Honest Tradeoffs

We aspire to be the best. To do our best.

But we can’t be the best at everything.

The famous physicist Richard Feynman warned: you must not fool yourself yet you are the easiest person to fool. Feynman wanted us to see the world as it is, not as we’d like it to be.

To that end, we must make sacrifices.

It’s okay.

Chipotle trades fresh ingredients for accompanying health risks. Walmart trades sameness for variety.

What’s important is not that we try our best but that we are honest about our tradeoffs. Successful businesses aim to be the best at what their customers find important and let go of things their customers don’t.

“You must be bad in the service of good,” writes Frances Frei, “Excellence requires under-performing on the dimensions your customers value least so that you can overperform on the dimensions your customers value most.”

So be honest: What are the important tradeoffs?

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