Thread by @RomeenSheth

15 timeless principles on how to deal with adversity 👇

First, some context.

Over the last 2 years, I’ve grown my bootstrapped business by $3M+ in profit.

Sounds awesome right?

Well, yes and no.

There was a lot of misstep, failure and doubt.

You feel a lot of different emotions when going through the journey.

Mega highs on some days and the lowest of lows on others.

I came up with 15 principles that have helped me whenever facing a difficult situation.

Each take inspiration from Greek philosophy:

Logos - Have we found the ground truth?

Ethos - Do we believe in the ground truth?

Pathos - Are we inspired to act upon the ground truth?

Not every question applies to every circumstance.

But many of these questions overlap more than you'd think.

Whenever you’re facing a difficult situation, run through the most applicable question.

With that said, let’s get into the list...

Question 1: Am I being arrogant?

If you think you’re right and someone else is wrong, ask if it's because you have better:

(A) Information
(B) Judgement
(C) Instinct

In my experience, if it's not at least 2/3, you're missing something that could lead to a better outcome.

Question 2: Am I judging the delivery or the substance?

You have to separate the message from the messenger.

If messenger > message, you create an environment that breeds “cliques” and “sides”

If message > messenger, you create an environment where meritocracy wins.

Question 3: Am I connected?

As your organization scales, it’s hard to be as plugged in as you once were.

Your job as a leader is to maintain perspective.

If you don’t have the ingredients to make a call, (a) dig in or (b) entrust the decision to somebody else.

Question 4: Am I emotionally stable?

There are times when I feel like nothing can stop us AND everything is breaking (sometimes the same day!)

Both emotions can generate progress if harnessed correctly.

Use the highs to create momentum.

Use the lows to create camaraderie.

Question 5: Am I being too pessimistic?

There’s a fine line between being realistic and being negative.

To be realistic (and not negative):

- Maintain a vision of the opportunity
- Be disciplined in the pathway to achieve the opportunity

This approach builds credibility.

Question 6: Am I being too optimistic?

Being overly optimistic is dangerous.

We romanticize this in startups, but in practice it creates less reliable, stable and enduring orgs.

Ask yourself, if an unplanned risk were to come up tomorrow, how would your business fare?

Question 7: Am I being consistent?

Everyone on the team needs to know:

- Where the goal post is
- What the expectations are

As a leader, you need to make sure you are consistent in your commitment to these standards.

The moment you let up is the moment you regress.

Question 8: Am I being passive?

Every issue starts as a snowball.

Direct communication prevents snowballs from turning into boulders.

I’ve learned (the hard way) that this approach is ultimately always better for the team.

No matter how uncomfortable it is at the moment.

Question 9: Am I letting perfectionism get in the way?

Focus and attention to detail is important.

But I've found through experience if you extend this to its logical extreme, it can be paralyzing.

Optimal balance = getting the little things wrong and the big things right.

Question 10: Am I trying too hard to please?

In the short term, pleasing people is easy - it quells the momentary discomfort.

In the long term, it’s cancerous and the fastest way to kill credibility.

Promoting truth is the only way to build long term sustainability.

Question 11: Am I overthinking this?

Every substantive decision has pros and cons.

Analysis is important, but overanalysis leads to paralysis.

Bias towards action and moving in the right direction vs. endlessly analyzing.

Especially because most decisions are reversible.

Question 12: Am I focusing on the input or the output?

❌Bad input, bad output = Incompetence
❌Bad input, good output = Luck
✅Good input, good output = Repeatable
✅Good input, bad output = Keep It Up

Good inputs lead to good outputs with enough attempts.

Keep shooting.

Question 13: Am I afraid to decide?

It’s ok if you don’t have the answer, but it’s not ok if you don’t have a path forward.

How do you define a path forward?

- Confer with others
- Collect more information
- Set a timeline for the decision

Whatever you do, don't punt.

Question 14: Am I taking enough risk?

This can be overwhelming. As a leader, it pulls you from your comfort zone.

But growing a company isn’t a straight line up and to the right - it takes big moves to cross the chasm.

Too little risk = short term comfort, long term pain.

Question 15: Am I leading from the front?

If you want people to give their all, you have to set the tone.

Nothing builds respect like being in the trenches and helping the team solve problems.

This isn’t the sexy part of entrepreneurship, but it’s by far the most impactful.

And that’s it!

I look at these 15 questions whenever I’m facing a challenging situation.

I hope these help you as you build your business and inevitably deal with adversity.

If you enjoyed this tweet, give me a follow.

@romeensheth

I tweet about:

- Scaling a $50M+ bootstrapped business
- Interviewing titans of business
- Investing a few million a year in world class founders