Connecting the Dots Looking Forward
When Steve Jobs was invited to be the commencement speaker at Stanford, he gave a speech that went down in history. There are many memorable things in that speech, but one in particular that I always quote. He says: “you can only connect the dots looking backwards.”
Jobs is referring to the many important connections in his life that he had no idea where they would lead, but that ended up mattering to the world. For example, when he dropped out of the official college curriculum and decided to take a calligraphy class, he couldn’t have imagined that it would change the world by giving personal computer text editors the variety of fonts we use today.
But whenever I repeat Jobs’ words from that speech, I add a new idea. “But, you can paint several dots and some of them will connect in surprising ways.”
There is something important there, connected to the central idea that Jobs repeats at the end of the speech: “stay hungry, stay foolish.” He means that we should feed our childlike curiosity while setting aside the filters of adult life. That is the kind of behavior that fuels serendipity, unpredictability and innovation.
My provocation adds one more ingredient: intentionality. These surprising connections will never happen if we don’t create opportunities. And while we are talking about the importance of randomness and unpredictability, intention adds action and direction.
Action is important to provoke reaction. Without it, all we can do is wait for chance.
Direction is important for those who don’t want to be carried along purely by chance.
“There is no favorable wind for the one who doesn’t know where they are going.” Seneca
What am I actually talking about?
Mostly human connections. I often look backwards and connect the dots. They are usually connected by people. My business partners, for example, throughout my entire entrepreneurial journey, I always met them because I met other people who introduced us. If I hadn’t been at a certain event, hadn’t taken part in a specific conversation, my whole story would be different because of the connections I made.
Of course, it can apply to other things too: topics you want to study, places you want to visit. Dive in. But my experience tells me that what changes our decisions, our way of thinking and inspires us, is people.
The opportunities for your career and for your company are a function of the relationships you build. And you can and should be intentional about building them. Not with ulterior motives, but with genuine interest. It’s not about networking in the transactional sense of the word. Depth is also crucial for real transformation. Whenever I trace the dots that connected in my story, they were connected by people who truly mattered to me.
That’s why building relationships is what I call connecting the dots looking forward. With intentionality, depth and genuine interest, but also with detachment, without expectations and by inviting serendipidity.
They will connect, in some way you are not able to predict, but as the result of an intentional action.
For the founder building toward an exit or anything else
We should apply the principle of connecting the dots looking forward all the time. The truth is that I lean on it most during more expansive moments. When I’m exploring new business possibilities, or entering a phase of fundraising or business development.
The other side of a transaction, whether it’s a merger, acquisition, partnership, investment or a commercial deal, is already connected to your ecosystem in some way. You might reach them through someone you’ll meet at that event you’re too lazy to attend, through a conversation with a fund that invested in your competitor, or even through a friend of a friend you’ll run into on a Friday night out.
You won’t know right now which dot will connect with which. But you do know that if you don’t paint those dots, there will be no connection possible.
Building relationships with future transaction partners is not about making an early pitch or showing up with hidden agendas. It’s about being seen, being respected, being remembered. It’s about being present when the window of opportunity opens.
Paint the dots. With intention, with generosity and with patience. The exit you can’t yet visualize may already be taking shape through someone you’ll meet in a conversation you haven’t had yet.