If there weren’t any problems, there would be no need for leadership. And there is definitely no room for leaders who say it’s not their problem.

A few days ago, I boarded a train as I do almost every day. I took out my laptop and started working. Then, in the compartment behind me, I heard somebody talking loudly on the phone:

“Listen, I don’t care. It’s not my problem.”

I’m not squeamish, and I don’t get emotional very quickly. But this statement struck me like lightning, even though I didn’t know the context of that conversation.

I have been standing on the bridge for 15 years in different roles — as an entrepreneur, a military commander, and a parent — and I learnt one thing during this time: If there is a problem, it’s your problem. Leaders can’t walk away from the problem. You can’t hope that miraculously somebody else will take care of your problem, and you certainly can’t blame other people for the problem.

Entrepreneurs Care

I’ve been an entrepreneur for more than 10 years. The best way to describe entrepreneurship is a rollercoaster: Sometimes you feel invincible, and the next moment, you think your company will tank.

Investors are walking away or changing terms at the last possible moment. Or you walk away from a proposed term sheet because you care for your team.

New deals are delayed again and again, leaving your budget looking like a clueless bad joke.

Customers are dissatisfied and threaten to terminate your services.

A new war breaks out in a country where you are in the final negotiations with a new enterprise customer.

I’m no different from any other entrepreneur. I suffered many setbacks, disappointments, and bad news. But I always found a solution before it was too late. And never did I think to walk away from those difficulties or say that I didn’t care. I always stood firmly on that bridge, made decisions with uncertain outcomes, and changed the course at short-term notice if needed.

Military Commanders Care

Switzerland still has an active reserve system in its Armed Forces, and I am serving as an active reserve battalion commander. Earlier in my military career, I served as a commander of an airlift company. Although I was thankfully never deployed in wartime, I have witnessed occasions when not everybody returned home from a military operation: I led search-and-rescue operations at the tender age of 26.

And that’s the core difference between entrepreneurs and military commanders.

The worst that can happen to you as an entrepreneur is that your company goes bankrupt and you fail to pay your employees’ salaries.

The worst that can happen to you as a military commander is that your troops pay for your failures with their lives. Never forget that.

That’s why military commanders emphasize intelligence, planning, and contingency plans. Commanders’ sole purpose is to make sure they are prepared to bring back as many of their troops alive as possible, no matter what the enemy does.

And when you are standing at the frontline, and despite all the intelligence and planning, the enemy surprises you with something you haven’t foreseen: Do you think you can walk away as a commander, or declare that the enemy’s actions aren’t your problem? Do you think somebody will deliver that wonder weapon out of nowhere and save you?

You will need to find your way out of the situation yourself.

Parents Care

Many people might not consider parenting as a leadership role. Being the father of three kids, let me reassure you it is — and I’m not talking about the everyday challenges.

In my view, the true leadership role of parents is to give direction to the lives of their children. This starts with the values you pass on and continues with how you support your kids during their education. It’s about showing them all the possibilities life can offer while making sure that they understand that you cannot have everything at once. Like for entrepreneurs and military commanders, resources are limited in a family, and I spend a lot of time teaching my kids this core constraint in life.

Furthermore, I try to pass on my conviction that very often, it pays off to grit your teeth until the storm has passed and the skies have cleared.

I do this in the hope that my kids will never walk away from difficulties in their lives and take care to solve the problems at hand.

Conclusion

Leadership is difficult. Leaders are there to solve the hard problems. And in our troubled times, there are plenty of hard problems to solve.

If there weren’t any hard problems, there would be no need for leadership. And there is definitely no room for leaders who say that they don’t care and the problems aren’t theirs.