What boating 3500km from Sweden to Serbia taught me about running a company
After deciding to move back from the States I decided to get a 9-meter powerboat in Sweeden and travel through Europe in 40 days unaware of the impact it’d have on me
Having a boat has been a dream of mine for many years now and in preparation for it, I’ve sailed in Greece on 12-person, 16-meter sailboat as well as spent many summer days on Charles River in Boston cruising with 4-person, 6-meter sailboats. This summer I was changing jobs and had a bit of time to fill — what a better moment to embark on such a journey?
TL;DR;
1. Never ever doubt that you CAN do it
2. When in a shit-storm make the hard choice, don’t do use the shortCUTs — you will get CUT
3. Invest in empowering technology
4. Choose your people carefully
5. When you delegate, delegate fully
My dad and I boarded the plane in Belgrade, flew to Malmo, took the train to Gothenburg where the initial boat we set our eye on was located. After doing all of the checks on the engine, hull, etc. we realized that we’ve been lied to and that we cannot pull off such a long trip with that vessel. The next morning we were browsing ads and found something similar close by and went to check it out. It was a sturdy boat from 1974 with a hull designed for the sea, powered by a 72 horsepower British engine made in 1978. We knew close to nothing about boating before this trip apart from my 3 years of sailing on Charles. Yes, neither of us knew anything about engines unless you count the most basic stuff you learn by owning a car and talking to a few friends who are boat owners.
Swedish sailors: You want to go from here(Gotheburg) to Belgrade?
My dad and I: Yes!
Swedish sailors: WOOOOOW
When super experienced, gray-bearded Swedes started wowing at our intended adventure we felt first tremors in our enthusiasm and confidence. This brings me to the important first lesson:
- Never ever doubt that you CAN do it
No matter what others say, only you know your limits. The fact of life is that people are scared of the unknown, of change. In these situations ask yourself what is the worst thing that can happen? You’ll be surprised how many times the worst possible outcome is not that bad actually — for me it was our boat flipping and losing it. Is it painful to lose X amount of dollars that you worked your ass off to make, yes, but will it kill you? The answer is a resounding no because if it will, you probably should save up a tad more before doing something like this.
Once we were en route, the first day or two were fine, we were testing the limits of the boat in the seas that kept getting rougher as winds were reaching 40–50km/h (~20 knots). At the end of day 3 after 11 hours of driving in 2 to 3-meter waves just before we were to reach the harbor, we realized that spiky rocks were right in front of us. One thing you very quickly learn is that no matter how bigs the waves are, if they are coming directly at your back or up to a 45-degree angle you’re fine! However, this dictates your course — you can only go in the direction of waves +-45 degrees. Doing this for 10 hours will get you to a point close to the port but not exactly the port. We came approximately 30 meters from the beach, 50 meters from the rocks, 2 kilometers south of the port. At this point there were two possible choices, try to squeeze through the narrow passage between the rocks or go back into 3-meter waves and suffer violent up and down movement.
2. When in a shit-storm make the right choice, don’t do use the shortCUTs — because you will get CUT
In life, a lot of times you get into a shit storm, and at that point it might seem tempting to use the shortcut. Remember, you are in a STORM — one thing you cannot really predict is if there will be a wind gust that will push you onto the rocks and spear your hull. Take the more uncomfortable route, turn and go into the waves. The second safest option in boating apart from waves coming from the back is when waves are coming from the front — yes it’s uncomfortable but you will make it out, no storm lasts forever (unless you’re on Jupiter).
After weathering the big waves and making a sharp turn we were safe in harbor, drinking Capitan Morgan spiced rum and some coke. Our, at that point customary, end-of-day celebratory drink.
A few days fast forward, we were exiting Copenhagen and visibility was practically 0 (less than 100m). Thick fog was all around us and we were supposed to cross a large bay where we were going to be quite far from the land. At this moment my dad said:
“Trust your dad on this one, it’s probably not a good idea to go in the fog this thick. Let’s go back and try another time”.
I replied:
“Well, our ship is 9 meters, you can see the coast right now and our GPS map says we’re 150 meters away which means even if a large ship shows up we will see it 150 meters which will give us around 30-40 seconds to react and move our boat out of ship’s route which takes us 4 seconds.”
This exchange brings us to the following lesson:
3. Invest in empowering technology
It is of utmost importance to find technology that will empower you because in situations when everything is foggy around you it will give you just the right amount of clarity. Those 40 seconds are the competitive edge you need to win because when no one else is riding you will be able to, relatively safely. *I must acknowledge that I wanted to do this trip without the GPS maps that contained depth printed which turned out to be of utmost importance — kudos to my dad who stressed this from the very start
After 25 days we parked the boat in the middle of Germany and went back to Serbia for a couple of days to finish some stuff and take a much-needed break. I returned after 10 days with a different crew, 2 of my best buds both CEOs of their startups, all three of us with very strong personalities (thank you Theo Goetemann & Petar Ojdrovic for doing this with me 💗). This was quite a change because traveling with my dad, I was the one who kept pushing and adding the energy into the mix. However, with 2 of them, I was the one pumping the break and they mocked me every time by saying “Dad mode activated”.
4. Choose your people carefully
In the startup community, you will often hear “the people you need to go from 1 customer to 10 customers are not the people that will take you from 10 to 100”. Depending on your personality you must choose counterparts that will offset you in the right direction. My dad was probably a little too conservative, while my friends were a little too aggressive on some ideas. However, I made communication mistakes with both types as I tried to keep the balance — my dad, I annoyed with pushing too much at wrong times. My friends, on the other hand, I had withdrawn into themselves because I managed every little thing and they stopped telling me when they thought I was wrong (the most important thing you’ll ever have, you absolutely cannot afford for people to stop telling you when you’re wrong).
After we ironed out the details and talked about this, the team became very good, smooth sailing from then on. The final tidbit of knowledge I gained from this was in regards to how do you answer the question “Who is the Capitan of this boat?”
5. When you delegate, delegate fully
It’s hard to do anything for 10 to 12 hours straight. Even if you think you can do it alone, you should find people who will be on board with you and help you out when you get tired. At the moment when you give the wheel to someone else, make sure to communicate that all responsibility is with them. They are the ones making all decisions when to stop, when to turn, where to dock — this is important because at times they look to you for decision, that time to react is too long because it took 2 people to respond to a situation instead of one. Take the time to train them in the beginning on all the pieces they need to succeed and then trust them to do the good work. For bonus points, stay in the background for a bit and only pop up when you see that something is potentially going south, ask why they made that decision and have them proactively tell you what the correct approach to that situation was.
That’s all folks! Let me know in the comments what other fun situations that were non-work-related made you think about any of these points.
