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SCRAPTITUDE: THE COMPOUNDING POWER OF GETTING SH*T DONE

Jun 26
Written By Gregory Larkin
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In 2005, when I started my first finance job, Wall Street was an ultra-exclusive
country club. At Goldman, Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers, and Merrill Lynch
private dining rooms served tasting plates with mousse and foam. Paintings by
Picasso and Cezanne jockeyed for position on conference room walls. The
receptionists seemed like they were trained by Mary Poppins.

 And then there was Bear Stearns.

 At Bear Stearns the receptionists seemed like extras from the movie
“Goodfellas.” They wore blue eye shadow, they cracked their gum. Instead of
asking, “Can I help you?” they would shout, “NEEEEEXT!” like at an airport
security checkpoint. The trading floor stank of cigarettes and cigars. Every
other desk had a phone that was ripped out of its jack. “Traders sometimes have
bad days.” I was told by the representative from investor relations on my first
trip to the bank, “so, ya know….” He imitated someone yanking their phone out of
the wall and shrugged his shoulders.  



 Bear Stearns had a talent strategy that was contrarian in finance that they
called “PSD” – poor with a strong desire to get rich. Bear had a deeply
ingrained skepticism of pedigreed Ivy League book smarts, and a healthy respect
for scrappy street smarts. If you drove a cab nights and weekends to pay your
way through Baruch College, you would be a strong candidate at Bear Stearns.
Goldman Sachs would wear latex gloves before they shook your hand.

I liked Bear Stearns. (Not as a stock, I anticipated their eventual collapse).
But their culture reminded me of the cops and firefighters I grew up with in
Queens, NYC. They understood the compounding power of scraptitude: the
combination of scrappiness and grit that delivers bigger ROI than Ivy League
prestige. It’s worth remembering what they did right, even though it didn’t work
out for Bear Stearns.

I’m currently hiring for Punks & Pinstripes and it’s caused me to reflect on the
best (and worst) hires I’ve made in my career. Over time, the Bear Stearns
talent strategy resonates more. Their strategy was echoed by Barack Obama, a
Harvard alumnus who grew up dirt poor, who famously said “just get stuff done”
when he was asked about the strongest attributes of the greatest talent. I’ve
found that success is scrappy and pedigree, when it’s not coupled with blue
collar grit, is often a parasite. The best hire I ever made, Laura Nishikawa,
put herself through McGill University waiting tables at a run down Greek
restaurant in Montreal. The difference between success and failure is rarely
strategic genius. It’s a team of people who are hungry and get sh*t done.

This article is about “scraptitude” - the scrappy attitude that supersedes Ivy
League aptitude and puts points on the board.

POINTS ON THE BOARD.

Everyone you hire needs to understand the financial strain of building a
business. Pedigree often has a cavalier attitude about spending other people’s
money. They implement strategies that only work if you’ve raised $10 million in
a series A, or if you come from a company that drops $20mn on a McKinsey
PowerPoint deck without much thought. But someone who grew up with their parents
fighting about money, who paid their way through college, who waited tables, has
pre-loaded empathy for the financial stress of running a business and making a
living from it. They inherently sprint to the highest payout for the least
expense. They don’t have to be taught that you’re taking a gigantic economic
risk as an entrepreneur. The financial scoreboard of the business comes
pre-loaded.

THE POWER OF NO

Great talent is able to zero in on the one most important thing to get done and
say no to everything else. (Especially the shitty ideas that tumble out of my
brain every 10 seconds.) Pedigree evaluates ideas through the lens of 5 year
vision and strategy. They over-engineer things and get stuck in analysis
paralysis. This is insightful, but rarely results in execution or outcomes. A
good, scrappy badass has a 6th sense for anticipating cost, complexity, and risk
and will say no to everything that’s not the straightest line to value and
growth. 

YOUR STRATEGY IS 6 WEEKS

The single most important skill of a great hire is speed. They need to focus on
the people whose problem you need to solve, align on a strategy for solving it,
and then solve it. If that entire process takes more than 6 weeks then it’s
taking too long.

 HAPPY BEING SCRAPPY

The minute someone won’t take out the garbage, fix the website, make 39 phone
calls, or peel potatoes for a client dinner is the minute you have a pedigreed
prima donna who will drain your resources. They will wind up hiring more
assistants to do the grunt work, causing costs to spiral out of control. They
will start picking apart the strategy and direction of the business (which is
invariably imperfect), because it’s where they feel comfortable. and the whole
direction of the business will get derailed.

THE RULE OF THREE LOST SLEEPS

Once you’ve lost three nights of sleep about whether you should fire someone you
should fire them. It’s already over. It may not be fair. It may be your fault
that it didn’t work out. But it’s over when it's over. Cut your losses and find
a scrappy superstar to accelerate growth.

One more thing. Punks & Pinstripes is hiring for scraptitude right now. We’re
looking for a community experience manager who can put points on the board, say
not to analysis paralysis, and create astounding value and happiness for our
members. Basically this person will ensure that our in person and virtual member
experiences are better, more consistent, and drive growth. Email
hey@punksandpinstripes.com if you’d like to learn more.



Gregory Larkin

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