Why Common Sense Is Not So Common Among Founders

Some years ago, two college kids posted online photos of themselves smoking weed in their dorm room. The next day, when they realized what they’d done, one of the guys observed, “I wish we could retract those photos.”

- Martin Lindstrom

The result was Snapchat, a $50-billion company. Their pain, amplified by empathy, shaped the Snapchat concept. I’d suggest that nearly every startup has one thing in common. They’re born on empathy, stemming from the founder’s solution to his or her frustrations, dreams, fears, and wishes.

Empathy is the ability to place oneself in the customer’s shoes. Or, to state it another way: to treat consumers and fellow employees as you would want to be treated. When empathy takes off, you’ll witness a small army of true believers join forces and march day-and-night until they’ve broken through their organisation’s red tape and ‘we’ve always done it that way’ mindset.

Lack of empathy paralyses the giants of every industry – yet in a David and Goliath scenario, a relatively small number of empathetic strivers can do wonders to reinvigorate an unstoppable, powerful entrepreneurial spirit, admired by every corporation out there.

SO HOW COME, IF THE ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT IS SO DESIRED, IT ALMOST ALWAYS DISAPPEARS?

I’ve studied and worked with hundreds of companies around the world, from Googles and LEGOs to tiny over-night wonder start-ups like Hitwise.com and YellowPages.com, to promising start-ups that never really took off. I’ve observed what happens as companies grow and how that entrepreneurial spirit gets lost in translation. In almost every case, the answer boils down to three simple words:

LOSS OF EMPATHY.