Starvation, Indigestion, and the Discipline to Stay Great
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This week, we’ll be expanding upon a common theme I’ve seen in my work consulting with start ups, business owners, and those with an entrepreneurial spirit– how come so many businesses fail and what to do about it?
Jim Collins, well renowned entrepreneur, consultant, and author of Good to Great and Built to Last, attributes most business failures to a problem of the stomach – that is, metaphorically dying of indigestion rather than starvation.
Let’s review one of the more gluttonous businesses first, those that have died by doing too much:
WeWork was founded in 2010 by Adam Neumann and Miguel McKelvey as an idea to market shared office space to freelancers and start up companies. By 2019, it was valued at $47 billion and received $10 billion of investment from SoftBank. By 2023, WeWork had filed for bankruptcy. How does a company have such a fall from grace? They take on way too much, too fast, lose sight of principles that allow them to be successful to begin with, and die from the resulting bloat – death by indigestion.
The key takeaway here is that entrepreneurs, like businesses, can easily find themselves out over their skis and losing sight of what made them profitable first. As Dan Priestly warns, “getting new customers should NOT be your goal. Customers buy from you once, clients buy from you over and over again.” In other words, staying focused on making your current clients happy is more important than acquiring new customers.
Ok – I get where your heads are probably at – you aren’t a WeWork level entrepreneur – maybe you’re not an entrepreneur at all! So how does this logic boil down to something useful for you?
The idea here is simple. To remain successful in whatever pursuit, you must have the discipline to stay ruthlessly focused on a narrow field where you can be best. There’s only one “you” – one “you” with your unique combination of interests – with your unique way of thinking through problem solving. That is a great asset, so use it.
Here’s a practical example of this discipline in action: I recently had coffee with a woman who asked if we intended to take insurance at Valiance. While my heart is compelled to be able to offer our services to more people at a lower cost, we built our business to be a premier experience. One of our core values at Valiance is “excellence” in practice, and we believe that we need to remain in control of how we deliver and get compensated for the services we offer without fear of insurance based regulatory oversight in order to maintain the highest standard of care. One of our core values at Valiance is "excellence". We believe that to uphold the highest standard of care, we must control how we deliver and are compensated for our services, free from insurance-based regulatory oversight. We need to ward off being attracted to ideas that are not our core business. We need to fend off indigestion.
Conversely, we need to be mindful not to be the next Blockbuster. Founded in 1985, Blockbuster’s demise was a problem associated with starvation. Once valued at $5 billion dollars, Blockbuster didn’t evolve into the digital era of the 21st century, and despite a $50 million dollar offer from Netflix to purchase the company in 2000, Blockbuster refused to adapt, eventually filing for bankruptcy in 2010.
In today’s market, roughly 40% of recent U.S. GDP growth has been driven by the AI boom. Whether you agree with it or not, it’s happening. If you’re not learning how to use AI in your work, your competitors are. You don’t want to be pulling a Blockbuster move right now, you will die of starvation if you do.
For OPB readers, the assumption is that all of us are in a constant pursuit of improvement or betterment of some kind. Some weeks there’s an emphasis on personal growth, others relational growth, and as in this week, a focus on career related growth. In all forms, the aforementioned metaphor holds. Try to do too much and you’ll risk feeling overwhelmed, under-slept and drowning in a sea of half-completed work. Do too little, and risk stagnation while slowly being left behind.
So here’s what you do based on your natural disposition:
For readers predisposed to taking on too much (ie: WeWork), avoid “shiny object” syndrome – avoid the compulsion to chase the next best thing – avoid saying “yes” before first saying “no” – avoid reacting versus responding – avoid never sleeping on a decision – avoid impulsively sending the email or making the phone call without thinking – or moving too quickly and breaking things whilst never pausing to reflect if you’ve just flat out broken too many things.
For those at risk of indigestion, find peace and solace in a steady diet of good enoughness. On working consistently each and every week. Take pride in streaks not peaks. Learn to reward yourself on 90 - 180 day time horizons. Try and have fun building something that takes time.
On the other hand, if you’re at risk of starvation, you’re probably tech-averse. You like things the way that they are. You may be risk-averse too, favoring momentum over adjustment. The IRS has 50,000 active fax lines in use in 2025. If you’re at risk of starvation, you’re like the IRS in the 21st century – refusing to go to electronic record keeping, because well, it’s just easier that way (maybe?).
For those at risk of starvation, I’d advise you take a long-term view on greatness being a pursuit that requires adjustment and pivoting. What you liked at 12 years old isn’t what you liked at 20 years old, and isn’t what you like today, right? So you’ve already pivoted in your personal life! Keep adjusting, keep noticing trends. Sure, sometimes you may need to take a risk, but don’t be so risk-averse that you never take one. Afterall, the best business (or best version of you) sticks around for the long haul, because it adjusts, not in spite of adjustments.
Thanks for reading as always and if this resonates with you, share it with a friend!
Time to win the week 🏆
See you next week :)
– J
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