Hedgehogs & Foxes

Welcome to the 100+ new members of the curiosity tribe who have joined us since Friday. Join the 22,300+ others who are receiving high-signal, curiosity-inducing content every single week!Today’s newsletter is brought to you by AppSumo!Sumo Day 2021 is almost here - an event for entrepreneurs hosted by my friends over at AppSumo. Think of Sumo Day as Amazon Prime Day, but for entrepreneurs. Starting July 13th, AppSumo is bringing you insane products, discounts, and giveaways for just 72 hours! So sign up to get the updates straight to your inbox!Hedgehogs & FoxesWhat can hedgehogs and foxes teach us about startups, entrepreneurship, investing, and growth? A lot.For today’s newsletter, let me take you down the rabbit (er, fox) hole on a mental model on vision, focus, and the journey from good to great.Let's start at the beginning...In the 8th century BC, a Greek poet named Archilochus penned a line that has stood the test of time."The fox knows many things; the hedgehog knows one big thing."In the thousands of years since it was written, the meaning of Archilochus’ words has been debated by many of the greatest philosophers, historians, writers and thinkers.In a literal sense, the fox has an array of tricks at his disposal, but is defeated by the hedgehog's singular (and spiky) defense. In a figurative sense, Archilochus is highlighting the difference between those with singular vision and those with more scattered inspirations.The dichotomy of the hedgehog and the fox entered the more mainstream lexicon in 1953, when philosopher Isaiah Berlin published an essay entitled, The Hedgehog and the Fox, which would go on to be one of his most popular and well-regarded works.Berlin's essay sought to divide history's great writers and thinkers into two groups:Hedgehogs: who view the world through the lens of a single, all-encompassing ideaFoxes: who draw upon myriad experiences and cannot view the world through the lens of a single idea“For there exists a great chasm between those, on one side, who relate everything to a single central vision, one system, less or more coherent or articulate, in terms of which they understand, think and feel – a single, universal, organizing principle in terms of which alone all that they are and say has significance – and, on the other side, those who pursue many ends, often unrelated and even contradictory, connected, if at all, only in some de facto way, for some psychological or physiological cause, related to no moral or aesthetic principle.” - Isaiah Berlin, The Hedgehog and the Fox, 1953In The Hedgehog and the Fox, Berlin largely focused on categorizing writers and thinkers into these two groups. But he also - perhaps unintentionally - sparked the concept to leap into a new domain.Leadership and business.Enter stage left, Jim Collins...In 2001, renowned author Jim Collins released Good to Great, a book exploring why certain companies are able to achieve greatness after long periods of mediocrity (and why others don’t).In it, Collins referenced The Hedgehog and the Fox in building out what he referred to as The Hedgehog Concept. Collins asserted that the leaders of the good-to-great companies were all hedgehogs - people with a singular, all-encompassing vision.These leaders were uniquely capable of taking the complexity of their businesses and markets and simplifying it into a unifying idea.The Hedgehog Concept is a simple framework for identifying that unifying idea or vision.It is found at the center of:What you are passionate aboutWhat drives your economic engineWhat you can be the best atThis last point is nuanced and worth a brief aside...What can you be the best at?Most people and companies have a very tough time with this question. It's not about a process to become the best. It's not about a strategy, plan, or roadmap. It's a simple, self-reflective exercise in identifying what game you should be playing.Here's one way to go about it:Map a list of skills or attributes on a page. Where do you spike? Where do you lag? Mark the map with pluses (+) and minuses (-) accordingly. Reflect on your map.Questions to ask:What game am I playing?Am I uniquely positioned to "win" that game?What game should I be playing?The key point here is that succeeding on the journey from good to great requires you (or your company) to play a game that you can be great at! Far too many people and companies spend years languishing in the valley of mediocrity simply because they were playing the wrong game.Ok, after that brief aside (which probably deserves its own piece in the future), back to hedgehogs and foxes...We have established a mental model: Foxes have multiple motivations, while hedgehogs have a singular focus.So where might you apply this mental model in practice?InvestingWhether you are investing in startups or mature public companies, understanding management and their motivations is of paramount importance.This is often easier said than done.Try asking a simple, clarifying question...