In the film Amélie (2001), a boy says to a man standing near a monument:
“Sir, when a finger points at the moon, a fool looks at the finger.”
The line captures one of the biggest problems people face in business and in life.
Imagine the early days of a company. The founder has just launched it. Revenue and profits are growing. Customers cannot contain their excitement. A vague idea has taken concrete form, and its shape is beautiful.
Years go by. Top executives succeed one another at the helm. The company grows into an industry leader and expands internationally.
Everyone tries to study and copy its business model, its methods, and its know-how. Harvard Business School writes glowing case studies about it.
Then something strange happens. In just a few years, this once-solid pillar of stability turns into a ghost. Analysts, investors, and journalists are baffled.
Why?
The company has become the finger that drew everyone’s attention to itself. Or rather, people became fixated on the form and forgot that it was only ever pointing at something beyond itself.
So what is the moon in this metaphor?
The creative act of solving a painful problem for customers.
Not the strategy.
Not the organizational structure.
Not the business model.
Not the team.
The finger was always pointing to someone’s intention:
“It seems nobody cares.”
“But I can’t leave it this way.”
“This is where I can, and want to, set a small part of the Cosmos right.”
Could that company have been saved?
Yes.
If it had regularly turned its gaze to where the boy advises.
Sincerely yours,
-Alexander
As a business therapist, I help tech founders quickly solve dilemmas at the intersection of business and personality, and boost company value as a result.
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