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Startup Lessons From 17 Hard-Hitting Quotes In "Moneyball"

 

I'm an idiot. Not all of the time, mind you, not even most of the time, but every now and then, I'm an idiot. Like the time my friend and co-founder Brian Halligan asked me to read the book “Moneyball”. This was back when we had first launched our startup, HubSpot. “But, I'm not a baseball guy,” I said. “It's not about baseball. It's about data.” And, I put it on my reading list, and then still failed to read it. I even bought the book, but still failed to read it That was a mistake. 
I just got done watching the movie “Moneyball” for the second time. The first time I watched it was last night. It's the only time I've watched the same movie twice in two days. It's not just because it was a great movie (it was), but because I felt I missed so much the first time, that I had to watch it a second. If you haven't seen the movie yet, you should stop reading this article and go watch it. If you get distracted and never make it back to this article, I forgive you.
So, without further ado, here are some great quotes from Moneyball

Brilliant Startup Lessons From Moneyball

1. He passes the eye candy test. He's got the looks, he's great at playing the part.
Spectacular startup success often becomes a game about scouting and recruiting. A common mistake entrepreneurs make is recruiting team members early on simply because they look the part. In the long run, it doesn't matter if on paper, someone's perfect. You want people that can actually do the job. That VP of Sales candidate that has 15 years of experience at Oracle? Likely not worth it for you. They'll look the part, but they're not guaranteed to be able to actually do the job. And, like Johnny Damon, they're going to be expensive. Get good at seeing talent where others don't.
For example, at HubSpot, most of the early team did not look good on paper at all.  Most of us had little or no prior background doing what we were setting out to do.

2. You're not solving the problem. You're not even looking at the problem.
Identify a fundamental problem and then focus, focus, focus on solving that problem. Don't get distracted by all the the things that are swirling around the actual problem. Don't listen too closely to those that have deep industry expertise and are emotionally attached to the status quo — it's possible that they're part of the problem. Figure out what the actual issue is, and solve it.
For example, look at Dropbox.  Drew set out to solve a really hard problem -- getting data to synch across different devices.  He had many people (including me) that were telling him that this particular idea had been pursued so many times before.  He didn't get distracted by all that noise.  He dug in and fixed the problem.  Today, Dropbox is valued at billions of dollars and has millions of happy users.

3. We've got to think differently.
Reminds me of Apple. Only, Steve Jobs wrote it as ”think different” (intentionally going with the grammatically incorrect version because it “sounded better”).  Like the Oakland As, your startup too is working under constraints.  Often, big constraints.  Often, unfair constraints.  If you're trying to disrupt the status quo and beat competitors that are much bigger and better funded, you're not going to do it by playing their game.  You'll need to think differently.  Playing the old way when you're at a disadvantage is a sure-fire way to lose.
This is one that I'm personally very passionate about.  When we started HubSpot, everything we had learned about startups -- and the convention wisdom was "do one thing, and do it very, very well."  Generally, that's really, really good advice.  Except when it's not.  Like in our case.  The problem we saw was not that there weren't great marketing apps out there -- the problem was that none of it was integrated or worked well together.  So, we thought different.  We decided to do the crazy, crazy thing of doing it all.  Why?  Because that's what we believed the problem was.

4. First job in baseball? It's my first job anywhere.
Experience is often over-rated. Some of the most successful startup teams consisted of people that lacked relevant experience at the time they joined. But, what they lacked in experience, they more than made up for in sheer talent and hunger. In the early days, hire athletes. People with raw talent and a propensity to get things done. Don't be resistent to recruiting people that are early in their careers.  You're looking for arbitrage opportunities.  You're looking for the future stars -- because you likely can't afford or convince the current stars.

5. Your goal shouldn't be to buy players, your goal should be to buy wins.
I'm going to illustrate this point with a quick paraphrasing with a conversation I had with an entrepreneur last year. It went roughly like this:
Me: What do you need?
Them: We need to build a management team.
Me: No, what do you actually need right now?
Them: Well, right now we need a VP Engineering.
Me. What for?
Them: Well, we need head up our product development effort.
Me. No, you actually need to write code and release a product. You need to respond to customer issues. You need to iterate quickly so you can learn quickly. You don't need a VP of anything, you need a doer of stuff that needs to get done. Don't think about buying titles — think about buying outcomes.  Think about plugging gaping holes in the company.  Signing up customers so fast that you can't respond to all the support emails?  Don't hire a head of support, hire someone that helps you tackle the support issue.  Someone that's maniacally committed to customer happiness.  They can become your head of support some day.

6. He really needs to accept this as life's first occupation, a first career.
This statement was made to the young Billy Beane when he was trying to decide between the full scholarship to Stanford and a career in Major League Baseball. Billy's mom asked if he could do both. The answer was, he couldn't. And, that's true in baseball, in startups and just about any hyper-competitive activity. You can't straddle the fence, because you will get your ass kicked by someone who's almost as good as you, but much more committed. You can't take that investment banking job and do a startup. You can't maintain two feet firmly planted on the ground and take the leap of faith. You have to pick. It's not an easy choice, but you have to pick. And, if you're in school, my personal (and unpopular in some startup circles) advice is stay in school . Make learning and building connections your “first occupation”.
But whatever you do, don't sit on the fence.  Commit to something.  Don't hedge.  Give it all you have.  Make it your life's first occupation.  If you can't get excited about it -- find something else.  I've made lots of stupid mistakes in my professional career -- the stupidest was trying to run two startups at the same time.  That's a story for another day.  I'm going to close with a quote from my co-founder at the first startup: "If you sit on the fence too long, your genitals are going to hurt."

7. Why do you like him? Because he gets on base.
The startup world is filled with superstars that get overlooked or don't quite make it because they're "quirky" or otherwise don't fit preconceived patterns of what you think a person in a given role should look and feel like.  None of that matters.  When recruiting engineers, find brilliant people that write code that solves the problem simply, effectively and can be maintained without brain damage.  When hiring sales people find those that have high emotional IQ and care about truly understanding customer problems -- and selling them a solution.  Figure out what success looks like for a given role, and ignore the irrelevant details.  (Note:  Culture fit is not an irrelevant detail.  Things that are irrelevant are age, nationality, gender, etc. -- things that have no bearing on the outcome).

10. Hey, anything worth doing is hard. And we're gonna teach you.
Your ability to teach is one of the single biggest levers you have in a startup.  Why?  First, because it's one of the biggest benefits you can deliver to your team members.  They can get a higher salary somewhere else.  They can get better perks somewhere else.  But, at your startup, they can learn things.  Second, it's unlikely you're going to find the "perfect" 5-tool player.  Even if you found them, you likely couldn't afford them.  If you're willing to help people with a specific super-power fill in gaps in their knowledge/experience, you create lots of value.

12. It's day one of the first week. You can't judge just yet.
Be a little bit patient.  Often, your best people will take a little time to really shine.  Don't judge too early. Determine the context.  If someone's not cranking yet, is it because getting up to speed is hard?  Everyone's too busy to show them ropes? Their lack of early performance could be the context, so be patient
But, don't be too patient.  If someone isn't at least moderately productive in the first month or two, it's unlikely they're going to be super-productive in the following year.  The really great people tend to deliver some value almost immediately.

14. Where on the field is the dollar I'm paying for soda?
It is good to be budget-conscious in an early-stage company.  Instills the right kind of discipline that will help long-term.  But, don't be a penny wise and a pound foolish.  There are little things that don't cost that much, that makes people happier.  It's not about the money (they can all afford the soda), it's about the inconvenience and the principle.  Remember, deep down inside, people are human.  [smile]
One quick example from HubSpot:  We launched a book program whereby any employee can request any book they think makes them a better HubSpotter.  I personally handle all requests and send out a Kindle version of the book immediately.  It's not that expensive, but it's been super-well received.

15. These are hard rules to explain to people. Why is that a problem, Pete?
One of the best segments in the movie.  Pete is troubled at how different what they're doing is, and why it's hard to get others to understand and accept it.  But, the point was, when you're transforming something and making massive change, not everyone is going to understand.  The important thing is to be right -- and then make the change happen.  The best way to convince people that your theory was right is to be right and show them (not tell them) you're right.  Most people will never be convinced otherwise.

16. I'm not paying you for the player you used to be, I'm paying you for the player you are right now.
Hard-hitting advice.  I'd extend this to say:  Recruit on potential but reward on performance.  Customers are not going to be delighted by the code a brilliant engineer could have written.  On a related note is the quote "If he's a good hitter, why doesn't he hit good?" Or, "If she's such a good sales person, why can't she sell?"

17. We're going to change the game.
And really, that's what it's all about.  It's not about exiting for millions of dollars or going public.  It's about changing the game.  It's about seeing something that's not quite right in the world, and deciding you want to fix it.  For me, personally, it was observing that marketing is broken.  Most people hate marketing.  we want to transform marketing into something people love.  It's hugely ambitious, but I have this feeling, deep-down inside, that we're right.

11 Habits

As much as I agree with most of the article, it comes off a little more surly than I would agree to. I am a servant leadership type guy, so humility earns top honors in any business or social setting. Knowing the batting averages of your favorite MLB team has as much, if not more, value as knowing a good Merlot. Besides, a batting average is certain and finite, where as a good Merlot is uncertain and acquired at best.

From Annapolis to Afghanistan

     

As an Instructor at the U.S. Naval Academy during the attacks of 9/11, this book brings me back to that infamous day, one that I remember so vividly as a clear, crisp morning, near perfect, as Autumn mornings go. As I made my way from my office to the classroom, I stopped by the wardroom for my morning coffee.There, I was met by a crowd of fellow instructors, gathered around the TV, watching news coverage of a plane that had impacted the World Trade Center. We wondered to ourselves and aloud how that could happen on such a clear day. As an aviator, I imagined all the possible in-flight emergencies that may have occurred to cause this; catastrophic engine failure, loss of flight controls, and so on. The Empire State Building had been struck by a commuter plane in the past, but during low visibility conditions. It wasn't until the second plane impacted that we realized what was unfolding before us; the United States was under attack. I made my way to the classroom to find the students chattering about the news of the first plane's impact. As I turned on the projector and switched the input channel to the news, I informed them that the world as they knew it had just changed. Up to that point, at least during my career, deployments were made in support of Cold War policies, Middle East squabbles and operations in response to border infringements. At no time in our past could we say that our personal safety at home was at stake. Fighting and destruction was always 'over there', far from the comfort of home and family. The open society that we cherished, that is a beacon for all that live under oppression and tyranny, would suffer as a result of these attacks, as restrictive policies and procedures found their place in our everyday lives. 

 

From Annapolis to Afghanistan

Book shows how 9/11 changed the future for Naval Academy Class of 2002

Susan Reimer
3:02 PM EDT, September 19, 2012

     They were walking to class on that bright blue September morning when the World Trade Center buildings and the Pentagon were hit and when a plane destined for Washington crashed into a Pennsylvania field.
     The midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy had come to Annapolis as the children of military families, as athletes, as young patriots eager for service, or as the nation's brightest students, ready for rigorous academic challenges.
But they graduated in June 2002 into a nation at war, 9/11 as personal for them as Dec. 7 had been for the class of 1942. And the decade that followed would define them, in David Gergen's words, as "the next greatest generation."
Memories, stories and lessons from the class of 2002 have been collected in a new book, "In the Shadow of Greatness: Voices of Leadership, Sacrifice and Service from America's Longest War," edited by classmates Joshua Welle, John Ennis, Katherine Kranz and Graham Plaster. It is published by Naval Institute Press; sales will benefit veterans and military charities.
     "This is not a Naval Academy book," said Lieutenant Commander Welle, though he included a chapter describing life at the Naval Academy, from plebe summer to the moment they throw their white hats in the air at graduation. "This is about what it means to be a military officer after 9/11. This is a leadership book."
It has drawn high praise, especially within the military. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert has put it on his list of 18 must-read books for naval officers. A copy will be in every ward room on every ship and in every library serving sailors and officers.
     But Lieutenant Welle hopes it will bridge the information gap with the American people, who (with some obvious exceptions, such as Marine families like mine) have thought of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars as Army wars. Most people understand less about the role of Navy and Marine pilots and Marine ground troops in these two wars.
     The editors solicited members of their class, and 125 of the 900-plus who graduated offered contributions. Of those, 33 were published. Two were written by mothers who lost sons, and one is an anonymous tribute written by a young officer who saw his instructor, mentor and leader blown up in front of him in Iraq.
One of the most poignant essays was written by Rocky Checca, a Marine who flew the CH-46 Sea Knight, the helicopter used to evacuate the wounded, the dying and the dead. He asks out loud if those who survived with lost limbs and lives forever changed resented him.
     "Were any of them like Lieutenant Dan from the movie 'Forest Gump,' who hated Tom Hanks' character for rescuing him, forcing him to live life in a wheelchair instead of letting him die on the battlefield," he wrote.
     Some of the essays are less devastating. In "Find A Way, or Make One," Meghan Elger Courtney writes about battling military red tape so she could build a gym on a destroyer to improve the morale of the sailors. Meagan Varley Flannigan writes about piloting a Tomcat. Unable to unload her ordnance because "friendlies" were too close, she describes screaming low over the enemy and watching them scatter at the sight and sound of her jet.
     I was reporting from Annapolis on the morning of 9/11 and went right to the Naval Academy to see how it was responding. The gates were closed, sandbagged, and the Marines assigned there were hunched behind machine guns.
Inside, classes were canceled. The midshipmen ate in small groups in the cavernous King Hall instead of as an entire brigade. Rumors were rampant that the Academy was on a target list, and it made no sense to have the future of the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Marine Corps under one roof.
One of the contributors to this collection writes that midshipmen were issued the dull bayonets with which they practiced drills, the better to protect the Academy if the enemy came over the sea wall.
     From that day on, the Naval Academy grounds, which had been like a lovely public park for visitors and Annapolitans, became almost an armed camp. It is that way still.
     Those of us who live in Annapolis like to think we live in a college town — the difference being that our students wear crisp uniforms, doff their hats and call you "sir" or "ma'am" and hold the door for you.
     That is still true, of course. But "In the Shadow of Greatness" reveals how profoundly life has changed for the young men and women who now graduate to war.
Susan Reimer's column appears Mondays and Thursdays. She can be reached at susan.reimer@baltsun.com. Twitter: @SusanReimer.

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Copyright © 2012, The Baltimore Sun

From Annapolis to Afghanistan

Leigh Buchanan | Inc. magazine

May 1, 2007

In Praise of Selflessness

Why the best leaders are servants.

 

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   Who are you doing it for? Asked that question, many entrepreneurs would answer, "me." There's nothing wrong with that. Plenty of great companies were built by people for whom CEO is an imperfect acronym for "He who must be obeyed."
   Servant leaders, by contrast, put their people and their organizations before themselves. They don't view employees as a means to an end; rather employees' happiness and satisfaction is the end. A former AT&T (NYSE:T) executive named Robert Greenleaf introduced the concept in 1970 (although the authors of the New Testament had laid the foundation a bit earlier). In the movement's argot, servant leaders "wash others' feet." Some of the most successful entrepreneurial companies--including Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) and Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) --are servant led, buoyed by the contributions of trusted, respected employees.
   Servant leadership is enjoying renewed currency now--which makes sense, given the tight labor markets and widespread mistrust of chief executives. (CEOs like Home Depot's (NYSE:HD) Robert Nardelli and Morgan Stanley's (NYSE:MS) Philip Purcell weren't shown the door for excessive humility.) It is also the natural model for the growing number of companies that compete for human capital.
   Still, adopting servant leadership is a tough psychological adjustment for many entrepreneurs. Just how tough depends, in part, on the entrepreneur's motivation. People who start companies out of passion for a product or the desire to create opportunities for others adapt well, says Mathew Hayward, a professor at the University of Colorado's Leeds School of Business and author of Ego Check: Why Executive Hubris Is Wrecking Companies and Careers and How to Avoid the Trap. But founders panting to run their own shops make poor foot-washers. In addition, untested leaders may worry about appearing anything other than alpha-ish. "Founders in the early days have a profound need to establish their credentials," says Hayward. "They may look on servant leadership as something to evolve into--later."
   Ari Weinzweig and Paul Saginaw understand the challenges better than most. The co-founders of Zingerman's Community of Businesses have built their $30 million food, restaurant, and training company on servant leadership principles. In the process, they've wrestled with three paradoxes. First, the higher you rise, the harder you must work for others; no kicking back in the Barcalounger of success allowed. Second, although you hold formal authority over employees, you must treat them like customers and, when reasonable, do their bidding. Third, when your desires and the needs of your organization conflict, your desires draw the low card. "It's a big change from the way we're socialized to think about success," says Weinzweig. "When you've put so much energy into getting to a leadership position, this is hard."
   It was certainly hard for David Wolfskehl. When he launched Action Fast Print at age 24, he believed presiding and deciding were the essence of leadership. "I thought I had to have all the right answers," says Wolfskehl, who built the business to $1.5 million before selling it last year. (His new venture, Business Advisors International, is a consulting firm in Bridgewater, New Jersey.) Wolfskehl recalls years of weekly meetings during which he would stand before his 16 employees and tell them what to do. "I would go in with my agenda," he recalls. "We were talking about my issues, not the employees' issues. I would leave those meetings thinking we had accomplished something. But the employees wouldn't buy into what I said we should do.
   "Those meetings stunk," says Wolfskehl. "I thought they stunk because of the employees. But really they stunk because of me."
   Wolfskehl's epiphany arrived after he read Change Your Questions, Change Your Life by Marilee G. Adams, who advises leaders to stop telling and start asking. The prospect of upending the dynamic at his company scared him. "I worried that everyone was going to tell me all the things I was doing wrong," he says. But Wolfskehl steeled himself, and at one meeting he opened the floodgates with these words: "Today we're going to start talking about your problems and how I can help you." "Once I started asking how I could help, amazing things started happening in my organization," he says. "In a two-year period, we had a 30-plus percent improvement in productivity. The solution was so obvious. It's just sad that it took me 15 years to get there."
   Servant leaders also often do things that seem less than leaderish. Wolfskehl, for example, would clear the snow from employees' cars on wintry days. Other proponents step in for absent staff rather than expecting others to shoulder the burden. At the Ward Group, a $34 million advertising agency in Dallas, founder and CEO Shirley Ward filled a vacant media buyer position for several weeks; she and her son Rob Enright, the agency's president, have been known to man phones in the reception area to give a secretary a break. Similarly, Chris McKee, managing partner of Venturity, a $2 million accounting outsourcing firm in Dallas, has been performing some of the duties of an assistant controller who has been on extended sick leave. Although McKee has 25 employees he can call on, "I don't want the weight of the world on their shoulders during difficult times," he says.
Ward and McKee choose their humble tasks; the leaders of Zingerman's have humble tasks thrust upon them. Weinzweig and Saginaw practice what might be called reverse delegation--constantly asking employees, "What can I do for you?" and usually doing it. "People give me assignments all the time," says Weinzweig. "Sometimes I'm the note-taker. Sometimes I'm the cleaner-upper. Sometimes I bring food to the meetings. Sometimes I'm on my hands and knees wiping up what people spilled." When Weinzweig visits the company's Roadhouse restaurant, busy wait staff don't hesitate to request that he serve patrons or bus tables. "We have to learn to be good followers," says Weinzweig.
   Still, Weinzweig is quick to point out that "servant leadership doesn't mean you just do whatever they tell you to." Weinzweig says: "People try to take advantage of it. They'll say 'servant leadership' as a reason why you should do their work. Sometimes I do it. Sometimes they do it."
   Given that humility isn't core curriculum at most executive education programs, how do you develop servant leader skills if they don't come naturally? Volunteer work can be an excellent autocracy neutralizer, suggests Jeremy Brandt, founder of FastHomeOffers.com, a $1.35 million company that generates leads for real estate investors. Shortly before launching his business four years ago, Brandt was asked by the pastor at his church in Grapevine, Texas, to lead a fellowship group of about 15 people. Brandt, a get-it-done kind of guy, soon found himself in charge of 25 such groups. His big-stick approach fell apart. "It's very natural as you manage more and more people to let your ego get in the way," says Brandt. "It's illuminating to manage volunteers because if you act that way, no one listens to you. They don't have to." Instead, Brandt began asking questions. What problems do you have? How can I help you? He drew on the experience to shape his performance as CEO. "At the company, I solve people's problems," he says. "I give them what they need so they can blossom."
   Perhaps the best way to learn to wash the feet of others is to take the injunction literally. Eliot Swartz is co-founder of Two Chefs on a Roll, a 180-employee private-label food manufacturer in Carson, California. Every Monday evening for 10 years, Swartz traveled from his company to Torrance Memorial Medical Center. He wasn't organizing a fundraising campaign or serving on the board of directors. He was helping out in the emergency room. "I did whatever they asked me to do," says Swartz. "Held the hand of a mom whose child had been in a car accident. Changed sheets. Took people down to X-ray. Took labs where they needed to be."
   Servant leadership isn't about being a great boss; it's about accepting that bossing and leading aren't synonymous. There's nothing like changing a few bedpans to bring that lesson home.