserman
A decade of data on the early decisions that decide whether a venture survives: who joins, on what terms and who holds control. The uncomfortable finding is that most damage is done in the first months, socially rather than commercially.
Read more ↗
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Recommended by the TAIU community
What helped you?
If you've read, watched, listened to or tried something that helped you think about this differently, we'd like to hear about it.
We review recommendations before sharing them with the community.
Finished the exercise?
What did this uncover?
Tell us whether it helped and what you discovered. It takes less than a minute.
Next tool
Does anybody else care
When the coalition is named and the question is demand
Further thinking
The Founder's Dilemmas
Noam Wasserman
The Strength of Weak Ties
Mark Granovetter
The Fearless Organization
Amy Edmondson
See the thinking ↓
Book
The Founder's Dilemmas
Noam Wasserman
A decade of data on the early decisions that decide whether a venture survives: who joins, on what terms and who holds control. The uncomfortable finding is that most damage is done in the first months, socially rather than commercially.
Article
The Strength of Weak Ties
Mark Granovetter
Granovetter's paper is the reason acquaintances matter more than they feel like they should. Useful when a life looks thin but is actually broad and shallow.
Book
The Fearless Organization
Amy Edmondson
The original research on psychological safety, which began with the finding that better teams reported more errors rather than fewer. Read it before using the phrase.
Book
Give and Take
Adam Grant
Grant's finding that givers occupy both the top and the bottom of most performance distributions is the practical heart of this. What separates them is not generosity but whether the giving is bounded. If you have ever concluded that you should do more while quietly running out of road, read this before you add anything.