Simple ideas taken seriously
Another Charlie Munger gem.
This simple idea may seem too obvious to be useful, but there is an old two-part rule that often works well in business, science, and elsewhere:
Take a simple, basic idea and
Take it very seriously.
When you step back and think about what we’re all building here, it’s a bunch of simple ideas we’ve taken seriously enough to invest time, effort, and resources into building.
The graveyard of obvious ideas
But there’s a graveyard of obvious ideas lurking just around the corner from all of our businesses.
Every founder I talk to already knows the things that would move their business faster and in the right direction. Talk to more customers.
Follow up faster.
Charge for the value you deliver.
Watch how people actually use the product.
None of it’s a secret. For all of us, there are things we don’t do, not because we think we shouldn’t, but because they feel obvious, and obvious things don’t feel like progress. Simple ideas get a nod, then they quietly die in the graveyard.
I’ll out myself: the simplest idea I’ve been given for our business is to block off time for sales every single morning and not let anything get in the way. Some days I do it, some days I don’t.
It’s a simple idea I haven’t taken seriously enough.
What’s funny is, I believe it. I know it will work, and yet some days I look at the clock and it’s noon and I haven’t done that sales block yet.
The one we built a company on
The idea Accoil is built on is almost embarrassingly simple, but here it is: if customers use your product, they stay; if they don’t, they leave.
Almost everybody we speak with agrees. They’re willing to accept the simple idea. But not many are willing to take it very seriously, to instrument it, to score accounts, to understand what good customer behavior really looks like.
When you take simple ideas very seriously, you realize that “[s]implicity is the end result of long, hard work, not the starting point,” as Frederic Maitland supposedly said.
Frederic is considered the modern father of English legal history, so yeah. Smart guy, not otherwise relevant to this discussion.
What I believe Frederic is saying is that, to see the value in a simple idea or to harvest its value, you have to take it more seriously than it feels like you should.
The dumb-idea test
It’s easy to get overwhelmed by all of the growth tactics and tools and AI news of the day. Carving out just a little bit of time to think about simple ideas that’ll move the needle for your business is valuable.
So here’s something I’m trying:
Write down the simplest, most obvious idea in your business, one that feels almost dumb to say in a meeting.
Then ask: Am I taking this seriously, or am I just nodding at it on my way to the clever stuff?
Munger’s point is that his edge was never in being clever. It was in taking the obvious thing more seriously than the next person.
What’s a simple idea you keep nodding at but have not run with, and are not taking seriously enough? Let me know.
TTFN
Peter