Scraptitude: The Compounding Power Of Getting SH*T Done
In 2005, when I started my first finance job, Wall Street was an ultra-exclusive country club. At Goldman, Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers, and Merrill Lynch private dining rooms served tasting plates with mousse and foam. Paintings by Picasso and Cezanne jockeyed for position on conference room walls. The receptionists seemed like they were trained by Mary Poppins.
And then there was Bear Stearns.
At Bear Stearns the receptionists seemed like extras from the movie “Goodfellas.” They wore blue eye shadow, they cracked their gum. Instead of asking, “Can I help you?” they would shout, “NEEEEEXT!” like at an airport security checkpoint. The trading floor stank of cigarettes and cigars. Every other desk had a phone that was ripped out of its jack. “Traders sometimes have bad days.” I was told by the representative from investor relations on my first trip to the bank, “so, ya know….” He imitated someone yanking their phone out of the wall and shrugged his shoulders.
Bear Stearns had a talent strategy that was contrarian in finance that they called “PSD” – poor with a strong desire to get rich. Bear had a deeply ingrained skepticism of pedigreed Ivy League book smarts, and a healthy respect for scrappy street smarts. If you drove a cab nights and weekends to pay your way through Baruch College, you would be a strong candidate at Bear Stearns. Goldman Sachs would wear latex gloves before they shook your hand.
I liked Bear Stearns. (Not as a stock, I anticipated their eventual collapse). But their culture reminded me of the cops and firefighters I grew up with in Queens, NYC. They understood the compounding power of scraptitude: the combination of scrappiness and grit that delivers bigger ROI than Ivy League prestige. It’s worth remembering what they did right, even though it didn’t work out for Bear Stearns.
I’m currently hiring for Punks & Pinstripes and it’s caused me to reflect on the best (and worst) hires I’ve made in my career. Over time, the Bear Stearns talent strategy resonates more. Their strategy was echoed by Barack Obama, a Harvard alumnus who grew up dirt poor, who famously said “just get stuff done” when he was asked about the strongest attributes of the greatest talent. I’ve found that success is scrappy and pedigree, when it’s not coupled with blue collar grit, is often a parasite. The best hire I ever made, Laura Nishikawa, put herself through McGill University waiting tables at a run down Greek restaurant in Montreal. The difference between success and failure is rarely strategic genius. It’s a team of people who are hungry and get sh*t done.
This article is about “scraptitude” - the scrappy attitude that supersedes Ivy League aptitude and puts points on the board.
Points On The Board.
Everyone you hire needs to understand the financial strain of building a business. Pedigree often has a cavalier attitude about spending other people’s money. They implement strategies that only work if you’ve raised $10 million in a series A, or if you come from a company that drops $20mn on a McKinsey PowerPoint deck without much thought. But someone who grew up with their parents fighting about money, who paid their way through college, who waited tables, has pre-loaded empathy for the financial stress of running a business and making a living from it. They inherently sprint to the highest payout for the least expense. They don’t have to be taught that you’re taking a gigantic economic risk as an entrepreneur. The financial scoreboard of the business comes pre-loaded.
The Power Of No
Great talent is able to zero in on the one most important thing to get done and say no to everything else. (Especially the shitty ideas that tumble out of my brain every 10 seconds.) Pedigree evaluates ideas through the lens of 5 year vision and strategy. They over-engineer things and get stuck in analysis paralysis. This is insightful, but rarely results in execution or outcomes. A good, scrappy badass has a 6th sense for anticipating cost, complexity, and risk and will say no to everything that’s not the straightest line to value and growth.
Your strategy is 6 weeks
The single most important skill of a great hire is speed. They need to focus on the people whose problem you need to solve, align on a strategy for solving it, and then solve it. If that entire process takes more than 6 weeks then it’s taking too long.
Happy Being Scrappy
The minute someone won’t take out the garbage, fix the website, make 39 phone calls, or peel potatoes for a client dinner is the minute you have a pedigreed prima donna who will drain your resources. They will wind up hiring more assistants to do the grunt work, causing costs to spiral out of control. They will start picking apart the strategy and direction of the business (which is invariably imperfect), because it’s where they feel comfortable. and the whole direction of the business will get derailed.
The rule of three lost sleeps
Once you’ve lost three nights of sleep about whether you should fire someone you should fire them. It’s already over. It may not be fair. It may be your fault that it didn’t work out. But it’s over when it's over. Cut your losses and find a scrappy superstar to accelerate growth.
One more thing. Punks & Pinstripes is hiring for scraptitude right now. We’re looking for a community experience manager who can put points on the board, say not to analysis paralysis, and create astounding value and happiness for our members. Basically this person will ensure that our in person and virtual member experiences are better, more consistent, and drive growth. Email hey@punksandpinstripes.com if you’d like to learn more.
