Most Important Skills For A Cofounder At Pencil Energy

For an auditor, the number one skill is persistence. You are not always liked by the subject of your audit. You will face excuses as to why you shouldn't do your job, but that doesn't matter because it's your job.

You have to work around people who make your life difficult if possible. Sometimes it's impossible and you have to force your way through. Rare though, so there's that element of persistence where you get told no by people. Then you go levels below and ask their staff the same types of questions, and soon you'll crack open a lane for you to actually get the information you need.

On the same vein, this is where the creativity comes in. It may not sound like a highly creative role, but when dealing with obstacles, having the mindset that it's possible to get information and answers is crucial. Not letting someone simply telling you something be your conclusion is also important.

On the last audit I worked on, which I unfortunately didn't get to finish because it was quite spicy, I had a new auditor on my team. She found it interesting and enlightening when I would have interviews. She would be there to learn from me as I asked people questions about their program.

After the interview, we would turn off Zoom and go into another room. I would tell my audit staff colleague my actual opinions on what I was hearing. What was enlightening to this person was that even though someone would tell us whatever they would tell us, I would say, "I don't necessarily believe that this is the case."

I would suggest, "I think that we could look at X, Y, and Z to understand what they're really saying. Isn't it interesting that this person didn't mention A, B, or C?" My colleague was impressed by the way I could think around the situation.

Anyone can say anything, but the real magic is when you can expand your mind to the possibility that what people say is not complete or accurate. With that said, it doesn't mean the person is acting maliciously. You're balancing in your head the dynamic of taking people at face value, but then also investigating to understand their claims and where they're coming from.

That takes a high degree of creativity. Persistence and creativity are also top skill sets for founders. One of my founder friends is wise because she is fixated on creating value. She says all the time, "Just create value."

What that means is if you're doing work for somebody so that they don't have to do that work, and you do that faster, cheaper, more easily, or more accurately, you're creating value on some level. The amount of value you create is how much faster it is, compared to the old method, how much cheaper, et cetera.

That is creativity because you are finding ways to make other people's lives easier or better in a way that's different or faster. But to get there, to understand that people actually want you to do that for them requires investigation, research, and conversations with people. It reminded me a lot of my job as an auditor, talking to people, thinking around the problem.

Accepting that whatever someone tells you isn't necessarily the reality is key. It's like the famous quote from Henry Ford about faster horses versus cars – no one could even conceptualize a car. I hope that's helpful.