Key Ideas

• We are enamoured with success stories and try to replicate the success by following other successful people. What successful people create is a map, and we need to understand that the map is not a territory.
• Map is just an abstraction of the territory that you have to navigate. While navigating using a map, be prepared for surprises like the odd unmapped cliff that poses a challenge to the journey.
• A few things we need to understand:
  • A map is a guide. It shows the way, but we would have to do the hard work of navigation. You must be ready to deviate based on your experiences while taking the journey.
  • A map is someone else’s visualization of a terrain. The cartographer’s biases guide it. Being aware that the map isn’t perfect is essential.
  • If the map were to be overly detailed, it would be so complicated that it would no longer serve the purpose. The limitations of a map make it reusable across different scenarios. As per our experiences, we make the necessary tweaks in the journey.
• An important caveat - What worked for others may not work for you.
• To get success in using a map, understand these three fundamental principles:
  • Our experience is a better judge. When working in a startup or leading a team for the first time, understand that maps exist, but others made them for a different context and conditions. World changes fast - keep the map as a guide, but we must use our experience as a judge.
  • Know the cartographer. Understand the cartographer who made the map. We might be following a visionary who gave us a guide. Understand the journey, the context, and other factors that gave the luminary the ways to succeed. Then based on our context, we can modify it for our success.
  • The map could change the territory. At times, a visionary makes such an impact with the map, that the territory itself is changed. This could lead to a problem forced to adapt to a sub-optimal solution - Because a map said so.