Mess Is The Default State

Today I read an interesting quote in an article titled “Research: Millennials Think About Work Too Much.” Towards the end, author Ran Zilca writes:

“It seems that as we go into our thirties and forties, and out of the quarter-life crisis, we start to realize that life cannot be optimized.”

In our twenties we aim for perfection and think that one day, our lives will be smooth, and organized, and everything hums along nicely. In other words, perfection. As we reach our thirties and forties, we learn that life will never be fully optimized. Instead, we learn to deal with and, hopefully, thrive in a constant sea of ever-changing messiness and challenges.

I fully agree with this insight. What’s more, I believe this thought doesn’t just apply to individuals, it also goes for companies.

Whenever you look at a growing or successful organization from the outside, you assume that everything must be perfectly organized and running well. Undoubtedly, when you get a peek at the inner workings, you realize there’s tons of messiness and problems.

If your company is highly matured and sitting on a staggering amount of resources, you can consider aiming for perfection in everything the organization does. For all the other mere mortals among companies, you need to pick your battles, and this is especially true when you’re an early stage startup.

It’s a mistake I’ve made myself in the startups I’ve been involved in, trying to do too many things well. Instead, what I’ve now come to learn by working at and with some successful companies, is that messiness is the default state in most areas of the business, and that’s ok. The key is to 1) do the one or two particular areas that currently matter extremely well, and 2) leave unimportant areas as messy as possible.

Perhaps not coincidentally, the people who seem to grasp this are usually the more experienced executives, founders, and leaders, who are often in their thirties, forties, and beyond. They’ve learned and seen that not everything can be optimized all at once, and that the business will not die from messiness in a bunch of areas that are currently not critical. They’re unfazed in the face of messiness.

On the other hand, younger team members or founders seem to struggle with this. Just as in life, they think everything needs to be done well. Perhaps that’s then a key part of aging and work experience: you learn that messiness is the default state and it’s something you need to embrace and work with, not fight against.

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