John Wick and Startup Founders Have More in Common Than Most Entrepreneurs Think
The tireless assassin is dangerous for the same reason established companies fear startups
I was watching the new John Wick movie this past weekend, and I found myself asking: “What makes a character like John Wick such a badass?” The answer kept reminding me of startups.
I realize this is a strange comparison, but remember, John Wick is the badass, not me. I’m just some random dude who finds ways to relate everything in my life back to entrepreneurship, which is a decidedly non-badass thing to do.
In contrast, John Wick is an extreme badass. And his badassery is tied to the fact that he has nothing to lose. He doesn’t have a wife or children. He doesn’t even have a dog anymore! (I suppose those are all spoilers, but they’re spoilers from the first move, so they don’t really count. This article doesn’t contain any spoilers from the new movie.) The character’s lack of emotional connections are what make him so dangerous. He doesn’t care about material things, so he’s not worried about losing his fancy home or cool car. And he doesn’t love anyone, so he doesn’t have to worry about them getting hurt. As a result, the worst possible outcome for John Wick in any scenario is death, and, all things considered, death isn’t particularly terrible for him. This is what allows him to push himself harder and farther than other people.
In contrast, most of us can’t do that. We have families and friends and pets, and we can’t just die for no good reason. We have too much to lose and too many people depending on us, which adds significant limits to what we’re willing and able to do in life.
However, in startups, the consequences are different. Startups have very little to lose, which is why, in the corporate world, startups are the John Wicks of business. Or rather, they should be. However, most startup founders aren’t nearly as badass as they should be.
Too many fearful founders
In general, entrepreneurs love talking about all the things they want to or could do with their startups; however, they’re often extremely passive and hesitant about actually doing anything. As a result, in my work teaching and coaching new entrepreneurs, I often find myself having to cajole founders into action.
For a long time, I thought the issue with passive founders was uncertainty. I thought they didn’t know the right things to do, and, as a result, they struggled to do anything. However, the more I work with founders, the more I’m learning that their inaction is rarely the result of not knowing what to do. Instead, founders are self-conscious. They don’t take action because they’re worried about what people might think.
I encountered this recently when an entrepreneur I was working with was worrying about pushing a new feature live without running a bunch of tests to make sure it didn’t “negatively impact the customer experience.”
“How many customers do you have?” I asked him when he explained his concerns.
“We have 25,” he answered. “But none of them are paying yet.”
“That means you have zero customers,” I reminded him. “What are you worried about? Push the feature and see what people think. After all, whatever you’re currently doing clearly isn’t exciting anyone enough to get them paying.”
In another conversation, I suggested that a TikTok creator I work with re-post a video with a different caption because the original post didn’t get many views. “But I already posted the video,” he worried. “What if someone sees I posted it again.”
“How many views did your first video get?” I asked him.
“Around 150,” he said.
“On TikTok, 150 views might as well be zero,” I reminded him, “which means nobody saw that you already posted the video. What are you so worried about? Post it again!”
Learn to harness your startup‘s superpower
The two examples I’ve shared of founders needlessly worrying about what people might think are just two examples of hundreds of similar conversations I have with founders every year. New startup founders are constantly worrying about what people will think and how it might impact their ventures, but they’re forgetting that nobody knows or cares about them. They don’t have lots of customers. They don’t have established brands. They don’t have hard-earned reputations. They don’t have much, if any, revenue. Really, they don’t have anything.
Not having anything sucks. Just ask John Wick. I’m sure he’s lonely. But not having anything does have one, huge advantage, and new entrepreneurs need to learn to exploit it as quickly as possible.
New entrepreneurs have nothing to lose. This lack of consequences is a startup’s superpower, particularly against established incumbents. Sure, those incumbents are bigger, better funded, and have lots more employees, but their additional resources also come with the burden of consequences. In contrast, new entrepreneurs don’t have much to lose, which means they can move quickly, experiment, pivot rapidly, and tolerate failure. Don’t ignore this type of freedom. Just like John Wick, having nothing to lose is what makes a startup so dangerous.