FOUNDER · ISSUE 002
Every founder gets the company off the ground on conviction — a belief held before the evidence existed. That's not optional; it's the job. But the same trait, left unexamined, is often what keeps a founder from becoming a CEO.
Conviction and judgment aren't the same instinct. Conviction is acting without permission from evidence. Judgment is updating the belief as evidence arrives. The founders who make the leap to CEO are the ones who never let the first one replace the second.
THE JUDGMENT CHECK
Name one belief about the business you haven't questioned in 90 days
Ask what would have to be true for you to be wrong
Notice how fast you can answer that
If you can't answer quickly, it isn't a belief you're holding anymore
Holding a belief means you could drop it. Clutching one means it's dropped you.
This shows up in the boardroom more than the product. A founder can defend a roadmap call for twenty minutes and still not say what evidence would change his mind.
I've sat across from founders who could tell me, instantly, the last time they changed their mind about something core to the business. Those are the ones I'd bet on. The ones who couldn't answer — that's the tell.
— Ahmad
THIS WEEK'S MOVE
Write down the belief about your company you'd defend hardest right now. Then write down what would have to be true for it to be wrong. If the second sentence is hard to finish, start there.
ANNOUNCING
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