Scaling requires balancing relentless hubris with radical humility
Jack Altman · Lessons in leadership | Scaling an org and tactical management advice | Jack Altman (Lattice) · Jul 6, 2023 · at 12:15
Jack Altman, co-founder and CEO of Lattice, explains the core paradox founders face between having the hubris to disrupt an industry and the humility needed to grow.
0:00 / 1:04exact quote · 64.8s
▶ Watch the full episode on YouTube → 720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“And this is one of the great paradoxes is that to, you know, have the hubris to start a company and to think that you're going to change some big and existing industry, you kind of have to feel in a certain way, like above the sort of normal decisions and the normal sort of operating of that industry. And so you have to have this Relentless self-belief, and you have to be willing to, in the face of everybody telling you you're wrong, or that what you're saying doesn't make sense, that you're actually right. But at the same time, you need to then have the humility to realize, like, wow, I need to grow tremendously if I want this thing to work. Unless you're, you know, a second or third time founder, and you've had a lot of that growth, and you're running a playbook, but even that person's going to need to learn a lot of things the next time around. And so this is one of the tricks, is you have to hold in your head simultaneously, I believe that I am uniquely suited to do this thing that most people are going to doubt me on, and that they're wrong, and I'm right, and I don't know so much, and I'm not even close to capable of running the company that we're going to be in two years, and so I need to change fast if I want to stay effective in my role.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Jack Altman
Founder CEOs possess unique moral authority over professional CEOs
“One of the things that's unique about founder CEOs relative to like a professional CEO is you do have this extra chip of moral authority that lets you shake things up and keep the startup feeling like a startup even when you are at scale, and one of the ways y…”
Consensus-driven startup cultures create massive inefficiency at scale
“Lattice in the early days had a culture that was what I would describe as very consensus driven, very inclusive in terms of the way that we came to conclusions on ideas.
we really got to places as groups.
And I think that actually worked really well for us in…”
Founders should never permanently relinquish their core functional spike
“I think there are, for most founders, you'll have at least one thing you should never give up or at least that you shouldn't give up permanently. Commonly those things are going to be either product sales or marketing.”
Micromanagement is an extremely important tool that CEOs must use sparingly
“I believe that micromanaging has a very bad rap and is extremely important and effective. And I believe CEOs should do it. I believe executives should do it. I believe managers should do it. I just believe it's a tool that you should use sparingly and know wha…”