25. The Weekly - Seeking Truth
On the fountain of youth, money hygiene and how profit still matters.
Welcome to the Happy Medium newsletter, where I share inspiration and bite-sized musings on creative business each week. Enjoy!
Quick thoughts
Musings on business, creativity, psychology and more.
Validate the premise
You may have heard of blue zones. These are areas in the world where people commonly live past 100. Dozens of studies have been done trying to determine what makes these blue zones special - is it a diet of fresh food, is it the sense of community in these small villages, is there something in the environment itself that grants long life?
It turns out that the common factor in all of these blue zones is… inaccurate or incomplete record keeping. With a side of light fraud (relatives avoided reporting deaths to receive pensions).
There are two lessons to be learnt from this phenomena. The first is to validate the premise. If you are interested in learning more about why people live a long time, check that they actually do. It sounds so obvious but this gets missed in business all the time!
Some problems present as larger than they are because they are annoying or effect leadership disproportionately, but there may be a different problem at stake. Make sure the problem actually exists and validate how big it really is before diving in to solve it.
The second is that if you ask a question, people will answer - regardless of whether they know the answer or not. When you ask the friendly maybe-not-quite-centenarian what their secret is, they are unlikely to answer ‘light fraud’ instead they will share the unique aspects of their diet, lifestyle or culture that they would like to share anyway.
Not to say they won’t provide some great advice, but it’s unlikely to be the key to the fountain of youth. Stay curious, ask questions but always validate the premise before you go digging for a root cause so you’re able to find insights in your research, not just answers.
Inspiration
Things that have inspired me this week.
No Meetings, No Deadlines, No Full-Time Employees
Sahil Lavingia
If I had to design a perfect company it would look like Gumroad. It’s a structure you rarely encounter in the Silicon Valley growth-at-all-costs world of tech but its one that is profitable and sustainable (also a rarity).
Gumroad has no full time staff, they communicate entirely asynchronistically, there are no meetings, no team building exercises and no standups. The reason they can do this is because everyone knows what they are doing. They hire capable people (who are often already users) and let them do their thing!
“Instead of setting quarterly goals or using OKRs, we move towards a single north star: maximizing how much money creators earn. It's simple and measurable, allowing anyone in the company to do the math on how much a feature or bug-fix might be worth.”
Sure, not all businesses can do this but it’s a great example of focusing on a north star and doing only what counts - everything else is waste.
Lessons about Money
Jessica Hatzis, MUSE MUSE
Great advice on the business of making money. This conversation between Jessica Hatzis and Michael Da Gama Pinto breaks down the importance of getting the fundamentals right, what security looks like (in business and life) and good money hygiene.
“I believe we are at our best when we have economic safety as this leads to a feeling of agency and self determination. Safety is key as it allows us to feel in control. When we humans feel in control, we feel safe. When we are safe, we are more likely to feel happy.”
Doing only what counts
If you’d like to remove the waste from your business and spend your time doing what actually matters, the Problem Solving Mini course is for you.
You can book a time that suits you and your team and we’ll run through all the types of waste, how to identify them and then how to reduce and remove them.
If you want to dive deeper, Problem Solving 101 equips you to be a superstar problem solver. Over 4 weeks, you’ll learn how to identify the root cause, find solutions and most importantly, implement successfully.
You can learn more here and either schedule a class for your team, or register your interest for upcoming classes.
Or if you’re after strategic support for your business holistically, get in touch!
That’s it for this week! As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts - you can DM me or leave a comment.
If you’re enjoying the weekly, please share with someone else who might enjoy it too.
Otherwise, if you aren’t already, subscribe to get these in your inbox every week or catch up on previous weeks below!
24. The Weekly - Illustrated Value
Welcome to the Happy Medium newsletter, where I share inspiration and bite-sized musings on creative business each week.
23. The Weekly - Imperfect Piles
Welcome to the Happy Medium newsletter, where I share inspiration and bite-sized musings on creative business each week. Enjoy!