The curses of logic and effectiveness
A brief reflection for my 5-year MBA reunion
Hi all —
I’m off to my 5th-year MBA reunion today.
I left Harvard to raise money and start a SaaS company.
Five years and $5M+ ARR later, I’ve unlearned most of what I thought I knew about business.
A brief reflection this week, which is at the root of many MBA challenges when they pursue entrepreneurship.
We are cursed by logic and effectiveness. We think they’re our superpowers, but they are our weaknesses.
The curse of logic
I often complain about the terrible startup advice I see doled out online, in books, and in the classroom.
I also get frustrated with founders who find ways to convince themselves to *not* focus on GTM.
But my arguments about this have been wrong. Pretty much all of the advice you see is logical, makes sense, and is pushed by smart & thoughtful people. The frameworks make so much sense; my MBA courses were logically bulletproof.
This is the curse of logic: It is much easier to sound right than it is to be right. Because we’re all damn smart, we can craft wildly compelling arguments ‘til the cows come home.
We can convince ourselves (and others) things like:
Product-led growth is the future
Brand matters for early-stage companies
Web3 is a thing
The best product wins in the end
We need to add AI to the product before we can start selling it
With all these things, we can sound right, up until reality punches us in the face.
When you have skin in the game, you get punched in the face often because you bear the downside. As a result, you focus on survival. When you focus on survival, you do the obvious thing, and you ignore the list of fancy things that academics say that sound right.
This is why blue-collar entrepreneurs and executives have far less existential angst (and frankly, are more likely successful) than we do. They survive because they focus on surviving; we die because we forget that to thrive, we must first survive. They’re not seeking global optima or the hot new thing; they’re selling to make payroll.
The antidote to the curse of logic? Focus on survival (getting to profitability). Earn the right to focus on other things. If it’s not your #1 bottleneck to survival & getting profitable, it is not THE thing to worry about now. That other thing might sound right, but it is probably a shiny object.
The curse of effectiveness
We are wildly capable people. Ex-MBAs, consultants, developers read this newsletter - you’re good at doing.
Because we’re good at doing things, we tend to do more things. We put the company on our backs. We overload ourselves and our teams with activity, priorities, and effort.
The result is always, always the same:
Do a bunch of work, take on more work
Freak out
Repeat until something breaks
This is the curse of effectiveness: Because we’re effective, we do too many things. And often don’t do THE most important thing. So we burn everyone out AND ignore the obvious things.
You can’t be constantly occupied. You can’t have multiple priorities - priority is a singular word with no plural.
There is always ONE main bottleneck - one big thing that’s preventing you from survival. There are always many fires smoldering, but only one that’s closest to burning your house to the ground.
The antidote? Same as before: If it’s not your #1 bottleneck to survival & getting profitable, it is not THE thing to worry about now.
Focus on it. Get it done. Then, move to the next bottleneck.
—
Now that I think of it, there are plenty of other MBA curses:
Treating businesses as financial assets (why private equity provides great returns but creates only paper value)
Pretending “management” is a real job
Hand-waving BS without skin-in-the-game (my personal favorite)