Many startups and small businesses have the distinct disadvantage of not having deep financial resources.
While, on the surface, this can be a problem, it forces the entrepreneur to look for new ways to compete with better-funded competitors. Having access to money sometimes means you get sloppy and keeps you from reexamining every detail of your business.
One of my favorite lines from Moneyball, starring Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill, illustrates this point. In the movie, the Oakland Athletics are struggling to survive. They are one of the worst teams in professional baseball because they don’t have the money to attract or keep star players.
In the scene, Peter Brand, a statistician, speaks to Billy Beane, the manager of the Oakland Athletics, about losing their marquis players.
“Okay. People who run ball clubs, they think in terms of buying players. Your goal shouldn’t be to buy players, your goal should be to buy wins. And in order to buy wins, you need to buy runs. You’re trying to replace Johnny Damon. The Boston Red Sox see Johnny Damon and they see a star who’s worth seven and a half million dollars a year. When I see Johnny Damon, what I see is… is… an imperfect understanding of where runs come from. The guy’s got a great glove. He’s a decent leadoff hitter. He can steal bases. But is he worth the seven and half million dollars a year that the Boston Red Sox are paying him? No. No. Baseball thinking is medieval. They are asking all the wrong questions. And if I say it to anybody, I’m-I’m ostracized. I’m-I’m-I’m a leper. So that’s why I’m-I’m cagey about this with you. That’s why I… I respect you, Mr. Beane, and if you want full disclosure, I think it’s a good thing that you got Damon off your payroll. I think it opens up all kinds of interesting possibilities.”
The clip shows that even in established businesses, management is often not focused on the right elements of success. Sometimes you have to involve outsiders or suspend your belief systems to reevaluate what you are really in business for.
Is your business focused on the right things to be successful?
