Tuesday, January 10, 2023

NEW INC. MAGAZINE Column from Howard Tullman

 

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. 

 


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