Does It Need to Be Serious?

I started with a phrase: unserious personality, serious execution.

That sounded about right. Let me be a bit of a joker. The work can still be serious.

Then I got stuck on the second half.

Does the execution need to be serious either?

The right work needs to be chosen. It needs to get done. To the standard it needs, within the time and budget.

What am I asking seriousness to add to that?

There’s a picture in my head of the serious entrepreneur. Some mixture of Mark Cuban, Stephen Bartlett, Steve Jobs and Elon Musk.

That’s the association, anyway. A certain heaviness. Life is serious. Work is serious. Everything must be serious.

And I can understand it. Building something is hard. There are so many moving parts. The world keeps changing while you’re trying to make something happen in it.

Maybe that seriousness helps hold it all together. Maybe it reinforces something useful in the culture.

But an image can become a trap too.

Deciding I’m a serious entrepreneur might shape how I behave. Now I’ve also got a story to protect. I have to keep coming back to being that person.

And if I’m looking at what gets in the way of the work, how much of it is me trying to maintain that image?

Richard Branson’s public image interests me more in this respect. A bit playful. Jokey. More of an adventure.

I don’t know how closely the image matches the reality. But the lightness appeals to me.

Maybe being a bit less serious gives people room to explore. To be themselves. Say what they actually think. Have a laugh when something doesn’t go the way we wanted.

Reality is a hard thing to control. We’re trying to do things in it, but it isn’t going to cooperate every time.

Can we laugh when it doesn’t?

I’d like to have fun with the people I’m playing with. Let them be themselves. Let me be a bit of a joker too.

As long as we’re choosing the right work and getting it done to the standard we need, I don’t give a damn whether we look serious while we’re doing it.

Whether I do it myself or it gets done another way, the work still needs to get done.

That’s what keeps bringing me back to the original phrase.

Unserious personality, serious execution.

That was the idea when I started. But the longer I talk through it, the less clear I am about what “serious” is doing there.

I’ve already said what I need from the execution. The right direction. The right work. Done properly. Within the time and budget.

Maybe I’m being idealistic about how this would work in a team. I don’t know all the ramifications.

It feels like something I’d like to explore, though. Without having to consciously engineer a whole culture around it.

Let’s have fun with the people we’re playing with.

Choose the right work and get it done properly.

I’m still not sure why it needs to be serious.