🪣 Business Is Just Playing in the Mud
By Brady Starr
A few days ago in a meeting, I said something that didn’t quite land. I asked:
“Is this what they teach in business school — just, like… playing?”
It came out awkward. I didn’t explain what I meant. I waved it off mid-sentence.
But it stuck with me. And now, here I am, writing it out.
Because honestly, that’s how this all feels sometimes. Running a business is like playing in the mud.
I don’t mean it’s childish. I mean it’s experimental. It’s uncertain. It’s hands-on. It’s messy.
We do things without knowing how they’ll go. Like launching a LinkedIn Live event thinking maybe three people will show up — and instead, dozens register and you suddenly feel exposed. I prepped for it like a keynote speaker. Wrote speaker notes. Practiced lines. Made a deck in Figma that looked good. But right before the event, all I could think was:
“Why are we even doing this?”
I kept saying to the team:
“Even if no one shows up, maybe we can use the video later…”
“This is just a test run…”
But deep down, I was just scared it wouldn’t matter. That I wouldn’t come off the way I wanted to. That I’d look like a one-person shop trying to fake it as a real company.
That’s the mud.
Not knowing what you’re doing but doing it anyway.
Feeling exposed. Showing up.
Recording the thing. Building the deck. Writing the proposal.
Getting ghosted by people you wanted to impress — and still pressing send.
It’s so easy to think everyone else has a manual. That other companies are gliding along, knowing exactly how to present themselves. But I’ve started to believe that most of them are in the mud too. They’re just quieter about it.
And maybe they did teach this in business school. But I didn’t go. I’m learning by doing. I’m building the ship while sailing it. I’m playing, adjusting, listening, messing up, trying again.
I’m learning how to lead, not from books — but from moments like this:
- When your teammate gently says, “Let’s not be too salesy.”
- When you realize you need your partners to take ownership.
- When you admit you’re nervous but show up anyway.
That’s the real stuff.
So yeah, business is playing.
It’s improvising.
It’s not knowing and still deciding to hit “go live.”
It’s acting like it’s already real, even if you still feel like a kid with muddy shoes pretending to be the CEO.
And the crazy part?
Sometimes that’s exactly what makes it real.
