Marc Andreessen's dangerous advice
I was driving the other day with David Senra in my ear when he asked Marc Andreessen, one of the most successful venture capitalists alive, about his relationship with introspection.
Andreessen's answer stopped me at a red light.
"Yes. Zero. As little as possible."
Zero introspection.
If you and I ran our family businesses that way, we'd break them in months. Maybe weeks.
Timeless Truth: Complex to build. Simple to break.
For Andreessen, introspection is friction. For us, it's fuel.
Introspection is how we listen for the divine. How we catch a glimpse of truth. How we admit, if we're humble enough, that we see things not as they are, but as we are.
Which brings me to a shepherd boy and a giant.
We tell the David and Goliath story wrong. We tell it as a story about faith and underdogs. It's also a story about introspection.
If David had not been introspective, he would have lost.
Saul, the King of the Israelites, handed the boy armor. King Saul handed him a sword. The expected weapons. The "real" path. David tried them on, walked a few steps, and took them off.
He knew who he was. He knew what game he was about to play.
The ancient world had three kinds of warriors:
Cavalry
Infantry
Projectile warriors (aka “slingers”)
Goliath was heavily armored infantry. A giant trained for close combat. He was likely sick. There’s two data points to suggest this:
He needed an attendant to walk him onto the battlefield. Why would a warrior need someone to guide him onto the battlefield?
Goliath shouted, "Why do you come to me with sticks?" — but David only carried one staff. Goliath was seeing at least double.
It’s been suggested Goliath might have been suffering from acromegaly, a pituitary tumor that causes gigantism and severely impairs vision.
Goliath was sick and waiting for a sword fight that was never coming.
David was a different type of warrior. David was a trained slinger killing lions and bear to protect his sheep throughout his life. He could launch a stone with the stopping power and accuracy of a modern handgun.
When Goliath bellowed for David to "come to him," he had no idea what game was actually being played.
David's "disadvantage" was the advantage. The armor would have slowed him down. The sword would have forced him onto Goliath's terrain. His mobility was lethal. His weapon was only wrong if you misread the contest.
David refused King Saul's armor because he was introspective enough to know the game he was playing.
In family business, we're surrounded by Sauls handing us armor.
Faster capital. Louder marketing. Clever sales techniques. Short cuts for faster results.
We're tempted to put it on. To fight infantry against infantry. To play a game we were never built to win.
But we carry strengths the giants don't:
Time. Trust. Passion. Grace. Relationships. Calling.
These show up in ownership. In the boardroom. In operations. They are the slings in our hands, across the entire family system.
A family business only has an advantage when we're mindful of the game we're playing.
Some are meant to sling. Others are meant to hold swords.
The work, the deeply introspective work, is taking the steps toward understanding ourselves.
Andreessen claims he can afford zero introspection. We cannot.
We are stewards of something that took generations to build and can be broken in a season.
Introspection isn't a luxury. It's the sling in our hand.
Don't get sucked into a game not worth playing.
Onward,
Matt
P.S. David became David through Goliath. The giant didn't just test him, it revealed him. Pay attention to the giant in front of you this week. It’s an invitation for us to be a better version of ourselves.