In Order To BE SEEN, Learn To SEE OTHERS

I think it’s good that some founders have goals. I wanna increase revenue by X. I wanna grow my following to Y. I wanna increase the number of users to Z.

But these should function as ex-post measures that tell us if our strategies were effective.

Be mindful of Goodhart’s Law (when a measure becomes a target, it stops being a good measure).

Then it’s coming from a place of selfishness. How can we manipulate others to reach our own goals? [1] We don’t like that as consumers.. guess what.. neither do others.

By genuinely engaging (w NO strings attached) you’ll get engagement.

By genuinely and selflessly caring, you’ll get cared for.

By generously helping, others will reciprocate.

When Gandhi said: ‘The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.’ he may not have realized that this is extraordinary business advice as well.

NOTES

[1] There’s a difference between manipulation for purely selfish purposes (i.e. How can I use consumers to serve my business model.) and influencing people to see if you can help them and have a positive impact on their lives and then use a metric to gauge the degree of success. (i.e. How can I use my business model to best serve consumers.)