Entrepreneurship and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
In his classic Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert Pirsig posits two kinds of people: those who love to ride motorcycles and others who enjoy working with them.
The first group he calls "romantics." They love the feeling of the motorcycle and the road. They enjoy it as a whole experience. They are not as keen on spending time understanding or maintaining their machines. Please take it to a mechanic! Then let's get back on the road.
The second group he calls "classicists." They might or might not enjoy the ride, but they take pride and pleasure in breaking down the machine and understanding how it works. They tinker, invent, and "MacGyver" their way through.
The paradox he finds interesting is that the first group needs the motorcycle and will hate it when it breaks or shows problems. The second group loves the bike but does not need it since they can get as much enjoyment from the machine still as in motion.
For Pirsig, this was a metaphor for our relationship with technology. But this dichotomy helps us understand our relationship with the various parts of entrepreneurship.
A common refrain I hear is a technical entrepreneur telling me about a service - most often a "platform" or "marketplace" where anybody can do anything. This lack of definition to them is a benefit. They have a "romantic" relationship with the market. They want the market to carry them forward and deliver wealth, but they are not inclined to get deep into the needs of their customers.
I have also seen this romantic approach to the technical side of a business. I admire sales-oriented and "non-technical" founders for their more significant chance of success. They can lay out a detailed, usually well-grounded vision for the market's needs. Then they say they need a technical co-founder to make it happen. I ask, "how about doing it yourself?" I can feel their disdain at the thought. "How about no-code?" They hand-wave toward needing "scale" or "a real app." Their relationship with technology is romantic.
A startup business must be classical in both its view of the market and the solution it applies. You need to love the motorcycle enough to take care of it. Being classical about the business as a whole is a characteristic of having skin in the game.
It's worth noting that this rarely happens in one person. "Playing on easy" is to form a complementary partnership. Pairing a CTO and the salesperson CEO as founders to meet the market is a potent mixture.
We are who we are. The critical lesson is to take a bit of time to understand where you are - classical or romantic - in each of the domains that might pertain to business. In those areas where your interest is classical, study and go deep. And where not, find partners right away.
You will find the areas where you are classical will get moved out from your responsibility anyway. As you become more successful
There exist technical/market geniuses. They make some of the most astounding founder stories. In my view, Zuckerberg, Jobs, and Gates all were in this category. Founders who can be classical about multiple parts of their business are far more likely to succeed.
People who want the ride are passive investors or sometimes employees. They care about their specific domain of interest, but otherwise, they ride the motorcycle.
When I evaluate entrepreneurs, I look for people who want to open up the engine and see what's inside. These people will not get frustrated when things get hard and the machine breaks - they live for this moment. And because they love taking care of the machine, they are less likely to be exposed to that failure.
Figure out who you are. There are lots of ways to participate in entrepreneurship - riders add value too! Figure out what you love and why. From there, you will find the path that gives you meaning and wealth.
Photo by Swaraj Tiwari on Unsplash