Last week I was on a boat…well, it was really a yacht, and I was speaking with a handful of friends and we all knew that we were going to change the world. Seriously. “My company is going to change the world” or “my product is going to change the world”. I mean, we are on a yacht, we have lots of (other people’s) money, and we are really, really smart – we’ve all read “Zero to One” and quote smart business ideas we’ve read. We have groupies. One of my friends has a patented sandwich press and he is definitely changing the world. Eventually we all got drunk and high and naked and honestly, I’m a founder and my life is so great.
So yeah, that wasn’t me.
Too many people read the Steve Jobs book. And by the way, Steve Jobs didn’t invent the smart phone and Elon Musk didn’t invent anything. The cult of personality that dominates the “founder” world is an “all about me”, narcissistic, rabbit hole.
Give us all a f-ing break.
Every time I hear a founder talk about changing the world I want to hug them and tell them it’s going to be ok. You don’t need to change the world.
You know what we can do? We can conserve water and energy. We can thank someone and make them feel a bit better about their day. We can show gratitude. We can make someone smile. Not ambitious enough? Maybe not. I guess it’s not difficult to do something kind in just about any situation. But if you’re a founder of a company, is it easy to make the world a better place in your own small way – every day? Can you build a company that does that?
Instead of changing the world, how about changing one person’s world. However small it seems. If the narrative could switch from “we are going to change the world” to “we are going to do something to make one person’s life a little bit better every day” think about how much more attainable and measurable that is. And how much more gratifying!
If you have an idea, a company, if you’re a founder and you want to change the world, ask yourself this…if you’re not able to change one person’s life, how are you going to change the world? If it’s not that simple, then what are you spending all that money on? If your primary goal is to keep raising money, if you need 20M dollars to accomplish your goal, then W the actual F?
There are a bunch of startup predators out there that love to find founders who want to change the world. They say “you’re awesome, follow your dreams, don’t give up, don’t stop, if nobody believes in you, believe in yourself and your idea, you can do it! YOU CAN CHANGE THE WORLD”. They are all over social media and they take videos of themselves on a boat or strutting through an airport saying with such confidence “what you need to do is…”
Skip it.
Can you impact one person? Yes? Keep going. No? Stop, your idea sucks. Do something else.
Thanks for your time. Take care of your bartenders and wait staff.