#3) Erik Olsen, Founder, Webhuset.no

I said fuck it, sold my car, borrowed the rest and went ahead.

I met Erik Olsen at a Slush event many moons ago. He´s previously Founder of Webhuset.no (exited to godaddy) and now cofounder, atender.io and superagent.com.

We just clicked rightaway and over time he has entered my closest circle of friends. We share a love of golf, sarcasm, having flexible lives and cold gin n tonics.

Druids Heath, County Wicklow, Ireland

If you meet Erik, I think you will find him, like I did, to be quite calm, thoughtful and analytical. A listener. You would not immediately say to yourself, here´s a crazy risk taker. This guy´s nuts, clearly a loose cannon!

But here´s what I gleaned from a recent email exchange with Erik after he learned of Bold Moves.

So many times I read a founder story and they create this story that clearly is just made up after having had success. In general there's a need to explain why you did certain things because people ask (and I have kind of felt the pressure to “explain” myself).

Further:

I'm sure some do it to make it seem like a more thoughtful process and make them look smarter in retrospect… but actually I think most people create these stories afterwards just because they feel they need to have an answer every time people ask why and how did you do it. People just assume there must have been a good process to it.

And lo and behold:

The truth is very often: I have no fucking clue. I just went out and did it. And I didn't really feel I was taking any risk.

Not only did he leap into the void without thinking it through, he also didn´t feel like he was taking any risk. Risk really is a matter of perspective.

"Requirements" according to Erik:

To be a successful founder you need a combination of (1) willingness to get out of your comfort zone, (2) some analytical skills to handle failures, feedback, adjust and try again, and then (3) you need drive to be able to do this over and over again until you get it right. And that's the hardest part.

“Always have a playbook for failure.”

Erik feels like he wasn´t taking any risk, really, but he was of course in fact taking very real risk. He was starting a new company.

He admits:

Well, if you put it to me directly I of course have taken huge risk. The type of "I have to move back in with my parents if this goes wrong" type risk back in my 20s.

But his 20s perception isn´t the same as his 40s. So being young can help. He had a dose of that entrepreneurial hubris, a feeling of “knowing it was going to fly” if he worked hard enough. “One way or another.”

I'll happily admit that one of the biggest reasons I didn't see any risk when I was in my early 20s was because I didn't have a family or a mortgage. I had not yet developed that same sense for risk that I have much more of now in my 40s.

I said fuck it, sold my car, borrowed the rest and went ahead.

But he was also consciously managing the risk. “I have always had a plan B and sometimes even a plan C. That helps and makes you feel a bit more comfortable with taking big risks.”

Some would say that's being risk averse. I don't agree with that.

Take risk but always have a playbook for failure.