Work Like a Pirate
I’m not joking. The idea from this post came from watching the ads for the new Pirates of the Carribean movie. It reminded me of a common theme in all the pirate movies that can apply to business.
A Pirate is not His Ship
Pirates are the ultimate underdogs. They often have a lesser quality ship (or product or service). To compensate, they have to be more creative and clever in dealing with their opponents. They don’t view their ship (or their product) as home base. They view it as a means to beat the opponent, by capturing or sinking their enemy’s ship. How can you go after your enemy? How can you look at your own product or service as a means to an end?
Pirates Move Fast
Because most of their vessels were stolen or “acquired,” pirates often had smaller, faster vessels, but lacking the big guns of the ships they were often pitted against. Flexibility becomes one of the tenets of living the pirate’s life in business, flexibility married to cunning and adaptability.
Pirates are a Team
In researching this post, I was surprised to learn that pirate Captains didn’t have the final say on matters the way they do in movies. Turns out that most pirate ships were run democratically. The captain would get a share and a half of the treasure, but otherwise, his word carried no more weight in official votes than his crew. In business, the CEO is seen as the leader, but an organization runs only when everyone participates. The analogy breaks down a little here, as I can’t imagine forcing my CEO to walk the plank, but then again, a Board of Directors unhappy with a CEO’s performance might fit that bill, right?
Pirates Live by Results
Plundering, pillaging, and other pursuits aside, pirates are all about getting results. They don’t get paid without a lot of up-front hard work. If you are a pirate, you are striving to accomplish a big score. There are perils, risks, and all kinds of ways that the job can fail. It’s a lot like being part of a startup, only pirates have swords, patches, and parrots.
The only negative I found to the whole pirate-as-businessperson analysis is that they’re horrible at organizing information. They file everything under “Rrrrr.” Sorry, I had to say that.
Off the wall, I admit, but sometimes it’s the ideas on the fringe that grab us and move us towards another angle we hadn’t considered before. So, are you a pirate? Or their prey?
–Chris Brogan hides buried treasure for a living. Maps can be found at [chrisbrogan.com]
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Comments
Christian Razukas says on May 25th, 2006 at 3:35 pm
This post ranks up there with the lifehack.org post drawing management lessons from Hernando Cortes and the conquistadors.
Pirates were and are armed robbers. Piracy is an international crime. The fact that the crimes took place 400 years ago is irrelevant.
Why should we emulate criminals? You might as well add that pirates know what they want and do what it takes to get what they want.
Do you want people 400 years from now to praise pedophiles for their ability to operate under the radar? Or maybe it will be OK then to say emulate the 9/11 hijackers for thinking outside the box?
I love lifehack.org, but please be careful with foolish praise for evil and immoral behavior.
ChrisBrogan says on May 25th, 2006 at 5:00 pm
I want to fully reply, but I’m pressed for time. I knew someone would take offense and mention the true-life pirates and their crimes. That’s why I started the post saying I was inspired by the ad for the silly Disney movie starring Johnny Depp and a guy shaped like an octopus-man.
But I respect your point.
Thanks for taking the time to write me your thoughts and opinions. I guess I’ll have to scrap my “Give Presentations like the Vikings” post, too.
Michael Birks says on May 25th, 2006 at 6:45 pm
Remember, too, to skip anything expressing an appreciation of the evil, imperialist colonial expansionism practiced by the European powers during the last 500 years.
Nary anything good came from it.
Christian Razukas says on May 25th, 2006 at 8:34 pm
Chris, thanks for the comment!
I totally understand your points, and do appreciate the spirit in which it was blogged!
Personally, I am uncomfortable with superficial historical analogies – and I mean superficial in the precise (not the insulting!) sense in that the analogies do not go deep enough. I was deeply concerned about the conquistador metaphor used by an earlier poster, as well. Time should not lessen our toleration of evil, nor should we romanticize or idealize the people of the past.
I want to operate my business, and run my career, ethically. For me, that means finding ethical guidance and philosophy, and approaching such guidance critically.
Keep posting, and thanks!
ChrisBrogan says on May 25th, 2006 at 9:25 pm
The most interesting part of the timing was this: at lunch today, a coworker and I discussed the greatest genocide ever committed: Columbus bringing European diseases to the new world and eliminating 90% of the indiginous peoples. I didn’t know that number, and his point was exactly that: we celebrate Columbus. Then we talked about the Australian and Tazmanian genocides, and a few more.
Of course, if I were in a more joking mood, I’d wonder if you get equally mad at the “Ask a Ninja” guy. : )
Wolfger says on May 26th, 2006 at 5:49 am
Evil is subjective. People seem to forget that. One King’s valiant privateer was another King’s ruthless pirate. To us, the Taliban are evil. Ask the taliban, and they will say we are evil. It disturbs me how many people (nearly everybody!) buy into the comic book concept of good and evil. It’s patently untrue. There are just people and other people. Those who are in opposition always portray themselves as good, and their opponents as evil. I bet even “Teach” thought of himself in a positive light, although his story has been permanently cast in a particular light over the course of time. Remember that the victorious write the history books. Pirates are certainly to be admired for their accomplishments. Indeed… they were the most democratic organizations of the time!
(hopefully HTML is allowed, or this next bit won’t read right)
They weren’t invading other
countriesships foroilgold; they were bringing democracy toIraqthe high seas! Were not pirates, then, bastions of good? Heroes, even?Florian says on May 26th, 2006 at 11:46 am
It is true that european diseases killed 90% of the american native population, but that was not genocide.
Most europeans at that time thought you could protect yourself against diseases by not washing and avoiding soap. The smell would destroy the disease.
So the europeans did not know what was happening in the americas and it wasn’t really their fault.
The pirates on the other hand were not all criminals the most famous ones were all privateers, authorized to plunder spanish treasures. HoHoHo. And that definilty was a worthy business…
ChrisBrogan says on May 26th, 2006 at 12:02 pm
That’s a good point. It’s probably not reasonable to call it “genocide,” which shows intent to murder. Thanks.
(No one liked the Rrrrr joke, did they?)
David Neawedde says on May 29th, 2006 at 9:32 pm
I liked the Rrrr joke! And this is an interesting post, I like the pirate metaphor haha!
Michael Spector says on May 29th, 2006 at 11:45 pm
I read the article, and I have one thing to say to Mssr. Razukas…for your own mental health and well-being, please learn to lighten up.
Tim+ says on May 30th, 2006 at 12:49 pm
“It is true that european diseases killed 90% of the american native population, but that was not genocide.”
There are many cases were Europeans gave Native Americans diseased blankets as a seemingly goodwill offering and using other sorts of ‘biological warfare’ against these peoples. This wasn’t every instance but in many cases it was genocide.
immigration restrictions says on November 23rd, 2006 at 9:35 am
Ask the taliban, and they will say we are evil. It disturbs me how many people (nearly everybody!) buy into the comic book concept of good and evil. It’s patently untrue. There are just people and other people. Those who are in opposition always portray themselves as good, and their opponents as evil.