Rocket Fuel: The One Essential Combination That Will Get You More of What You Want from Your Business

by Gino Wickman

“Contrary to popular belief, it takes not one but two entrepreneurs to build a great company, and they have dramatically different roles. In this brilliant book, Gino Wickman and Mark C. Winters explain the vital importance of having both a Visionary and an Integrator—and show how that relationship can provide the ‘rocket fuel’ your company needs to achieve its full potential.”

The hands of a healer, a heart for the Lord, and the adventurous spirit of an entrepreneur . . . You’ve taught me so much. I marvel at the number of lives you’ve impacted—none more than mine. And also to my beautiful wife, Beth, and my sons, Austin, Blake, and Carson: Everything is better when I’m with you. You are my world. I love you beyond words.

Their different perspectives create inherent tension. The way they think and solve problems are often diametrically opposed.

Before we begin, it is important to understand that this discovery has at its core a philosophical belief. All human beings have a God-given set of capabilities—what Dan Sullivan would call “Unique Ability®*.” Or in other words, a true skill-set or genetic makeup.

The premise is that all people have one. A Visionary is meant to be a Visionary, and an Integrator is meant to be an Integrator. You are either one or the other, rarely both.

(This figure comes from John F. Dini, in his book Hunting in a Farmers World: Celebrating the Mind of an Entrepreneur.)

We’ve even had them go on to teach this concept to MBA students at universities on our behalf. Understanding and implementing this concept is both eye-opening and empowering. Frankly, it has also kept some partners from killing each other. Let’s explore what life looks like for a Visionary.

To start, you should realize that the following characteristics are typical attributes. No Visionary has 100% of them. A good rule of thumb is that if you match up on 80% of the traits outlined in this section, you are a Visionary.

In John F. Dini’s book, he calls you “Hunters,” meaning that you are wired differently than most. You are always in “hunting” mode. Your type of hunting is for ideas, deals, opportunities, and solutions to big problems.

He says, “Entrepreneurs [Visionaries] hunt. They don’t manage. They explore rather than analyze. They build companies with vision, creativity, and tenacity; not with policies and procedures.”

As a result, your new idea can actually sabotage your best idea. This may be your Achilles’ heel as a Visionary.

“My ever-growing wish list is always bigger than our resources are capable of tackling; it is a challenge for me to conclude with my team which ideas not to act on. I’m also challenged with my new ideas because without proper resources, they will take me away from responsibilities I have in executing the existing plan.”

“Too many ideas.” And another said, “I’m always trying to get 100 pounds of sh*t into a 50-pound bag.”

Gartner explains that the reason there are so many entrepreneurs (Visionaries) in America is that most of us are immigrants. It lies in our genes because of our forebears who had the will, optimism, and daring to leave their countries for the “promised land.”

“Entrepreneurs have an unrealistic optimism. It’s chemical in the brain. They see things others can’t.” Along the same lines, Steve Jobs of Apple was once described as having a “reality distortion field.”

However, on the negative side, you are unable to pay attention to someone speaking to you unless they make their point in under 30 seconds. They don’t feel like you care enough to listen. And they may even experience more difficulty speaking with you once they anticipate you shutting them down when they can’t get their point across quickly enough. You jump from topic to topic, without a segue, making it hard for people to follow you. You think they surely have caught your point, while they may not feel comfortable stopping you to clarify—which they may well need to do a lot. Miscommunication runs rampant. You are frustrated—and so are they.

Clearly articulating the details of your vision to others can be quite a challenge. And having to repeat it often wears you out.

He is surprised to find out that it’s only guessed right 2.5% of the time. He does not realize the listener is only hearing monotonous thumps on the table.

You are very bright, and likely made it this far largely on your own capabilities—expanding the company from startup to where you are today on your own brute strength. However, what got you here won’t get you to the next level.

It is exceedingly difficult for you to attract the type of leadership that could eventually run the day-to-day without you.

As an entrepreneur you don’t like being told what to do.

When you are aggressive in meetings, it makes you difficult to challenge.

Our experience shows us there is an obvious pattern in the aforementioned Visionary traits that tends to contribute to some of their biggest challenges. Those challenges are as follows: • Inconsistency • Organizational “whiplash,” the head turn • Dysfunctional team, a lack of openness and honesty • Lack of clear direction/under-communication • Reluctance to let go • Underdeveloped leaders and managers • “Genius with a thousand helpers” • Ego and feelings of value dependent on being needed by others • Eyes (appetite) bigger than stomach; 100 pounds

Resistance to following standardized processes • Quickly and easily bored • No patience for the details • Amplification of complexity and chaos • ADD (typical, not always) • All foot on gas pedal—with no brake • Drive is too hard for most people

WHAT’S GETTING IN THE WAY? If you think that you have these unique Visionary talents and aren’t sure how to fully maximize them, welcome to the crowd. A lack of Visionary self-awareness is a common pattern. We often see this in working with hundreds of real-life Visionaries. Why didn’t they initially see themselves as...

Says Matt, “I never realized I was a Visionary. It came slowly and gradually to me, almost as a result of finding out what I don’t do well. Once I realized I was a Visionary (others saw it long before I did), I was enormously motivated and freed to really grow and be courageous in the role . . . which it requires! I began to turn everything that wasn’t for a Visionary over to our Integrator. We have taken the company to another level!”

“Vision without execution is just hallucination.”

In other words, you need someone to help you execute your vision.

An Integrator is a person who has the Unique Ability® to harmoniously integrate the major functions of the business, run the organization, and manage the day-to-day issues that arise. The Integrator is the glue that holds the people, processes, systems, priorities, and strategy of the company together.

The Steady Force. An Integrator is the type of person who is obsessed about organizational clarity. They are great at making sure people are communicating within the organization.

All of these duties put you in a position where you are frequently disliked by someone for something.

1. They are co-founders.

2. They are partners.

3. An existing internal team member becomes the Integrator.

4. The Integrator is hired from the outside.

“WHY-guys, for all their vision and imagination, often get the short end of the stick. Without someone inspired by their vision and the knowledge to make it a reality, most WHY-types end up as starving visionaries, people with all the answers but never accomplishing much themselves,” says Sinek.

V/I Side-by-Side Comparison VISIONARIES INTEGRATORS Solve big complex problems Identify and articulate the problems Generate 20 new ideas per week Make the best ideas a reality Are great leaders Are great managers Are optimistic Are realistic Are “outside guys” Are “inside guys” Create the Vision Execute the Vision

Imagine if their two personalities were exactly alike. What gain would there be for the organization? It would simply have more of the same capacity.

Of course, James’s desire to have everything in place before taking a leap still drives Scott crazy. And Scott’s desire to leap first and deal with the fallout later frustrates James. Yet no one can argue with their tremendous success in a very competitive industry.

Unfortunately, the business had also outgrown the abilities of the Integrator. The market had changed considerably, competition had increased, and the relationship became fractured during the final few years.

The Visionary Spectrum assesses how much Visionary is needed in a particular organization. This determination changes based on three factors: (1) type of industry, (2) growth aspirations held by the leaders of the organization, and (3) the degree of change/complexity the company faces.

Based on the type and amount of Visionary, you can then calibrate the need for a certain type of complementary Integrator. Walt Disney, one of the greatest Visionaries of all time, needed a very strong Integrator—like Roy. Yet if a Visionary is not spinning out new ideas in a flood, managing the business is a less complicated task.

For these reasons, no two V/I combinations are the same. Put another way, every Visionary isn’t for every Integrator, and vice versa. One size doesn’t fit all. Just like the two puzzle pieces, not all fit together.

Many duos are at their wits’ end because the relationship is dysfunctional. Just as bad, many Visionaries don’t have an Integrator at all, and many Integrators remain undiscovered by the right Visionary.

The Four Readiness Factors 1. Financial readiness (affordability) 2. Psychological readiness (ready to let go of some control) 3. Lifestyle readiness (ready for fewer hours, or the same hours with a different focus and less frustration) 4. Unique Ability® readiness (ready to be 100% you)

For this tool to have impact on your company and relationships, you’ll need to follow a few ground rules:

1. You must look forward. You cannot look back or get caught up in the present.

2. You must detach yourself from the existing business, your current role, your ego, and any emotionally charged thinking. Be open-minded.

3. You must elevate yourself above the business, looking down on it from that perspective, so you can make decisions for the greater long-term good of your company.

It is important to stress that the Integrator reports to the Visionary.