Recently, I had a long conversation with someone about the challenges I faced working with an obstinate founder that they referred to me. The person countered that the founder was passionate about their business idea, and I misunderstood their passion. I disagreed with their assessment.
During the week, I have contemplated the difference between obstinate and passionate. I realize that it was difficult to separate the two. Obstinate is often misunderstood to be obsessive; a term often used to describe Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Brian Chesky, Elon Musk or Jack Ma.
I love obsessive founders. I considered myself an obsessive founder. I am probably even more obsessive as an investor. Why VCs love obsessive founders is well explained by Mark Suster in this Medium post titled WhyI Look for Obsessive and Competitive Founders. If you are a VC investor, then you should read this post.
Moral: Obsessive is good, but obsessive is not obstinate.
Obstinate is what Oxford defines as stubbornly refusing to change one's opinion or chosen course of action, despite attempts to persuade one to do so.
Obstinate founders can take a fantastic thing and reduce it to rubble because their need to be right is more important than their need towing. It is the classic winning the battle but losing the war syndrome.
Gordon Tred gold wrote a wonderful article explaining the difference between stubbornness and determination, aptly titled Don’t Confuse Stubbornness with Determination.
In it, he provided a list of signs that can warn a founder whether their stubbornness is becoming an issue.
- If you never win and you never quit, you’re an idiot
- Will power vs. Won’t power
- Remember that your goals must be measurable
- Think about results
- Consider adaptability
- Your goal will remain the same, but your plan for achieving it will be different
His suggestions are absolutely banging on. I encourage you to read the article if you constantly find yourself butting heads with prospective and/or current investors.
