irrelevance…
Gisting with PGD the other day and it started with his usual;
PGD: “How is business?”
Me: “Going well, all things considered, but people are an issue, so I’m doing more than I should.”
His response was very interesting.. hence this blog;
PGD: “Do you know how hard you have to work to be irrelevant?”.
He pauses to allow all that to sink in.
PGD: “Here I am, absolutely free from any responsibility but content knowing that things are working as they should. I am irrelevant, and I am free to do what I please. I am not in the way.”
I am not in the way…. His perception is that people being in the way prevent growth, development and the ability to scale. And I agree.
Just like you have to work hard to be relevant, you also have to work hard to become successfully irrelevant. People like to be important; we spend entire careers trying to move up the ladder and be known for something. In fact, our quest for relevance probably starts even before our careers: at home [fighting for relevance amongst your siblings] or at school [fighting to be top of the class and recognised with good grades].
We spend our lives working hard to be important; there is both constructive and destructive importance. Much of it requires having systems in place to get things done, even in your absence. For PGD, from a family perspective, he doesn’t have to worry about administrative stuff any more; he has systems, processes in place that other people can also roll-out for him. It took many years to get those processes in place and working well, but they now work very well. Whilst, of course, he’s spiritually and emotionally relevant to our family — he is irrelevant in the administrative aspects of family life. So let’s be clear; irrelevance isn’t a pejorative term here, it’s a mark of success.
From a start-up perspective, what are the challenges they face? Firstly, they’re all fighting to be important; to be relevant. Relevance leads to access to investment, as well as growing your customer base. And this relevance usually starts with the founder[s] and CEO. It’s important for them to be important, but the path to them becoming important usually ends with them becoming a blockage as nothing moves or happens without their say so. This heavy reliance on one person — them acting as the primary cog and being hyper relevant, simply isn’t scalable.
Me? I am working towards my own irrelevance, putting structures in place so that other people can pick up where I left off. I’m not working towards building a people business, but a platform business, one where the platform is systems-oriented but can be powered by new people, whose own KPI should be how they can make themselves irrelevant for the next person to follow them.
We live in a society where people feel that they have to be important; but they are stopping growth and development. They’re stopping their legacy. You can’t scale because there is a blockage caused by gatekeepers who haven’t put the processes in place for things to happen in their absence.
Digital isn’t about people, it’s about building systems and subsequently trust in and through those systems. This is why platforms like blockchain continue to scale; it is a trust system that doesn’t care about people, it cares about making sure that things that you want done, get done. Any activities that you have designed will work better with digital. Using AI and tracking what people are doing will allow the systems to continue to learn and deliver a better experience. This can’t be done, certainly at scale, with people.
From a leadership perspective, processes need to be put in place and scaled using digital. You can’t solve for millions of people without this. How can I get 100 million people out of poverty? How can I put systems in place to scale support? How can I solve problems that require millions of micro engagements? The right type of leadership is crucial — and this is where people are important. But that leadership needs to understand that they can’t sign millions of documents, but the systems they put in place can do this and can do it right every time, drastically reducing error rates. And by consistently feeding the machine with data, with our business philosophies and ideologies, generative AI will allow us to improve the processes going forward. This is how we scale, this is how we start making ourselves irrelevant.
PGD always used to say that the rules are not there to keep bad people away, but they are there to protect good people in their moments of weakness. It is not about deciding what is good or bad; the systems will help us make the decisions as we work towards making ourselves irrelevant. Part of the mission of Sparkle is not only to make the world sparkle, but to be an example of and play a role in the change and development of small businesses in Nigeria. I want to empower individuals and SMEs to have access to better banking and business processes, showing the world that we have what it takes to build here in Nigeria. My personal mission is to become irrelevant. That, no-one talks about Uzoma, but they use and talk about Sparkle. The day when I no longer have to make a single decision is the day I’m irrelevant. That’s my KPI.
