Okay okay… so the snap your fingers and half the population disappears isn’t the right analogy for the mission you have as an entrepreneur to improve the world (or is it….?). My head and heart are frequently drawn to stories evolved from culture, that help us appreciate what it takes to start a venture.
We can’t escape the fact that founders often wish a snap of their fingers would get that product done, that funding in the door, or that deal to close. Raising the more valid of questions: what does it take for that snap to have the power to accomplish that?
Stories drawn from culture?
Read next…
How Star Wars Defined a Generation of Entrepreneurs
or
Start Me Up; The Rolling Stones’ Big Idea
How the Infinity Stones Put the Power in your Hand
Startups fail to such an exceptionally high degree that the work is often compared to gambling (with worse odds). The causes of failure are frequently studied, and programs such as ours, with exceptional mentors and teachers involved, improve those odds by teaching what matters.
It’s in 6 stones, 6 considerations, that you might consider what you’re doing, and appreciate that one of those stones is missing…
Infinity Stones are uniquely powerful gemstones that alone, each, hold great power; but united, can be used to destroy people, planets, solar systems.
These stones are part of the Marvel universe of comics and films, introduced to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) throughout many of the films, culminating in Thanos, a genocidal warlord, using the Infinity Gauntlet to disappear from the universe half of the entire population.
In Guardians of the Galaxy, The Collector explains that six “singularities” existed before the creation of the Universe and that The Big Bang transformed those things into the six separate Infinity Stones.
The Six Infinity Stones
- The Space Stone (blue)
- The Mind Stone (yellow)
- The Reality Stone (red)
- The Power Stone (purple)
- The Time Stone (green)
- The Soul Stone (orange)
The stones themselves aren’t good nor bad, and Thanos’ use of the stones, to bring about a horrific outcome, makes for an intriguing story about overpopulations and the extreme measures of fanatics. That story is all the more intriguing because each of the stones, in the Marvel Films, is used for good.
The Space Stone
The Space Stone gives the user power over space. Anyone holding the Space Stone can create a portal from one part of the universe to another.
In the Marvel films, the Space Stone is hidden inside a blue cube called the Tesseract which you might recall seeing associated Captain America and Thor in their earliest films, and in Captain Marvel more recently.
A startup must have in mind a clear and distinct space in which it’s working. You and your team must create something that brings us from one universe (our reality today) into another.
The Mind Stone
The Mind Stone allows the user to control the minds of others. It’s this “vision” that inspires and can be used to motivate masses or create incredible machines.
The Avengers used Mind Stone to create Vision and technology. The stone gives Vision powers such as strength, the ability to phase through things, and flight.
A startup team must have the vision in mind, to ensure that all decisions and time spent, align with what the venture hopes to achieve and to stay true mission against which it set out.
The Reality Stone
The Reality Stone is empowered to manipulate matter.
Thor’s villain, Malekith, in Thor: The Dark World wields a red liquid substances called Aether to turn matter into dark matter. Point being, its the power with which we change reality from what we know into something else.
This is a subtle definition of a startup is it not? Unlike a new business of a known model or product/service, a startup changes our reality from what it is to what it could be.
The Power Stone
The Power Stone is the epitome of what the word implies: energy. And be that the energy of a better, the energy that gets you up in the morning, or Einstein’s explosive equations that turned energy into fusion and fission, energy fuels all we do.
Star Lord discovered the stone, accidentally, in Guardians of the Galaxy and later Ronan the Accuser steals it, threatening to wipe out an entire race with its power.
Do you have the energy for this? The power drawn from passion, resources, and potential, untapped or otherwise, to keep going, to persevere, and to empower others?
The Time Stone
My kids were such a fan of the Marvel movie related my beard became a goatee and this found it’s way to Instagram.
The Eye of Agomoto, The Time Stone, empowers its owner to re-wind or fast-forward time; and Benedict Cumberbatch controls it as Doctor Stephen Strange.
This takes time and timing. Both are concepts startup founders and, in time, their teams, easily overlook. What you’re doing requires a market to consider timing. It will all take longer than you expect. If only we could rewind…
The Soul Stone
Soul. I had to put an extra thought to soul because The Soul Stone isn’t clearly explained in the films. From the stories told through comics, The Soul Stone captures and control others’ souls, making it seemingly the same as The Mind Stone, but it also creates a universe where the person who wields it can send souls. With more depth in the MCU films, it might be better explained that The Soul Stone is why all of those who Thanos snapped out of existence, can actually return from somewhere
Emotional or intellectual energy or intensity, especially as revealed in a work of art or an artistic performance.
Then I uncovered that definition of soul and it clicked, that’s the meaning to founders.
Founders will wrestle with unparalleled adversity, opposition, and disagreement. It’s from within that, that the soul of an entrepreneur thrives.
How might we marvel at startups and founders?
Why are we willed with wonder and astonishment at what they accomplish? Because of 6 gems of advice that, together, empower something incredible.
- Space – Be clear about and experienced in the space in which you’re working
- Mind – Have a clear and measurable vision, well communicated
- Reality – Change the reality of what is, into something better
- Power – Be prepared with the energy it takes
- Time – Plan for the time it will take and determine the timing ideal
- Soul – Pour your soul, and heart, into the future you’re manifesting
DeSo is a new layer-1 blockchain built from the ground up to scale decentralized social applications to one billion users – more at deso.org
[Photo: The Infinity Stones as shown in Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite]
