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- Invisible Greatness
It’s Wednesday, Feb 21st, and today we’re talking about invisible greatness; where it exists, and how to achieve it.
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Invisible Greatness
One of the best perks of running Wondry is that we consistently work with high-caliber brands, which means that every day is educational. We know our niche well, but collaborating with thoughtful, adventurous subscription-based companies exposes us to different kinds of mastery, most of which will never make a (questionable) Forbes list.
Media loves a big story, but some of the most impactful companies are those that headlines overlook, quietly shaping the future.
In observing these companies, I’ve realized they can be parsed out into four key areas:
👉🏼 The consistent, tedious, unscalable ways great customer relationships are built
👉🏼 The internal team members who fly under the radar (because unfortunately, it's the problematic ones that divert energy)
👉🏼 The invisible fabric of strong community (it's never about the big events and content)
👉🏼 The insane dedication to a singular solution when so many opportunities are calling your name
Greatness is found in the parts you don’t see.
Let's get into it.
They Do Things That Don't Scale (yada yada yada)
In the startup scene, Paul Graham's advice, "Do things that don't scale," is almost gospel. It’s been said so often that it’s losing some of its punch, which is a damn shame because it is the first and most obvious thing I’ve learned from extraordinary leaders.
There are, however, two important nuances that get overlooked by average companies: what they did and when they did it.
What they did
When we talk about things that don’t scale, we tell stories of the early days of well-known startups:
How Airbnb's founders photographed homes themselves to boost listings’ appeal.
How Nick Swinmurn of Zappos went to Foot Locker and photographed their inventory to test their idea, fulfilling early orders by purchasing directly from Foot Locker and shipping to customers.
How the team at Seamless had no product in the beginning but instead contacted legal firms in New York, got lunch preferences, and picked up food from local restaurants, delivering straight to the law firms.
What were they doing?
Validating an idea.
What weren’t they doing?
They weren’t understanding what was arguably the more important piece of Graham’s advice: Delight and Experience. Most focused on doing things that don’t scale through the lens of de-risking, not by creating a 1000 true fans.
When they did it
Those who choose unscalable tactics usually wait just long enough to find traction and then say “It’s no longer practical”.
Remarkables know better.
There is a reason that Seth Godin, worth 50+ million, answers every email personally.
There is a reason that Chewy, an 8-figure company, sends flowers and heartfelt cards to customers who’ve recently lost their pet.
Great companies continue to do things that don’t scale.
At least, that’s how it feels to the customer.
They Are Rigorous About Their Team
One of my earliest mistakes in managing people was not recognizing and rewarding my strongest team members. We opened in 2010 and I sold the company in 2021. There were still people who’d been with me from the beginning; 11 years of buying into and spreading the vision. That is a gift.
But it was the problematic ones that got my attention. Meetings, coaching, hemming and hawing; underperformers are energy diverters. It’s the ones you don’t need to think about who are quietly building a great brand.
Behind every successful venture, there’s a crew of underappreciated heroes. Their work, quiet yet critical, often goes unnoticed.
Recently, Google’s culture has been coming under fire. But they were once hailed for their early culture, with one of the cornerstones being an open-source peer bonus program, allowing employees to reward their colleagues for outstanding work. As most of us have read as of late, leadership has grossly failed to hang on to core talent.
Managers will often assume that 1:1s are a safety net against this loss, that as long as we’re meeting our people regularly, we’ll be able to praise and coach as needed. This isn’t true.
Almost half of direct reports rate their 1:1s as suboptimal for one primary reason: they often turn into a discussion of critical issues and not of employee development or performance. Throwing in educational allowances and quarterly reviews will never be a good substitute.
The best managers know they have two primary responsibilities:
Clear roadblocks
Develop talent
Every month I get to collaborate on new communities, and understandably, people get nervous about the launch. It’s my job to keep reminding them that communities are woven from the threads of daily interactions, support, and shared values, not just the grandiose events.
It's the consistent, invisible engagement that fortifies these bonds. This is another thing Seth said brilliantly:
Great communities are built drip by drip, not through a flood hose.
They Are Problem Obsessed
The relentless pursuit of a single vision is what separates the fleeting from the monumental. I’ve seen too many companies struggle with Solution in Search of Problem; falling in love with an idea, service, or widget, and hunting for people who may want it. It’s a fool's errand.
When you don’t start with a singular problem, all traction is at risk because you’re immediately hit with three obstacles:
No compelling message because you have no single source of truth and aren’t talking to anyone specific.
You may never find the problem
You will be distracted by every tangential possibility
One of our clients prints a quarterly magazine for horror and gore enthusiasts. When considering whether community was a good investment, they saw a clear problem: most horror forums were filled with trolling, gatekeeping, and vitriol.
The decision to launch a subscriber-only community with a very clear “no-nonsense tolerated” value prop resulted in one of the most vibrant community launches I’ve witnessed. People were so relieved to be ushered into a place where they could talk about what they love without it devolving into a foot-measuring contest that traction was instantaneous.
Apple is not going to livestream from its conference room 24/7, so we’ll never see the real work, but Invisible Greatness is found in the subtleties of daily operations.
Everything else: the headlines, the flashy posts, the listicles is just a distraction.
Onward,
April
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