Why Darth Vader would have made a crappy entrepreneur

I know, I know. Yes he is probably the greatest villain of all time and yes your geek blood is boiling at the mere mention that Vader is not good at something that you wish to kick my behind all the way to tatooine. But trust me it hurts me even more that there are some of the characteristics of the dark lord that would have made sure that he failed as an entrepreneur. Let me try to show you how

• Vader was not a team player and curbed creativity– Entrepreneurship is not just about doing all the good work yourself. It is also about encouraging your employees and teammates to do good work by using incentives and positive reinforcements. If your employees work under the constant threat of being force choked for not doing exactly as you asked them, how will they be creative and forthcoming?
• Vader was not willing to pivot – The first death star was a humongous failure. Anyone would have realized that once they got to know how easy it was for Luke to blow it up. At that point instead of coming up with a new and more evil master plan or death device he started work on the “second death star”. We all know how it ended for him.
• He was overly influenced by investors – In almost the entire series he let Lord Palpatine dictate the rules of the game. He always neglected any suggestions that Vader gave and Vader, even when he was Anakin, was never free to take calls on important matters. It is good to have an investor who brings capital and experience (in this case the dark side of the force) but you should not let your investors dictate the rules of your venture.
• Vader was rattled easily – It did not take much for Anakin to assume that Obi-wan and Padme had turned against him. Similarly he was very easily influenced by Luke and turned against the dark side. At this point it is not about the right or the wrong (dark) side. It is about sticking to your guns (light sabre whatever). Even if he is wrong, an entrepreneur does not change sides easily.

Clearly Darth Vader lacked a lot of qualities that an entrepreneur should have.  But all is not bad here. Assuming that he somehow overcame the issues mentioned above there are some qualities that would have made him a kick ass entrepreneur. (My heart did not allow me to leave this the post with only shortcomings of the dark lord)

• Great at prioritizing – He understood the importance of prioritizing and value of time. He did not mind outsourcing some work when he had something important in his hands.  He know that getting the death star up and running was the first priority so he simply outsourced the job of finding Han Solo to Boba Fett.
• Amazing Branding– Even if you don’t know who he is and what he does, one look at him and you know he means business and that too not the good kind. He is the ultimate poster boy of evil and if ever there becomes an association of evil villains he will give a hard time to Sauron and Agent Smith to become its president.

Note: If you have not watched the Star Wars yet, stop wasting time and go watch .

This was originally posted on my blog at https://akhil.me