There's a Lot to Be Learned From Bad Examples
The circus now known as Congress may be valueless in showing how leaders should behave, but entrepreneurs should use it as model of how not to lead. You have to be better if you want your company to succeed.
BY HOWARD TULLMAN, GENERAL MANAGING PARTNER, G2T3V AND CHICAGO HIGH TECH INVESTORS@TULLMAN
This being Oscar season, I foolishly thought the next few weeks
would be full of discussions about Steven Spielberg's The Fabelmans,
and its prospects for winning awards vs. other cinematic tales. Instead, we're
stuck with endless references to, and corrupted versions of, various fables
that have come to be the failsafe and fallback tropes for both lazy journalists
and illiterate politicians, who have simply run out of words and ways to
describe the general state of our politics. And especially the current
spectacle in Washington, as the rudderless Republican party continues to flail
and fail.
As the nation watched the ongoing humiliation of Kevin McCarthy
in his desperate quest for the speakership and the ultimate awarding of the
utterly emasculated "prize" to him, I was reminded that no one is
completely worthless. A cad and liar like McCarthy can always serve as a bad
example.
As with so many of the disgusting venal behaviors that we are
subjected to by the MAGAs today, much of this faux-fable tale telling began
with Donald Trump's gross and ignorant stump speeches, and painfully long
recitals of The Snake. It's a poem about inviting the
snake into your midst, which he tried unsuccessfully
to use to slander
immigrants. But in his utter lack of self-awareness and or any sense of irony,
both he and his audiences failed to understand the Freudian subtext that it was
he, in fact, who was the biggest, ugliest, and most corrupt serpent in town.
Others have seized upon formulations of the tale of the devious
scorpion crossing the river on a frog's back. The scorpion bites the frog and
then blames the wounded creature for their plight, because the frog knew the
scorpion's nature and should have expected nothing less. References to classic
movies like Groundhog Day abound as shorthand for the
repetitive, futile, and time-wasting efforts that comprise a typical day in the
House of Representatives. Regular references to feeding the crocodile mesh
nicely with Matt Gaetz's statements that he ran out of things he could demand.
And thanks to C-Span, the public is finally getting to see the
whole awful sausage-making process up close. Sages on various media stages have
also cited that august and ancient warning that people should always be very
careful about what they wish for because it might turn out to be much worse
than they ever imagined. Everyone seems to have a handy and pithy
pronouncement.
My new favorite turn of a phrase - both a tweet and already a
meme - which succinctly sums up the D.C. debacle this past week records the
confused outburst of the surprised soul who professes that "I never
thought leopards would eat MY face" when I voted for the Leopards Eating
People's Faces Party. A rude and painful lesson for sure, but one that was
far from unexpected. But, honestly, even amidst the chaos and utter confusion,
there are leadership lessons - especially for new business builders - to be
learned from these losers.
If these pompous morons can't be good examples, they'll have to
serve as horrible warnings of what can happen when you attempt to lead without
vision or purpose. Or if you try to compromise and negotiate without limits,
boundaries, or the slightest shame; and shamelessly focus on achieving a result
that may be so degraded by the process as to be ultimately worthless.
In the startup world, we've recently lived through a stream of
leaders who turned out to be fakers, frauds, and failures. As long as you're
careful to draw the right conclusions from these examples, they can help you
avoid a plethora of potholes on your own path forward.
Here are a few critical ideas to keep top of mind.
(1) Walk the Walk; Talk is Cheap.
The most fundamental rule of creating and sustaining a healthy
and effective company culture in a successful startup is that, while words may
be helpful in defining a vision and establishing some crucial ground rules,
they pale in comparison to the examples set by the actual actions of the
leaders. Ultimately, you either lead by example, or you don't lead at all.
Leaders who are deranged, deluded, or so driven by ego that they are utterly
unaware of how their own people (as well as the rest of the world) perceive
their actions are ultimately doomed -- even if they appear successful in the
short run. No one who understands how the real world works is foolish enough to
expect others to listen to their words and advice while ignoring their
behaviors.
(2) Half a Lie is Still a Lie; Trust is Everything.
Every negative conversation about McCarthy starts with a version
of a simple truth: no one trusts him any more than they ever trusted Trump.
They know that lying in politics is as common as breathing, but they still
recognize that people who will lie for you will eventually lie to you, and they
simply don't want to take the chance of falling for another of his fables. He
may be a great fund raiser or good manager, but it's far more important to be a
good person. The 14th round of voting - which he again lost - was a clear
example that his own peers were perfectly willing to lie to him and embarrass
him at the very last moment for their own purposes.
In your own business, making it clear to your team that truth
isn't optional, and that honesty and integrity are far more important to the
long-term health and success of the business than any deal or sale might be is
crucial. Situational ethics are for suckers. If your people don't respect your own ethics and integrity
and see that you're willing to trade the truth and your reputation for some
selfish gain, they'll eventually choose their own interests and objectives
above those of the company and its customers.
(3) You Can't Win a Fight with People Who Have Nothing to
Lose.
Eventually, as your business grows and gains some traction,
you'll face serious competitors who have made investments and commitments
similar to your own and then, unfortunately, you'll also have to deal with
lying scumbags who are willing to do and say anything to make a sale or win a
customer. Unfortunately, in the digital world we now live in - where anyone can
have a website, sell their garbage on Amazon and EBay, and make whatever
claims, commitments, and guarantees they can dream up - far too many consumers,
customers, and clients are led astray and away by their lies.
It's tantalizing and sometimes very tempting to get down in the
mud with these people and sink to their level; politicians might call this oppo
research or "fighting fire with fire." But it's always the
wrong, even if your opposition is named Santos. We're seeing it in Washington
in the contortions of McCarthy: playing "how low can you go" limbo
with the extortionists on the other side. He's lost whatever honor, integrity,
and favorable reputation he might once have had. And he ended up as the weakest
speaker in history and the very definition of a pyrrhic victor. Some prizes are
just too expensive to win, and no prize is worth sacrificing your pride and
reputation.
You should never mud wrestle with a pig (or a group of pigs)
because they love it and you just end up tired, dirty, and smelling like a
sewer.