#9. No solutions, only trade-offs

“There are no solutions, only trade-offs.” 

Thomas Sowell

I heard this quote some time ago, originally made famous by the economist Thomas Sowell. It’s been floating around in my head for some time and recent events in our company’s journey seem to accurately embody the deep rooted truth in this saying. 

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For a lot of my life, my behaviour has leant heavily into two ways of being that, in the context of company building, can become problematic if given too much influence in one’s decision making: (i) Trying to please everyone, and (ii) Being a perfectionist. During the early stages of its life, a growing company exists as a dynamic network of interactions, where the behaviour of the ensemble cannot necessarily be predicted from the behaviour of the component parts. There are many unknowns, unpredictable external forces, interpersonal dynamics, resource constraints … all of which leave you operating in a complex, non-linear environment. This does not always bode well for someone who seeks a clean, theoretical optimum.

When I sat down to plan my personal operating model a few months ago, I conjured up a sophisticated schedule full of complex daily and weekly rituals; principles and systems that would surely allow me operate as the ‘optimal’ CEO/founder for my company. It was a beautiful conception of best practices that I had learnt from books, experience and several solid mentors. Fast forward a few weeks and the impossibility of acting in line with such a plan had been revealed. I would be forced to make trade-offs every day in terms of how I would actually spend my time.   

For a long time, I’ve leant on the comfortable but toxic companion of lengthy to-do lists as a means of not acknowledging the finite nature of my time. Kidding myself that I can finesse my way through to optimal completion of everything. But, in moments of bravery, I sometimes choose to time-block my calendar – a wonderful exercise for realising that there are, in fact, only trade-offs to be made.    

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Why does this matter?

I find this concept important and interesting for 3 reasons:

1. Granting yourself permission to move forward
2. Learning to ruthlessly focus
3. Starting to find peace

None of what I’ve written below is by any means ground-breaking (i.e., that prioritisation is important, we should avoid seeking perfection …). However, my overarching point is that many of us (especially myself) don’t deeply accept that trade-offs are a necessary part of working as a founder, which binds us to a state of anxiety and robs us from moving towards a state of peace.

Granting permission to move forward. 

On a number of occasions, I’ve found myself paralyzed by the inability to make a decision. When we raised our seed round, we were bombarded by voices each with a differing opinion on ‘how much’ we needed to raise. I tried hard to find the ‘right decision’ (or, the ‘solution’) but it became clear that we simply would not know. We had to accept that there would always be some trade-off between company dilution and longevity. 

In a start-up environment, the cost of dwelling in a state of indecisiveness often outweighs the downside of potential risks that come with moving in a given direction. There is a subtle mental shift that arises when you start to internalise the reality that trade-offs are an inevitability. It grants permission to move in a direction that is not perfect. This is so important, as it is often only by committing to a direction that you will gain new information about the world and thus be able to revise what you previously thought to be true. Before starting a company, I spent months planning for the ‘optimal’ start-up idea; never satisfied, hence never moving forward, hence never actually learning enough to find the right problem to solve. 

Learning to ruthlessly focus.

One of my favourite books that I’ve now re-read multiple times is Essentialism, ‘The disciplined pursuit of less’. As described by author Greg McKeown, the essentialist has to learn to gracefully say no to many things, to make trade-offs, to go big on a few things and give up the trivial many. Prioritisation is hard. Saying no is hard. Combatting sunken cost is hard. And without acknowledging the reality of needing to constantly make trade-offs, we are inadvertently avoiding the tough exercise of deciding where we should actually be spending our time.

As a founder, everything feels important, and you’ll inevitably be surrounded by differing views and opinions on what you should and shouldn’t be focusing on at any point in time. Learning to deeply internalise the inevitability of trade-offs helps you to avoid trying to run an inch in 100 directions. It forces you into the uncomfortable but necessary exercise of, for example, sitting down at the start of every day and asking – if I could only do 3 things today to really move my company forward, what would they be?

Comprise can be a killer. 

As someone who likes everyone around me to be happy, there is a default mode of being which comes over me in the face of conflicting views, which is to try and find the ‘middle ground’. There are times when this can make sense, but it can also be very dangerous.

This is counterintuitive to what most of us have been taught. For example: If we as a team are torn between targeting ideal customer profile (ICP) A, or ICP B, we may attempt to divide our efforts between the two as the best middle ground solution. In doing so, it is however quite likely that we don’t go deep enough in either direction to really learn what was required and thus truly validate or disprove our assumptions.

Another example: two people within a team want to have ownership of the same area of the company or product. The way of the compromiser would be to attempt to divide responsibility between them. But, from experience, this kind of compromise is almost always the least optimal way of moving forward. There is no solution here that results in both everyone being happy, and at the same time moves the company in the best possible direction. Accepting that there is inherently a trade-off to be made can help relieve the pressure.

Happiness is the gap between expectations and reality.

The final reason I love this saying is that it grants permission for us to be imperfect. By accepting that trade offs are a natural part of life, we can lower the impossibly high bars that we hold for ourselves which otherwise give birth to a perpetual state of not being enough. How we make those trade offs is a reflection of our values, quality of mental models and changing desires as we move through life. Our goal should be to constantly learn, to lean into discomfort, and to iterate. Becoming comfortable with imperfection can be the antidote to suffering.