Every human initiative – from projects to parties to entire businesses – starts with one single founder, the source. The source is the person who takes the first risk to realise an idea.

Many people believe there can be equal co-founders who got started ‘together’, but Koenig has found that in every case there is one single source. Two or more people cannot take the initiative on exactly the same idea at the same moment. Someone is always first. They are the source.

It can sometimes be difficult at first to identify who the source of an initiative is. The identity of the source is not dependent on who started the legal entity, who provided the money or who had a formal role appointed. It’s simply who invested themselves in taking the first risk. The risk can be as simple as someone asking for help.

There are a number of other signs to look for: The source’s voice seemingly has more weight than others in group discussions about the initiative. The source often has a visceral sense of what’s right and wrong for the initiative. But the definitive test always comes down to identifying the moment of source when one person took the initiative by taking the first risk.

Next: The relationship between the source and the initiative