The last few months have presented a number of demanding situations for parents who run, especially those with young children. Those lucky enough to have homemade paintings have experienced the strange but familiar daily juxtaposition of, for example, reaching an agreement between a midday tantrum and afternoon fairytale re-enactments.
But while Cinderella nevertheless attends dancing after years of hardship and Rapunzel reaches her freedom despite her cut locks, there may be a ray of hope in the chaos of the life of WFH parents. Somewhere in the context between the consultation sheet negotiations and the screen time, there are a number of valuable classes that VC can practice from the negotiating prowess of young children. Separate, Twitter and Clubhouse, because fairy tale folklore illustrates the five top venture capital tactics I’ve learned from my three- and five-year-olds.
1) The Golden Goldilocks paradigm: persistence
You have to give it to Goldilocks: the woman approached anything that was correct. Perseverance is one of the most underrated tactics in business and in life. For young people stubbornly obsessed with a purpose, perhaps getting another piece of chocolate cake or a new toy, this tactic is natural and can manifest itself through repetition, groaning and maximum irrational insistence. Until the purpose is achieved, it is your full-time occupation.
What will have to be remembered here to adopt is the courage, the tenacity to rule out the initial “no”, the passionate and non-stoply commitment despite the imbalance in reciprocity, the tireless insistence on the goal to be achieved. This is not another one of the perseverance we seek in the founders. To get this best porridge, you need perseverance and patience.
Joshua N.Weiss, Ph.D., co-founder of the Global Negotiation Initiative at Harvard and a new Wiley Press e-book entitled The Book of Real-World Negotiations: Successful Strategies from Business, Government, and Daily Life, explains the importance of perseverance in the negotiations: “The most productive negotiators have infinite perseverance. If they check a street and it’s blocked, or it doesn’t give the desired results, they check some other and some until they find a solution.”
2) Rapunzel’s romance: time is everything
In Rapunzel’s story, a shrewd prince meticulously noted how and when the imprisoned princess dropped her hair at The request of Mother Gothel. After careful observation, the time was right to echo Mother Gothel’s order for Rapunzel to diminish his golden mane for him.
Time is not so undeniable when implemented for adventure, however, it is an essential factor. As Daniel Pink argues in When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing, we’ll have to “take the questions of when as seriously as the questions of what.” When seeking success in an agreement, time considerations would possibly include:
3) Cinderella: Caring for and engaging a loyal community
Thanks to kindness and generosity, Cinderella has earned eternal constancy (and sewing!) The birds and mice of his castle and used his fairy godmother to facilitate an unforgettable evening at the dance. Children are intuitively informed to call their grandparents, teachers, and even pets in their efforts to “make a deal.”
While it is sometimes advisable for a founder to make a warm arrival at a VC, the story that is told less is how a VC also benefits greatly from reliable third-party connections with a founder. The recommendation of a visitor or founder, a connection through a previous investor or any other endorsement of an influential mutual connection can be very useful to reach a meaningful relationship.
Promoting this network to attract requires consistent commitment and pricing for nodes on your network that will be able to transmit it when needed. In Dar and Receive from Adam Grant, you determine that there are two types of people: “donors” and “recipients.” Interestingly, in several studies, he discovered that the superior finish of the business scale. Workplace donors appreciate sharing their experience, networks and professional contacts, just as Cinderella’s kindness earned her a network when she needed it most.
4) Aladdin: a new global value-added total
Whether to save Princess Jasmine from revenge from an angry fruit merchant or take her on the adventure of a lifetime to see “an all-new world,” Aladdin prioritized movements over words through Jasmine’s appearance in “this new perspective.”
In the same vein, a child in search of a specific purpose knows how to pay their price through express and measurable contributions. Instead of asking directly, the strategic son or professional daughter will complete the family’s chores without being asked, take breakfast to bed, or offer some extra hugs at bedtime, to get that “yes” from a busy (and tired) parent. .
In the context of a company, “let me know how useful I can be” has become a farce about being frivolous about a VC to raise value. What could be more effective? Identify what the founder is optimizing or motivated and start making a meaningful contribution. For a founding team looking to build their brand, a smart VC may be offering an advent for an exclusive opportunity to speak or a connection with a journalist to write a profile article. If advertising attraction is the main motivation, warm presentations for potential consumers with a deep wallet can be very helpful. The past egg is to perceive what you want, whether it’s genuine heritage or the capture of technical talent, and to be offering a directed, considered and differentiated value. And unlike The genius of Aluploadin, Bebe’s offerings don’t want to be limited to “three wishes.”
5) Pay attention to Elsa and know when to “let it go”
While this recent time gift with my children has presented a lot of concepts on how to make a deal, being the recipient of some of their tactics has also reported what not to do. Most of the time, young people just don’t know when to stop. And the continuation of the task in question would be better completed after a small respite, or in the words of the sensible Winnie the Pooh, after a “nap or two”.
Previous tactics, when carefully implemented, can be incredibly effective. On the other hand, when used with little discernment or empathy, they are possibly perceived as too aggressive, deaf and frankly boring. It is imperative to “read the work”, assess when a rejection is essential, and identify when the time, in Elsa de Frozen’s words, to “release” is essential.
A postscript of the parable
One cave in which classes are informed through these stories, and through the eyes of young people, is that they have no subtle nuances and do not even allow me to begin with the widespread caricatures of normative anachronisms. Folklore exists to teach our young people life classes and make sense of what it means to be human. As many of us spend more time with young children on those long days of running from home, it’s helpful to practice how their young minds dominate the global that surrounds them, and perhaps be informed of one or two things about how to achieve it “fortunately forever.” – or at least, to conclude this case deftly.
Disclosure: Dr. Weiss and I served together on the board of administrators of a nonprofit organization that was born from Harvard’s Global Negotiations Program, The Abraham Path Initiative, from 2008 to 2012.
Deena Shakir is the wife of Lux Capital, where she invests in transformative technologies that optimize analog industries and lives and livelihoods. She was
Deena Shakir is the wife of Lux Capital, where she invests in transformative technologies that optimize analog industries and lives and livelihoods. In the past she was a GV spouse, led early-stage product associations at Google and Google.org, and was a presidential management fellow in the Obama administration. He is Kauffman Scholar and a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations and is a board member of several nonprofit organizations.