STFU #71 - When Michelangelo and Leo Tolstoy tell you the secret to scale up - Less is More in Startups

Hercules by Michelangelo

Michelangelo was one of the most renowned artists of the Italian Renaissance, and his sculptures have had a lasting impact on Western art.

But there is a secret to his success that not many know of.??

When he was 17, he?became fixated on secretly obtaining and dissecting human cadavers. At night, he would go to the morgue of a charity hospital, where the bodies of the poor were kept before burial. He would take them out and dissect each of them all night to study the muscles, veins, and tendons - each of them in very minute detail.?

Before this learning, he had only tried two-dimensional pieces of art. Once he had this deep understanding of human anatomy, he transformed himself and made his first three-dimensional sculpture called ‘Hercules’.?This was his first major project with a professional mindset. He was no longer thinking or operating like an amateur.

Michelangelo was not born a great artist. But he went to a great extent to learn the nitty-gritty of the human anatomy, only to seek perfection in his work - and in this process, he transformed from a 2x improvement to a 10x improvement in this work, reaching legendary levels!

When Michelangelo was asked about the secret of his genius work (the statue of David was his best effort), he explained, “It’s simple. I just remove everything that is not David.”

“How Much Land Does a Man Need?”

Pahom, a poor peasant in Russia, is tempted by the thought of owning more land, believing that it will bring him true happiness. He learns of a group of people, the Bashkirs, who are willing to sell land at a very low price.?

Their offer is very unusual: for a sum of one thousand rubles, Pahom can walk around as large an area as he wants, starting at daybreak, marking his route with a spade along the way. If he returns to his starting point by sunset that day, all the land his route encloses will be his, but if he does not reach his starting point, he will lose his money and receive no land.?

Excited by this opportunity, Pahom starts walking early in the morning, marking the land he wants to claim. As the day progresses, he becomes increasingly greedy, deciding to cover more and more ground. He wants to make the most of this chance, so he continues pushing himself to walk farther. As the sun begins to set, Pahom realizes that he is far from the starting point and has to hurry back.

Exhausted, Pahom rushes back, determined to reach the starting point before sunset. He barely makes it just as the sun sets.?

The Bashkirs cheer his good fortune but exhausted from the run and the physical exertion, Pahom drops dead right at the finish line. His servant buries him in an ordinary grave only six feet long, thus answering the question posed in the title of the story, “How Much Land Does a Man Need?”.

‘too small’ or ‘too big’ thinking?

On one hand, 10x thinking transformed a regular artist into one of the best-known in his century. But at the same time, trying to attain ‘as much as possible’ out of greed killed a peasant.?

What is ‘too little’ and ‘too much’ in thinking? When is it transformational thinking and when is it time to let go?

10x thinking

In startups, and larger organizations, most people have a 2x mindset - a linear kind of thinking, where you?put double effort, you get double results.?Do more of the same, just faster and harder.

‘Growth over last month or last year’, ‘ just be a little bit more’, ‘better than last time’ - these are phrases used by 2x thinkers.?

10x is big and seemingly impossible. 10x makes you do things that are far beyond - impossibly beyond - your current levels. It should make you afraid to fully commit.?So much so that it immediately forces you out of your current mindset - and forces you to think differently.??

But here is the secret - 10x isn’t about more. It’s about less. It forces you to focus on the essentials.?It is about ‘removing whatever is not David’.

Paradox of Choice, “Less is More”

Abundance excites all of us. But there is a limit.?When it is exceeded, a surfeit of choices destroys the quality of life. Just like Pahom, we don’t realize that the abundance is consuming us completely!

Sometimes while chasing ‘too much’, you should know when to let go, and focus on consolidating what you have instead of chasing too much.?

#storyoftrue?

At?True Elements, we have had our own cycles of Pahom and Michelangelo moments.?

We have studied the corpses of our old mistakes. We have done so many dissections that maybe by now, Sreejith and I have a point of view on every ‘Startup Anatomy’.?

At the same time, we have been greedy like Pahom, got carried away by the plans shared by ‘Bashkirs’, without realizing when to let go, leading to big losses sometimes!?

As we get uncomfortable with our 2x thinking and build our own pieces of art, we know we have to strip everything that is not David and let go of things that don’t help us. We are running like Pahom but have a clear eye on the sun.?

10x thinking but knowing when to let go

As we scale our startup,?few of us realize that we need to transform our thinking by putting in the details and effort to scale. However, rarely do we realize that we have to learn to let go sometimes in order to scale up - and reach the finishing line, without getting exhausted.

To summarize,

For those of you who are running like Pahom to grab as much land as possible, see where the sun is and decide.

For those of you who have studied the sculptures and know what is ‘not’ David,?

STFU!

References:?"How Much Land Does a Man Need?" by Leo Tolstoy |?Images: Pahom?1,2,??Hercules?|?Books: Art of Thinking Clearly, 10x is better than 2x, Unfair Advantage, Thinking Clearly, Hit Makers