Uncompromising on the Problem, Agile on the Solution: The Founder’s Balancing Act

One constant piece of advice I give to Founders:

Be uncompromising about the problem you’re trying to solve but be flexible regarding the solution.

While this sounds simple, it’s actually difficult for many strong personalities to accept. They obsess about a problem and can articulate facts about the competition, the market need, and why conditions are finally right for a solution to emerge (good tenacity).

But sometimes they insist that their initial solution is the only answer to the problem (bad tenacity = stubbornness). They can easily get over-invested in the work it took to get from Point A to Point B and want to force traction to “prove” they’re on the right track.

But sometimes when a business arrives at Point B the current plans need to be scrapped because the market isn’t reacting the way you want it to. While this can hurt a Founder’s ego and confidence quite badly, many times it’s better to re-trench than march forward.

So, while I’ve met many brilliant Founders in my journeys, I’ve never met one who’s 100% right 100% of the time. The best you can hope for is that they’re 100% right about the problem they’re attacking and that they’ll learn as much as they can as efficiently as they can and figure out the solution on the way.

Always remember that seeing and interpreting market feedback with clarity is possible but being right out of the gate is a fantasy standard.