(Keith Krach | Business Man. Innovator. Philanthropist. Former U.S Under Secretary of State)
The Secret to Success
Transformation is the most powerful word in any language because without it we don’t develop, prosper or grow. And if your company isn’t transforming is dying. and the best way to control the future is to invent it.
My life’s work has been focused on creating innovative companies by building high-performance teams to challenge the status quo and empowering them to pursue opportunities and accomplish things they never imagined possible.
I believe the team with the best people wins and that diversity of thought is the catalyst for genius. Change is rarely easy, so when you set out to achieve a transformational change of that magnitude, I found trust is the essential element whether it was in the 1980s growing GMFs in the largest manufacturer of industrial robots.
Even to this day or in the 1990s when Rasmus broke through mechanical design software, it forever changed the way engineers work 20 years ago. When a reeve invented b2b eCommerce to move business at light speed and whose Network transacts 3.7 trillion dollars per year, more than Amazon eBay, and Alibaba combined.
I’ve certainly learned that whenever you’re starting companies from scratch, people have to trust you they have to trust your product they have to trust your processes and they have to trust your company.
Question: What’s the life lesson like what’s the thing you’d want anyone who’s kind of grown up right now to really hear from you?
I’ve been doing transformations my whole life right I can’t do anything without kind of stirring up the pot and I think that the thing that I want to get across is the world needs more transformational leaders than ever before to deal with a fragmented world you know the rate of change is happening so much.
We need Principal leaders who can solve complex problems and you know I think the only way to do that is to jump in water over your head you know that’s something I’ve been doing my whole life because if trust is the most important word in any language then Change is the most powerful one because without change you don’t develop prosper or grow.
In the business world, you’re either changing or you’re dying the best way to deal with the future is to invent it. Trust is the basis of every relationship, whether it’s business or personal, or otherwise. And you partner with people you trust.
You do business with people you trust you buy from people you trust and you love people you trust and so it all boils down to trust if you think about it what’s your most valuable asset if you’re starting a company? Well-trusted relationships. So what’s one of the most important skills, it’s building trust, and everything in the business world is divided by time.
So the most important skill is how fast you can build trust. So those who are students, and young professionals think OK I buy into this idea of trust but how do I do it? First of all, you’ve got to trust yourself, that’s because you can’t trust anybody else unless you trust yourself and I found a way to build that trust is to keep jumping in water over your head.
You go into a new environment, go into a new company something like that. So how do you build drives well you do it One-on-one and so the question is can you build trust at a lodge? Can you do it at dinner? What I found one of the things that work is you can’t be afraid to be vulnerable.
Because when you’re vulnerable with somebody about 95% of the time they’re reciprocating kind, and when both sides are vulnerable that forms a connection.
My transformational journey has been at high velocity with diverse adventures every few years. by living on the edge I’ve experienced plenty of adversity and lots of opportunities to learn from my failures and if there’s anything I’ve learned that’s when I learn the most each new chapter builds on the last one and involves the risk of jumping in water over your head.
After a while, that adrenaline rush becomes so addicting that I can’t imagine my life without it. I call it scary fun. To quote one of the greatest transformational leaders of our time. The biggest risk of all is that we stopped taking risks at all. You know I’ve had the good fortune of living the American dream.
And I feel really blessed and so I think that was one of the things my parents you know obviously my drive comes from my upbringing and it’s about paying it forward and giving it back and so if you look at the things whether it’s what I did in higher education or in the business world or in public service it’s all about that next generation.
If you ask me okay so what would be the big legacy you want to leave behind? I think back to what my Dad would always say about fathers he goes you never know if you’re a good father until you see your children’s children. So I would say it’s all about my mentee’s mentees. You never know if you’re a good leader until you see your mentee’s mentees. Because you’re teaching them how to cascade that down.
And I’ve had some great manners in my life you know there’s a genealogy out here in Silicon Valley because this stuff’s not written in a book. So you learn from the previous guy my mom would always say the best way to learn is OPE, Other People’s Experience.
You would always say the best way to learn is from your mistakes. You learn from other people’s mistakes because you don’t have time to make your own.
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