"Be customer-obsessed."
This post was shared with me after I published this: https://olshansky.substack.com/p/every-mantra-has-a-counter-mantra
John - just thought you'd appreciate the title :)
Love how this reads like a master class in "yes, but" thinking.
The beauty of business is that polar opposite approaches can both lead to success.
It's like cooking - some chefs swear by precise measurements, others cook purely by instinct.
Both can create incredible meals.
Take "be customer obsessed" versus "obsession leads to distortion."
They're both right.
Apple obsessed over design details while Microsoft prioritized enterprise flexibility.
Both built trillion-dollar companies.
The real skill isn't picking the "right" philosophy.
It's knowing when to apply each principle and when to break it.
Knowing that there's no solution for everything but rather discerning is definitely why generalizing without specifics usually fails
Well, golly gee wiz. Aww shucks.
This Beautiful Mess is solid gold. Platinum even.
What are some truths that are immune to context?
Nice thought provoking list, and as someone who says ‘it depends’ a lot, I love the last one - ‘it depends, except when it doesn’t’
The list is a valuable reaction - in many cases it would be nice to have those things to react to!
Love these tiny nuggets :) Gonna print them and add them to the words to use / not use in front of me :)
Right exists because there is left which can also be wrong
This post was shared with me after I published this: https://olshansky.substack.com/p/every-mantra-has-a-counter-mantra
John - just thought you'd appreciate the title :)
Love how this reads like a master class in "yes, but" thinking.
The beauty of business is that polar opposite approaches can both lead to success.
It's like cooking - some chefs swear by precise measurements, others cook purely by instinct.
Both can create incredible meals.
Take "be customer obsessed" versus "obsession leads to distortion."
They're both right.
Apple obsessed over design details while Microsoft prioritized enterprise flexibility.
Both built trillion-dollar companies.
The real skill isn't picking the "right" philosophy.
It's knowing when to apply each principle and when to break it.
Knowing that there's no solution for everything but rather discerning is definitely why generalizing without specifics usually fails
Well, golly gee wiz. Aww shucks.
This Beautiful Mess is solid gold. Platinum even.
What are some truths that are immune to context?
Nice thought provoking list, and as someone who says ‘it depends’ a lot, I love the last one - ‘it depends, except when it doesn’t’
The list is a valuable reaction - in many cases it would be nice to have those things to react to!
Love these tiny nuggets :) Gonna print them and add them to the words to use / not use in front of me :)
Right exists because there is left which can also be wrong