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Startup Agility 131

focus and crisp execution in the short term, while recognizing that
longer-term events are ultimately unpredictable. “A fuzzy vision
works,” he writes, “because it provides general direction and sets as-
pirations without prematurely locking the company in to a specific
course of action.”2

Describing his approach to the same challenge, J.C. Faulkner uses
the term perch management, evoking the example of a bird flying
through a forest with a clear focus on the next landing place. Each leg
of your startup journey will lead to a new “perch,” from which a new
vista opens up and another destination is chosen. “Long-range plan-
ning is important, but it’s always wonderfully imperfect,” he says. “So
you should focus on what it takes to get to the next perch, to execute
on your next logical step.”

LOOKING THROUGH THE LENS OF POTENTIAL: LESSONS FROM A
VISUAL ARTIST

Launching a new venture is a creative act, and challenges faced by
passionate entrepreneurs run parallel in many ways to the work of
professional artists. Like entrepreneurs, artists give shape and life to
new ideas through processes of experimentation and discovery. And
like most entrepreneurs, artists invest a great deal of passion and
emotion in their work. Entrepreneurs can learn much from an ac-
complished artist, someone who has grounded a career in the creative
process and who teaches creativity and innovation to business leaders.

I first met Shaun Cassidy as part of an entrepreneurial session at
the Innovation Institute, a program in Charlotte, North Carolina, that
brings professional artists together with senior executives to help them
unleash personal creativity and build more innovative workplaces.3
Shaun is an artist leader with the Institute, a professor of sculpture at
Winthrop University, and an internationally recognized sculptor and
painter. Much of his teaching centers on the theme that creativity is
an iterative process, where one idea leads to the next, with each iter-
ation building on a prior result toward an increasingly valuable piece
of work. His creative process echoes my own founding experience and
that of many successful entrepreneurs I have observed and studied.

American Management Association • www.amanet.org