don't do your best

Our whole lives we're taught to do our best, to go above and beyond. School drills this into us from a young age: work hard, answer every question, complete every assignment, get that extra credit. And, in most aspects of life, this level of conscientiousness is a positive trait.

But not in entrepreneurship. As a founder, this mindset can be poisonous.

For most of us - certainly for me - this is default wiring. When I started my first company, I immediately thought: "I need a pitch deck, a business plan, and a product roadmap. I'm going to create the best damn versions of each."

A few weeks later, I had them all: a beautifully designed pitch deck, a meticulously spell-checked business plan, and a visionary product roadmap. A+, right?

Wrong.

Because what happens next? You take your idea to investors who tell you to talk to customers, or you talk to customers directly and realize everything needs to change. All that time perfecting your pitch deck? Pure waste.

This principle applies beyond the idea stage - it's relevant at every phase of building a company. It's about shifting from being output-oriented to outcome-oriented: reaching the next meaningful objective with minimal effort.

The engineering and manufacturing worlds understand this deeply:

In engineering, it’s called over-engineering. The best engineers accomplish objectives with elegant simplicity and minimal code. It's the naive ones who build out every permutation under the guise of "future-proofing," only to create systems that are slow and painful to maintain.

In manufacturing, it's called over-production. Anything beyond exact needs is waste - waste that strains resources and requires additional effort to manage.

More is not better. Better is not better. More detailed is not better. More beautiful is not better.

More effective is better. More efficient is better. Which often means less is better.

My favorite reads to go deeper:

- The Lean Startup by Eric Ries

- Toyota Production System by Taiichi Ohno