Episode #65
Stop Confusing the Tool With the Goal
Most business problems get worse because entrepreneurs optimize the method instead of questioning whether the method was ever the right one.
6 min 5s
Video and audio in Dutch
Most business problems get worse because entrepreneurs optimize the method instead of questioning whether the method was ever the right one.
Video and audio in Dutch
Paul Veth uses a simple observation from outside his front door to explain one of the most persistent traps in business: optimizing the method instead of questioning whether the method was ever right. The grandmother rushing a playing child to the playground so he can play is not a parenting story. It is a business story.
The episode walks through a realistic chain of decisions that starts with a cash flow problem and ends with a dedicated team optimizing doorbell strategy. Every step in that chain felt logical. None of it questioned the original assumption.
Paul points out that the cash flow problem might have been a cost problem in disguise. And even if it was a client problem, door-to-door was one option among several: advertising, cold calling, direct mail, content that brings people to you before you ever make an offer.
Before building a solution, ask what problem the solution was supposed to solve. Many solutions entrepreneurs build are not only unnecessary, they actively create new problems. Going back to the core of your business, why you started it, which problem you actually solve for clients, is not a philosophical exercise. It is the most practical thing you can do when you feel stuck.
It means you start optimizing a method without checking whether that method actually serves the original objective. You wanted more clients, you chose door-to-door, and now you are running a doorbell improvement project. The goal got replaced by the method somewhere along the way.
When the activity you are working hardest on is two or three steps removed from the actual outcome you want, and you cannot clearly explain how improving that activity solves the original problem, you are likely optimizing the wrong thing.
Stop and trace the chain back. Write down the original problem, the solution you chose, and every sub-task that followed. Ask at each step whether it is still connected to the real goal. Then list alternative approaches you never considered before committing to this one.
No. If the method is working, building structure around it makes sense. The issue is when you invest heavily in a method before confirming it is the right one, or when you keep investing after evidence suggests it is not delivering the original outcome.
Identity First starts with who you are and what problem your business actually exists to solve. When you build from that core, you are less likely to drift into solutions that have no connection to your original purpose. The method follows the identity, not the other way around.
Want to learn more or collaborate? Feel free to reach out.
Get in touchThe content makes a sharp distinction between optimizing a method and questioning whether that method was ever right for your situation. What is a method you kept refining for way too long before realizing it was the wrong tool entirely, and what finally made you see it?
