Which Wolf Are You Feeding?

I’m a sucker for an “old fable.”

It’s probably because I’m a big believer in the Lindy Effect - that longevity is our best predictor of the future (if something has been around for a long time, it’s a good bet it’ll be around for a long time). So, the older the fable, the harder I’m going to try to hammer it into the shape of a post that’ll help you with your startup.

Today, we’ll be banging away at a fable about wolves. Here it is:

One evening, an elderly Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside each of us.

He said, “My son, the battle is between two ‘wolves’ inside us all. One is evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, and ego.

The other is good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, and faith.”

“The same fight is going on inside you—and inside every other person, too.”

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf wins?”

The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one that you feed.”

The vast majority of things you’ll try for your startup won’t work. That’s the whole game. The first thing you try won’t work for the same reason there aren’t hundred dollar bills lying on the sidewalk - markets are efficient and the low hanging fruit gets picked.

So, when you push your first landing page to 250 people and 2 sign up and none respond to your email, which wolf do you feed?

Do you get frustrated and pity yourself a bit?

Or do you see the joy in the moment? That this failed test is pushing you closer to the rep that’ll work? That this chisel took away a chunk of stone in the block of marble that’ll eventually look like an idea that works? That 85% of people after the same idea will stop after they hit a failure like this, but you won’t?

A friend of mine tells a story about his first day at NYU film school. Martin Scorsese was a guest speaker, and after opening it up to questions someone asked what he would do if it were his first day of film school. How would he spend his time?

He responded:

“Every director has 200 bad movies in them. You need to make those 200 movies before you get to any of the good movies. Most people never do. So, I’d spend my time furiously making 200 movies, so that I’d get the bad stuff out of the way.”

If you can recognize that each thing you do that doesn’t give you the result you’d hoped for is just another one of those “200 bad movies,” that it’s actually separating you and moving you forward, you feed the good wolf.

And that makes this whole thing way more enjoyable.