Suck Less

Brad Feld says he’s not using the term “World Class” anymore, and tells this story about his first software company, where “We Suck Less” became its mission statement:

When we told our clients something like "we are better than the last guys", they either groaned or laughed maniacally since they had already heard that a few times from the people that came before us. But when we told them “the thing we are doing is really hard, the guys before us sucked, but we are going to suck less and try our hardest to be successful for you" our clients usually related (at least when they laughed, it was with a smile on their face.)

We delivered more often then not. So - while we never achieved that elusive "world class" status, we definitely sucked less most of the time. And - when I wandered down the hallways saying "guys - focus on sucking less - that's the key to our success", people rallied a lot more than if I had shouted "we are going to be world class" from the rooftops.

 Great advice.