Thousands of light years from home.
No back-up.
Limited resources.
Scary bad guys with superior weapons.
Is this the plot of Star Trek: Voyager, or a day in your small business?
Both! I’m light years from my old corporate life. I don’t have the bench strength of hundreds or even thousands of colleagues, and limited resources would be a step up from my current supply. Bad guys? Visit my gallery of villains for just a glimpse at the bad guys small business owners face.
Right now I’m rediscovering the Voyager series with my husband and daughter, who are first time viewers. I was still in a corporate role when it originally aired, so the intriguing corollaries to being an entrepreneur are a new experience.
Ready to find out what Star Trek: Voyager has taught me about small business? Set your phasers to stun, and hold onto your communicator.
Star Trek Voyager Small Business Lessons On Going it Alone
This post is part of the awesome Word Carnival. Click the link to read more posts on this month’s theme: Close (Biz) Encounters of the Sci-Fi Kind.
Be Open to Unusual Alliances (with a Scorpion Failsafe)
Alternate Title: Don’t trust a Borg leopard to change its spots. Keep a tranquilizer gun on hand.
In an unprecedented move, Captain Janeway strikes an uneasy alliance with the Borg. She needs safe passage through their space, and they need human innovation to defeat a powerful enemy.
A Star Fleet captain made a deal with the Borg. Why not just summon the devil himself? How could this even be considered? How could this efficient, soulless, collective be trusted?
The question for Janeway was not if the Borg could deliver on their end of the bargain, but if they could be trusted to keep up their end once their enemy was defeated. To make it work Captain Janeway implemented a “trust but verify” approach. A poison pill, or as Chakotay called it, Scorpion, failsafe was put in place. When the Borg tried to renege on the deal, scorpion was activated, and the crew was saved.
Keep an open mind regarding unconventional partnerships for your small business. Get all agreements in writing, and include an exit strategy. Who knows, you may get safely through enemy territory AND gain a crew member like Seven of Nine!
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You Can’t Avoid Holodeck Technology Problems
Alternate Title: Why do people keep using the holodeck when past “glitches” have resulted in life threatening problems?
From the time holodecks were introduced in Star Trek: The Next Generation, holodeck malfunctions became a plot device. Safety protocols off, aliens in the holodeck, holodeck characters run amuck,…
The holodeck became the “redshirt” of newer installments in the Star Trek universe. Why even have a holodeck with all those problems?
In Voyager the holodeck serves a variety of functions. The crew often uses it for running simulations to test new technology. Holo technology allowed the ship to have a doctor when the flesh and blood one died. It also provides some much needed R&R for a crew that is tens of thousands of light years from home.
Bottom line – the benefits of using the holodeck are worth the risks.
Technology in small business is no different. 95% of the time technology works perfectly. It makes your business run more efficiently and more profitably.
Oh but that other 5%. Webinars gone awry. Files that didn’t save. Blog posts that don’t publish. From an outsiders perspective wouldn’t the question be the same as the holodeck one? Why keep using it?
We should only use technology when it supports our business and our bottom line. If the holodecks ran amuck 50% of the time how often do you think they’d get used? If they provided little value why would anyone use them?
Run your holodeck diagnostic against the technology you use. Does it function correctly the vast majority of the time? Is it contributing to your profit and success? If not, it’s time to take it offline.
Use Scarcity to Inspire Innovation
Alternate Title: Hair pasta is just an expression, right?
I love Italian food, especially spaghetti. But after an episode where Neelix (the alien cook) serves up “pasta” that really IS made from animal hair I took a break. I just kept imagining a mouth full of human hair. ICK!
Once I got past the ick factor though, I realized that if I were stranded far away from any source of real pasta, I would consider alternatives. What if the taste and texture were very similar to real angel hair pasta? Would I give up a favorite dish because of my narrow mindedness?
While some Trekkies disapproved of Neelix’s character, I found him refreshing. As a former junk dealer / scavenger cum Delta Quadrant guide, Neelix was used to making do. Ships weren’t bright and shiny, with limitless replicator rations in his world. Scarcity was the norm.
I started my professional career in a large corporate environment. The equivalent of bright, shiny, and new, with full replicator access. When I first made the transition to entrepreneur it was hard to change that mindset. To remember that I couldn’t just dock at a Star Fleet base to resupply and repair any damages.
Embrace your inner Neelix. Look for creative ways to use your resources and make them stretch farther.
Final Thoughts
What is the top business lesson that you’ve learned from Star Trek?
For Trekkies – can you also share when you started referring to Star Trek for business insights? For non-Trekkies – is it legitimate to use fictional characters with phasers as role models in business?
Nicole Fende is The Numbers Whisperer® and author of How to be a Finance Rock Star: The Small Business Owner’s Ticket to Multi-Platinum Profits
There is SO much wisdom in a Star Trek story! Probably why we love them all so much. For me, it’s always been about the relationships — people working together for a common purpose and learning about each other and themselves along the way. Not necessarily a business lesson, but I’ve always thought of business as one of the fast paths to enlightenment. LOL.
That’s a great point Tea. Clearly special effects did NOT make the original great. It was the people, and the relationships. In particular the byplay from Kirk, Bones & Spock.
Love these lessons from my third favorite Star Trek series, Nicole, especially about keeping technology in its place. Sometime in my first year of blogging I did a Star Trek related post that’s now lost in the mists of time. Since then I’ve used it on the travel blog I used to write for, so I think you can pretty much apply it to everything. I didn’t start out liking Neelix, but his cheerful attitude grew on me.
Bummer about the original Star Trek post lost in the mist of time.
For Neelix I think they also toned down his character a bit over the lifetime of the series.
Nicole you crack me up. You are truly a Trekkie if you can pull that many scenes and quotes out of your hat! “Have an exit plan”… boy I wish I was smart enough to remember THAT one all the time! I’m constantly telling people to get it in writing then I go all lax when I’m trying to “be nice”. ARGH! bad bad bad
Here’s an addition to your list, since it seems to me that a recurring theme of Star Trek is: follow the Prime Directive. Unless you don’t.
Sometimes you just gotta break the rules.
Carol Lynn I’ve got many, many more. The hair pasta one IS a direct quote from Lt. Paris to Neelix.
Since you can’t change the past (that would go against the Temporal Prime Directive), use past issues as the impetus to get it in writing going forward.
Love your advice about the Prime Directive. Makes me think of the episode where Kirk becomes a mobster….
When resources are limited and we’re forced to stretch, the most impressive, innovative and creative ideas emerge. Go forth and be scrappy.
“Go forth and be scrappy” Great quote!
Ok, this is such an excellent post, but I seriously cannot even get over the amazing Fluffy photoshopping! Hahahah!
Fluffy has the power to appear anywhere. He’s like a modified Q.
Nicole, as a complete Trekkie luddite, you have finally persuaded me it is time to redress this shortcoming. Still I got the analogies and particularly the exit strategy. And what ever a holodeck is it reminds me of my printer, and my iphone and a whole lot of other whimsical gadgets I have that do things or don’t do things when I least expect them, but would I be without them? Never. Notice I didn’t say anything about my Mac, even if it too has the teeniest littlest odd glitch:)
Yay! The original Star Trek series was an incredibly progressive, forward thinking show for it’s time. Consider that in the 60’s you had a Russian, an Asian, and a guy who looked a bit like the devil in the crew.
Another fun fact – the first interracial kiss that aired in the US was between Captain Kirk and Lt. Uhura.
And from a clan point of view? Trekkies would make a very interesting study.
Now you have persuaded me. I have friends who go to sleep every night viewing an episode on their ipad. Sort of comfort thing. Next time this topic airs, watch for a converted trekkie’s comments on clans!
Yay! You won’t be disappointed Sandy.
In my mind, Neelix is right up there with Quark on par with the perfect Star Trek entrepreneurs.
He’ll always have a special place in my heart because he was always true to himself, whether he was wigging out or just trying to find his place in the crew who was a LOT more technically talented than he was.
There were four (5, really) episodes that stood out in my mind as perfect tie-ins to entrepreneurial lessons:
1) Critical Care
2) Author, Author
3) The Good Shepherd
4) Fair Haven
In Critical Care, we see the Doctor abducted and forced to operate under the oppressive hand of a sentient computer, in a society much like ours where the wealthiest get amazing drugs to extend their lives while those same drugs are denied to the “less thans” where it could save lives and prevent mass suffering. The crux of the episode was the Doctor railing against this system with everything he had because the pre-determined value of the patients was hardly accurate. Tons of great business accumen in there.
In Author, Author – the Doctor utilizes his experiences day-to-day to write his fictional holonovel, Photons Be Free, which casts the Voyager crew in a less than favorable light – as if they were the Doctor’s oppressors. It’s a valuable lesson in perceptions and picking the right target audience, as well as being accountable for your art and who it touches – good or bad. The most poignant thing at the end was all of the retrofitted EMHs at the end, who are now performing menial labor for the Federation in Dilithium Mines, share the novel amongst themselves… and what’s worse: we get an actual glimpse that humanity has constructed a tool in their own image only to put it to work with little regard for conditions or more than a second’s thought that “this tool might be sentient” (as Alpha Quadrant EMH’s probably never got the chance the Doctor did). Disturbing to say the least.
Next we have The Good Shepherd in which Janeway finds three underperforming crewmembers who would have been cast off in the Alpha Quadrant, and attempts to bring them up to par by taking them all on an away mission. It’s a great example of thoughtful leadership and keeping your priorities in check when dealing with new team members. Janeway’s handling of Harren, in particular, showed a kind of no-bs tact that you have to expect from a Starfleet captain or business owner alike.
Finally, in Fair Haven, we see Janeway fall in love with Michael Sullivan, a holographic character from Tom Paris’s recreational masterpiece. The problem: Janeway can tweak her desire’s attributes until he’s picture perfect for her… and that means that she’ll never be challenged by him and she’ll always be able to tweak him to be the perfect mate – which is not real love. It’s a great example of “deal the cards you’re given” and “good enough is good enough”.
Then you’ve got Year of Hell – which requires a whole blog post of it’s own right.
In any case – these are all great lessons! I think this should be my next book project, haha.
Thanks! This is probably the most useful post I’ve read on any blog. I guess I know who I’m going to start following.
Excellent post. You really dialed that in. It’s the simple principles that worked for people that have already been where we are heading and desire to be that we should pay close attention to.Thanks for keeping it real and I always look forward to your next post!
Great Summary with easy explanation All point of this article are valuable & useful.
You crack me up! And that Fluffy, what a photo bomber!
what an important message! Thank you so much for sharing your experience and life lessons. Will you tell us a bit about your mastermind and how that kind of sharing works for you and the others in the group?
As I’ve shared before, Story is nearly ALWAYS a wonderful medium for exploring new and/or hard things.
Business definitely qualifies.
Hadn’t thought of these PARTICULAR ones before, but they certainly work!
And yes, we WOULD make an interesting study. Especially for all the ways we’ve used it to make our lives work. :>