FORWARD

by Andrew Yang

I was nominally the founder and CEO, but I had myriad stakeholders whom I was beholden to: staff, donors, volunteers, the young aspiring entrepreneurs who had put their careers in our hands, companies who were employing our fellows, our board of directors, foundations, corporate partners, and on and on. So many people were working or donating because they believed in the mission of the organization, and my job was to continually present a vision that would galvanize people. They don’t work for you so much as you work for them. That’s closer to government leadership; you have to continuously build consensus among supporters and stakeholders. You set a vision and hope others will build toward it. You should be establishing trust and communicating as much as possible. You do not have the ability to fire legislators or judges or journalists or those who disagree with you, and their interests could be in direct opposition to yours. Instead of commanding, often you have to pick your opportunities and try to get done as much as you can within a preexisting framework.