The Messy Middle: Finding Your Way Through the Hardest and Most Crucial Part of Any Bold Venture

by Scott Belsky

Knowing when to ignore your experience is a true sign of experience,” observed my mentor John Maeda.

The science of business is scaling; the art of business is the things that don’t.

BE “REMARKABLY UNSCALABLE” AT THE START

Give your customers something precious, something that cannot be easily scaled, automated, or commoditized.

Do things that your competitors and incumbents wouldn’t even think of doing for lack of financial reward. Only through these explorations will you discover the key differentiator—the art—that surprises customers and builds a remarkable product and brand.

So many things in work and life can be scaled. But when you come across something that cannot, like art, relationships, or details, pay special attention. By preserving the art in your business, you give it a soul that people will connect with.

You can tell yourself all kinds of stories to rationalize how you spend your day, but the calendar doesn’t lie. The accounting of how you spend your minutes is the hard truth of your values.

Keep reminding yourself that success doesn’t mean you know what you’re doing. Success means that many forces aligned in your favor, that your team outperformed itself, and that you kept yourself from screwing it up. When you feel yourself becoming headstrong and invincible, shift your focus

To tap the full potential of your team, sometimes you have to let go of the reins and let people have their own creative process. Even if you think your first draft is perfect (unlikely), allow your colleagues to play with an idea without your presence.

More often than not, great ideas grow out of good ideas—and it keeps the band together.

But being truthful requires a tolerance for disappointing others. It’s the only way to optimize. Seek the ruckus.

When you’re finished, your fate and your work’s fate diverge, but your identity belongs to you. And you are not your work. Your work, or your art, is something you’ve made. It can fail, be sold, or be left behind, but it can’t be you. A successful final mile requires letting go of what you made and returning to who you are, your values, and your curiosities that are kindling for whatever comes next.

said, “Read five hundred pages like this every day. That’s how knowledge works. It builds up, like compound interest. All of you can do it, but I guarantee not many of you will do it.”

Because the best parts of life have friction, and memories are all that we have.

Be satisfied with your life, but not with what you’ve made. Strive to be more fulfilled by what you’re doing than what you’ve done. Keep on doing.