Writing a book is like breaking lake ice with a hammer

To succeed: Strike the ice with a hammer in one place; and write in one voice on a single topic.

CorporateNature Metaphor Series, No 123

Writing a book is a long-term commitment to a daunting project: it requires continuous effort in the same direction. In nature, this process resembles breaking lake ice in the winter to create a fishing hole. Here are the key similarities: 

1. Book-writing and ice-breaking require multiple blows

Every book begins with an idea in the author’s mind. The aim of the author is to formulate this idea clearly and build an argument around it that is convincing enough to “hammer” the key points home. A compelling argument evolves over the space of multiple chapters where each consecutive chapter builds on the previous one, going deeper into the subject matter. Metaphorically speaking, each chapter represents a hammer blow on the surface of the frozen lake. With each blow, the ice gets weaker and the end goal of breaking it draws nearer.

2. Striking in a focal point works better than scraping and thinning a wider area

When writing, it is essential to have the core idea firmly fixed in your mind in order to keep each chapter focused on the topic. While different chapters view the topic from different angles, they are all directed towards the same end. Getting distracted by chasing multiple topics will not get you space on the shelves of the bookstores. Similarly, breaking the surface of a frozen lake requires blows in the same spot. After all, you won’t make a hole in the ice by scraping and thinning a wide area of the ice sheet with a knife.

3. Editing is gnawing

Editing is a crucial aspect of successful writing. The editing process is gruelling work because it requires making tough choices. In nature, Arctic seals in the winter need to maintain the holes in the ice sheet to be able to come out on the surface to breathe. They do this by constantly gnawing ice off the edges of the hole to keep it from freezing over. Similarly, editing requires constant gnawing, milling and perfecting of the text and ultimately of the ideas. 

And when you eventually succeed in digging a hole in the ice, be careful not to drop the hammer in the lake. You may need it for digging another hole, i.e. writing another book.

Ice on Lake Baikal in winter
(image source: Wikipedia)

Entrepreneurship is about relentless execution: like grinding a hot poker into a pin

By George ILIEV
CorporateNature Metaphor Series, No 98

"Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself" - George Bernard Shaw said. This highlights the imporant distinction between thinking and doing. 

Many people believe the key to success in entrepreneurship is coming up with a great idea: a sesame seed that you find after sifting through tonnes of hay. The sesame seed (or a poppy seed) is also at the centre of PhD dissertations, as doctoral students are discouraged by their supervisors from taking on too big a topic. 

A tiny novel idea may be deemed enough in academia. Yet, the metaphor about the sesame seed is far from sufficient in entrepreneurship. The success of a startup is not that dependent on the sesame seed. A more useful metaphor for running a startup is grinding down a hot poker into a pin. In simple terms, execution trumps ideation.

Startup guru Guy Kawasaki demonstrates the importance of execution for a startup with the following scale:

• An idea is worth 1 point;
• A business plan is worth 10 points;
• A developed product is worth 100 points;
• And the first customer is worth 1,000 points

Relentless execution is the key for hammering the hot poker into a pin. The heat makes the poker tricky to handle but also makes it malleable: strike while the iron is hot. The only thing worse than a hot poker is a cold poker, as grinding a cold poker into a pin would be way more difficult. 

How would you know if your startup is a hot or a cold poker in its base? Hot pokers change their shape after each strike of the hammer - a process known as iteration. Cold pokers don't iterate and as a result they end up as cold pokers, just as they started... whereas many of the hot pokers will eventually turn into pins.

Pin (Source: Wikipedia)