The MBA Virus
AKA: why you're confused & overwhelmed
Hi all —
I meet a lot of founders. My observation is that all founders struggle with one thing: Figuring out what is most important, and doing that.
Every founder I talk with is overwhelmed with options and choices. Founders feel like there’s so much advice out there, they’re not sure what to do. And so they get wildly stressed and overwhelmed. They overthink and obsess. And they wind up accomplishing a lot less than they should.
This takes a huge toll on founders. As a founder, I was so stressed that I hollowed myself out and couldn’t focus on anything but work for a few years. Other founders I know are similarly obsessed, which causes their health, relationships, and happiness to suffer.
All this to get your ownership diluted to near-zero if you’re successful, and get your bank account diluted to near-zero if you’re not.
None of this makes any f*cking sense when you zoom out. We’re just building businesses - why is this so difficult?
I’ve since realized: Building a company is not actually that difficult. The hard part is trying to build a real company while infected with the MBA virus.
wait what?
People have been building companies for hundreds of years. It’s not complicated: You figure out what a certain kind of person wants to buy, then you build it and sell it to them. And you repeat that.
Whether you’re a plumber, a consultant, a craftsperson, or an engineer, you have to do the same thing.
Sure, there are nuances. There are smarter and dumber ways to approach this (e.g., calling your product a “cake pop” vs. “mushed-up cake on a stick”). And you have to be thoughtful about how and where you compete, whether you’re a scrap yard or a SaaS company.
Even with all the nuances, this isn’t THAT crazy difficult. It certainly doesn’t take 180 IQ points.
Until, that is, you get infected with the MBA virus.
The MBA Virus
A set of bad ideas are ruining the minds of the world’s would-be innovators and business leaders.
These ideas form the MBA virus, which is a massive drain on economic and social progress.
The MBA virus causes you to overcomplicate entrepreneurship. It paralyzes you and prevents you from doing the obvious thing. It gives you a bunch of bad ideas that cause you to raise too much money and waste too much money, while building something nobody actually needs or wants. And it makes you feel like total shit, because you KNOW deep down you’re smarter than this - and yet it seems like reality is gaslighting you because what should work, doesn’t.
There are three main lies (that sound right & profound) that lodge in your head and form the MBA virus:
Knowing comes before doing
To go big in the end, you go big from the start
You have to solve for multiple stakeholders - investors, customers, employees, your vision, etc.
These ideas have massive implications:
When you think “knowing comes before doing,” - you spend a lot of time on pitch decks and vision statements. You think a lot and believe you need the answer up-front. You build a logical universe where your business makes sense, and try to force that logic onto reality. You believe things that influencers (VCs, social media gurus, authors, professors) say that “sound right and make sense.” The problem? These things sound right and logical but are wrong and counterproductive.
When you think “to go big in the end, you go big in the start” - you assume that you NEED SaaS revenue and VC money in the beginning. You think you need SOC compliance and big teams and multiple broad customer segments. You look at what big companies do and try to replicate their approaches; you think in terms of factories and assembly lines and metrics. You think about scalability and code architecture and job descriptions and culture. All of these things distract you from making your business survive, and some steer you straight into the iceberg.
When you think you need to “solve for multiple stakeholders” - you wind up serving everybody BUT the customer. Priorities are jealous gods; there’s a reason the God of the Bible is jealous - you can only worship one.
The problem? These beliefs aren’t even discussed. They’re the water we swim in. They underlie the advice you get from VCs, in podcasts, in books, on social media. Unexamined, unquestioned. Smart people are infected with the MBA virus, and society is worse off for it.
Escape the MBA virus
Step 1: Understand the MBA virus. ✅
Step 2: Escape the MBA virus.
How do you break free?
I’m still struggling to do this for Reframe. I overcomplicate, theorize, and wind up going down rabbit-holes. I’m aware of the virus, but am not completely free from it.
I have two kinds of advice for you, based on my own experiences.
How to stop overthinking:
Commit to a certain path for 1-2 months, so you don’t feel like you’re always questioning everything. Write down the path you’re committing to and when you’re going to re-evaluate.
Have ONE document you keep that tells you what matters and what you’re focused on. Pick ONE priority to get done this week. Keep it simple (I use a paper notebook). When this gets complicated, or you try to solve too many things, you wind up overwhelmed, firefighting, and administering tasks rather than doing the important and difficult work of prioritizing.
When you’re overwhelmed with options about what to do, pick the stupidly practical one. Example: “I need to boost sales.”
Option 1: Set up your sales systems and architecture, hone your messaging, perfect your landing page.
Option 2: Call 50 people you’d like to sell to. « Do this.
How to do the obvious thing & see your business from the customer’s point of view:
Design for ONE “Hell Yes” customer. Otherwise, you’re going to wind up designing for yourself and the world you WISH existed.
Work with someone who can give you the answer from an outsider’s perspective. I do this for a few founders, and I work with advisors who do this for Reframe. Meet biweekly or weekly to get feedback on your direction and biggest challenges.
Hope this helps. We can all fight the MBA virus together.