Being “good” at what you do, sucks.
Being good is a modern day tragedy akin to a 600 year old Shakespearean play.
Jason Calacanis just blogged about “The Age of Excellence.” Put simply, he made a case against being good at what you do, as that is just not good enough. Not today. Today, you've got to be excellent… the best.
What this means for startups is that the world has no place for good, let alone average, contributors.
For founders, this means means the uncomfortable and the sometimes emotionally scarring process of pushing good team members to greatness - Getting from good to great is very, very hard.
If you are an average contributor, super likeable, have balance in your life and you do your job well, then you're startup kryptonite.
That last line just… stuck. As a startup, you have everything going against you. A 95%+ chance at failure, no money, no structure, no one to blame. Ironically, that's also the opportunity, you have nothing to lose, no one to disappoint, and not enough customers to care if you disappear.
Plus, if you aren't exceptional at what you do, if you are doing just enough to be “good” and not the best, you become dispensable… quickly. That's never a comfortable position to be in.
To push the needle on your compass even 2 degrees in your favor you have to put in 200% more effort than the other guy. To even come close, it requires a team-wide culture of grit, hustle and accountability. That means a lot of sleepless nights, quite a few fire drills, continuous momentum and being able to trust each other to follow through every single time. It's tough to do but exhilarating none-the-less.
By the way, if you look back at whatever you were working on and you agree that you gave it everything and the outcome was still unfavorable, that's nothing to be ashamed of. But, if you look back and think to yourself that you could have done more… be ashamed. You should have done more.
The best young companies in the world have teams of hustlers. To not hustle is to miss the point of being at a startup.