So said a friend of mine when I suggested she jump full time into a new idea she’d had. She was referring, as you might have gathered, to the traditional “#2” role of the detail person in an entrepreneurial team; the person who works along side the passion driven, eccentric entrepreneur and turns the ideas into an actual business.
Steve Jobs had Steve Wozniak.
Bill Gates had Paul Allen.
Jim Balsillie has Mike Lazaridis
Oprah has Gail.
and so on.
I have a problem with the term “#2” though. It implies an inferiority. A “support” role. From everything I’ve seen, a true #2 is anything but an add on. True, lasting success is less about the ideas, and more about the execution. It’s about the system, language and experience that is integrated into an idea.
Too many “go-it-alone” idea people have a flash of success and then drown in their own accomplishment, unable to support the very success they were striving for in the first place.
#2’s are widely under recognized, under appreciated, and under valued.
I’m naming today official #2 day.
If you’ve got one, tell ’em you love ’em. And if you don’t have one, you may want to make finding that person a priority.
