Possibly, one of the most enthralling and positively audacious movies I have seen in recent times. A bias might exist due to my fondness for war tales. The Imitation Game also leaves you with a slight melancholy considering how early the life of Alan Turing ended, and how sad (from our mortal perceptions), the lives of some geniuses have been. It doesn’t fail to inspire, of course, for it is a tale of great persistence and victory.
Alan (brilliantly portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch) is a bit mad and as the Hatter insists- the best people always are. His entry into the story is low key, he starts as a first mover but ends up leading his pack with sheer grit and balls. Quoting Edward de Bono, “The traditional image of success is that of a person who is strong minded, ruthless and hard working. It is surprising how few people fit that image.” Alan was hard working and believed in himself, but was an awkward kind. That didn’t stop him, these things don’t stop people who start up.
Hiring across the spectrum.
Alan chose not to hire the conventional way. The priorities were clear, he sought particular skills sets, and those could have been present in people from all walks of life- teachers to soldiers- not necessarily mathematicians and chess players. This allowed the much needed diversity to his team and helped him solve the problem at hand. We often let certain prejudices guide us, but that might not be the best approach. Educational degrees only matter so much, it’s the experience and the track record that truly counts.
“My machine will work.”
Alan chose to tackle the problem in an unconventional manner. His task was to decode a machine’s code. His superiors believed in setting teams to crack it using certain human techniques. Alan believed in building a machine to crack the machine’s code – something that seemed unearthly to people around him. But honey badger doesn’t care, and Alan dug his heels in, claimed its the best chance we have. Our way of doing things might not always delight the folks who surround us. However, your belief and sheer hard work towards making that belief into reality makes all the difference in the world. And oh- you’d better be right in that case. Because Alan’s machine did bloody work.
“They won’t help you if they don’t like you.”
Your genius won’t save you if you are a stuck up little arrogant arse. Humans work in teams, leaders lead teams and everything ultimately boils down to people. Trust, communication and mutual respect is crucial to success on all fronts. Though being on the same side, Turing is made aware of the fact that he needs his team to back him up in case of crises, and with perspectives other than his own. Clarity on all fronts is desirable, and having a team with complimentary skill sets helps. Alan went out of the way to underline true team spirit, and they stood by him when times were rough. A King isn’t a King without his Generals by his side.
“Sometimes you have to do what’s logical.”
Alan chooses to focus on the bigger picture. Cracking the Nazi communication code is a big victory, however, it could have been a short lived one had the Nazis been aware. Alan chose to let a few attacks come in (sacrificing hundreds of lives in the process) but helped end the war way ahead of time thus saving millions of lives instead. It didn’t feel good, but it was plain logic of a cold calculating mind. When fighting on the field, violence feels good, emotions run high. However, a true leader has the capability of differentiating himself from ‘the boys’ when necessary and understanding the big picture, the implications and the role they play.
“Doing what no one can imagine”
This is a scary thought. Though ideas come and go, early execution can take those to a certain point. Ambition and dreams have the potential to be abstract, way too abstract for even the entrepreneur to comprehend. Dreaming of and executing what none around us can imagine is a lesson in self belief and communication. It is simple, yet extraordinary and is simply a result of putting our head down and working away in what we believe. Mark Manson has been quite eloquent about the art of not giving a f**k.
Your Indomitable Spirit
The Imitation Game is a harsh reminder of what England went through during the Second World War. A tiny island, starving, surrounded by German submarines and bombarded the day lights away over and over again – and yet it did not yield. It is a story of rare courage by a brave nation, proud of what it stands for. It serves as an inspiration for all of us, we can only attempt to imagine how Winston Churchill faced and carried the humongous responsibility on his but human shoulders. And while he did that, he trusted and allowed men like Alan to lead their projects.
Alan Turing gave birth to a new generation of machines, the computers, which could think. He could do it because the circumstances favoured him (no denying that), because he dared to think, because he cared less about certain things, he cared more about certain other things and worked his backside off with a clear focus, on the things he liked. Easier said than done 🙂
Alok Rodinhood Kejriwal
Fantastic..
This is what I wrote for “Inception”
This post is dedicated to my absolute fanaticism to the movie ‘Inception’. If you haven’t seen the movie yet, my humble suggestion would be to see it before you read further.
I was calmed and excited simultaneously when I saw Inception. Calmed by the spirituality of the movie and the way ‘transience’ of life was packaged in it. Excited because it just spelt a new rulebook for entrepreneurs.
My point of view:
It’s all about dreams.
Tell me any entrepreneur worth his sleep who hasn’t sold to himself and then to a VC a dream. With poor proof of concept, little or no market data and certainly zero revenue streams, most entrepreneurs make massive leaps of faith when it comes to creating a business. They dream of the future that lies ahead and then dive back into reality to reach there!
Dream 1:
In Shanghai around 2001, while pavement pounding for Mobile2win, I had the opportunity to meet the Wall’s (Unilever Ice Cream) marketing team. Wall’s ran a very large business in China and they were keen to use mobile contesting to ‘activate’ more sales. Since we were the first in China promoting short-code based promotions, we convinced Wall’s that we could motivate Chinese consumers to sms a code that they would find on the lid of a Walls Ice-Cream in return to win a prize. This promotion would be advertised by them on mass media and would create the first of its kind ‘digital mobile’ activation led sales promotion for Wall’s China. They loved the idea, bought the dream and we were on!
Dream 2 within Dream 1:
A few weeks later, I had the opportunity to meet Disney (China). They were keen to reach out to large consumer masses in China via the mobile platform. We already had a massive consumer activation going on with Wall’s and this could be the ideal platform for them. But the question was – why would Wall’s allow Disney to ride on its media and product activation plan? We thought hard and hit on dream 2 within dream 1.
The problem Wall’s was facing was that while lots of folks were sending SMSes hoping to win prizes, only a handful were winning. So it was becoming a typical ‘I keep trying but never win’ disappointment. Adding more prizes was not affordable. Even if we gave away small prizes, the cost of distribution of those prizes was uneconomical. Our Eureka solution was to create ‘digital prizes’ – a la mobile wall papers and screen savers of the most popular Disney characters such as Winnie the Pooh and Mickey Mouse and then send it ‘across the air’ via sms to contesting participants for every right answer!! This way almost everyone would win, lots of Chinese consumers would own a Disney character and Wall’s would be happy that its promotion got additional boost. Both Wall’s and Disney bought the plan and dream 2 within dream 1 came alive.
Dream 3 within Dream 2.
What we realized was that we had pulled off a major coup. This new concept of zero cost digital prizes was creating a new reach and activation model in the consumer goods category (add to that – in the largest consumer market in the world), and this was an opportunity that could have resulted in much more than just one time project fees for ourselves.
We built a close rapport with Disney over the months and dreamt with them on how the combination of their Media (channels) + Assets (character library) + Mobile2win’s platform would be the ultimate solution for them to engage millions of young and upwardly mobile Chinese consumers perpetually.
Walt Disney acquired Mobile2win China in 2006 in an all cash transaction and our Dream 3 was fulfilled!!
Creating layouts (biz plans) as you walk…
As in the movie, most entrepreneurs have to imagine and execute a business simultaneously. Its like planning a road and paving it at the same time. There is no grand plan or blue print that can be followed by the book. It has to be imagined, and implemented at the same time. If you can’t do that, you can’t be successful entrepreneur.
In so many client pitches I remember my team and I being asked a question by a client in terms of ability to make a campaign or reach a target audience that we have never done before. Almost every time we said ‘yes’ and then on the way back to the office figure out how to do it. Sure there were some cases of bad deals like the ‘paradox staircase’ in the movie, but those stray cases didn’t dent us from growing and creating a business!
Making sure the ‘Kick’ is in place.
One of the biggest dangers of entrepreneurship is that you fall in love with what you are doing and even when events turn ugly, you refuse to ‘wake up’.
So, make sure that before you start dreaming, the ‘kick’ to wake you up is in place.
In Mobile2win, we created lots of mobile games and were the first in India to start featuring our own games on operator decks. Then operators got greedy and competitors became insane. The game teams by then had fallen into a never-ending dream state of just making games coz they loved to, despite the fact that the ROI was negative. As an investor, I ‘kicked’ them and myself and pulled out of that business before the market destroyed us.
Watch out for your Mal – she will destroy herself and you.
Many entrepreneurs I know go into an ‘ever dreaming’ state of almost coma-like zombie survival. They cannot come to terms that they need to move on. Their business gets stuck, the markets turn against them and the world changes permanently, but they ‘Mal’ themselves. They cannot distinguish fact from reality. They sit on the ledges and jump off windows in the hope that they will wake up. They never do.
We went all out importing a Massive Multiplayer Online game from Japan in games2win in 2007. We believed that this was our Nirvana and also brought our Japanese partner into that dream . Yet, 1.5 years later and almost 500k US$ down, we had hardly earned 50k US$ from the business. It was a disaster. Yet the Japanese Company was ‘Malled’. They believed that the market would turn around and this format of game would redeem us in the future. They saw no reason to evacuate. I had to give myself a big kick and wake up. We pulled out of the game in 2008. It was a very tough and emotional meeting in Singapore with the Japanese partner who refused to understand or believe our rational. It was exactly like the ending of the Movie in which Mal is still in the dream. Having said so, I still know 2 companies in India who have sunk over 7 million US$ collectively in this genre of gaming and believe that India will change to make their game successful.
Watch out for Mal. Either never let her become who she is and if you cannot avoid that, then know when to ignore her and stay focused.
Else your dream will become your death.
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Sushrut Munje
Thanks for sharing and the compliment, Alok! Superb piece.
Karan Ahuja
this post is awesome .
aloks article is scary as it reminds us to take care about so many hard to see signals 🙂