Are there really those among us so talented, 
experienced, motivated, connected...
...that without their dynamic presence our businesses will suffer greatly?
Well, this past week I had two unforgettable experiences that answered this question in an entirely new and powerful way.
The first experience was on Saturday, in my weekend identity as an AYSO youth soccer coach for a morning match against the best team in our region.
When less than an hour before game time I received a call telling me my star player would be unable to play in the game.
And while processing this news, my 2nd best player was dropped off at my house to ride with me and my sons to the field, not in our team's shiny neon uniform, but instead in flip flops, t-shirt and shorts!
When I asked the fine young fellow where his uniform was, he replied that his mother felt he shouldn’t play because he got hurt playing “American” football the night before!
Now, as a proudly dysfunctional youth coach who hates to lose, this double-whammy talent loss pretty quickly changed my game time mood from cautious optimism to more than a bit of self-pity and dread.
I will share how our team did in the game in just a bit, but before I do and to bring it back to business, my 2nd experience on Monday was of our company's Vice President and sales leader departing for his European honeymoon, leaving our team down a key rainmaker during an extremely busy season.
While neither of these scenarios even remotely compare to the loss of an entrepreneurial leader and founder like Steve Jobs, Walt Disney or Ray Kroc, they do shed light on the value creation levers of team and organization, and how to best respond when the vagaries of life and business take a key asset away from us.
Mr. Paul Graham, the founder of Y Combinator, often talks about determination as the key success factor in any entrepreneur, executive or leader of ambition.
I love his definition of determination as "willfulness balanced with discipline, aimed by ambition.”
And, if there is ever a time where determination is required, it is after the loss of a key contributor, of that man or woman viewed as “indispensable.”
Yes, once the natural and proper state of grieving is worked through (and when it comes to fast-paced modern business that grieving period must be very short), then leaders of substance and ambition channel losses into:
- Motivation to first compensate for and then overcome that loss
- Education into an organization’s mission, and into its key strengths and assets that exist well beyond and outside of any one individual
- Growth, as in how to become a healthier and more valuable enterprise on a moving forward basis?
Motivation, education, growth.
These are the opportunities for those "left behind."
It is not just possible, but it has been done again and again.
The Walt Disney Company at the time of Walt Disney's death in 1966 was valued at approximately $80 million, 30 years later it was worth close to $50 billion.
McDonald’s, at the time of Ray Kroc’s death in 1984 was valued at less than $4 billion, 30 years later it was worth more than $100 billion.
Apple, at the time of Steve Jobs’ death in 2011 was worth $311 billion, today it is worth more than $800 billion.
And as for my little soccer team this past Saturday? How did we do playing against our league’s #1 team, short our two top players?
Well, we lost 5 - 2.
But, our “lesser” players - without the safety blanket of their more talented teammates - competed with amazing heart and passion, transforming themselves in front of their skeptical coach’s eyes from laggards into gritty young footballers.
And from their effort, new possibilities as to game strategy, player positions, and teamwork were almost magically revealed.
Yes, it is true that so often the best thing for a team or organization are those moments when we must fight on without the “indispensable” among us.