Do This One Thing to Stay Focused. Ignore Politics.

Know What Matters: You, yes. Policies, maybe. Politics, no.

By Josh Wolfe

A tweet by Y Combinator founder Paul Graham surprised me because it reminded me how even important people get distracted by unimportant things. The tweet sparked a short friendly debate. After reading it, scroll for one big takeaway.

I really liked this reply:

Then Paul made an appeal to authority.

Which was wisely countered.

A few years ago, I was on an email list with some well-known investors and the discussion strayed into politics. Some on the list liked Obama, others Romney. Both candidates were battling for your attention, your dollars and your vote. People were completely consumed with it.

One famous VC wrote to the group complaining that…

…this administration has created is the rhetorical war on business and entrepreneurship. I don’t think it’s a matter of business owners being thin-skinned about it either. I think the rhetoric and leadership coming from the executive office creates a threat of TANGIBLE and potentially legislated fiscal drag that in effect is as damaging to job creation and risk-taking

Chances are, you don’t remember people worrying then about the anti-business talk. And that is my whole point. Don’t mistake it for ignorance or apathy, the evidence in the U.S. shows most of this stuff just doesn’t matter as much as people think. But one idea DOES matter, a lot. It’s an idea that irks me because I have never seen evidence to support it. It’s the idea that entrepreneurs will stop doing what they do because of political campaigns. Entrepreneurs should never blame any woes at their company on uncertainty over who will win an election. It’s just as lame as when public companies blame poor sales on weather.

I took on this VC publicly on the email list:

1. Are there examples of actual entrepreneurs who’ve paused pursuit of personal achievement for political uncertainty?

2. Of the entrepreneurs we’ve backed (that are actually US citizens and can vote; many are not and cannot), not a one is derailed or distracted from the task

3. Historically I suspect in Gates (microsoft), Boyer (genentech), Jobs (apple), Ellison (oracle), Grove (intel), Singleton (teledyne), Malone (liberty) — the (in some cases very well documented) spread spectrum of personal political beliefs from Left to Right, was trumped by personal ambition. And the country and world (with their risk-taking and job-creating) was better for it .

At risk of total heresy, i’m fond of Tom Wolfe’s (no relation) reason in the FT ~five years ago for writing about cosmonauts and capitalists but not ever writing about politics:

I went on and quoted Tom Wolfe, who I think is has the best wisdom to follow in his take on politics. Your time and attention are very valuable and very scarce. So don’t waste them.

“The U.S is so stable that political victories consist of minor variations. Our government is like a train on a track, and there are people on the right-hand side and on the left screaming at the train. But the train has no choice: it¹s on a track! It just keeps going. And it’s really quite marvelous how stable that situation is. You can’t suddenly have parliament deciding there has to be an election. And when the most unbelievable things happen, there's no backlash. For example, when Richard Nixon was forced out of office, he really had no choice. Now did a junta rise up? No. Were there any demonstrations by Republicans? No. I don’t even know of anybody throwing a brick through a saloon window ­[even] a drunk Republican. Everybody, like me, sat back and watched it on TV. It was an event on television…nothing really.

I felt vindicated when a well-known, secretive and successful value investor replied:

“Powerful quote. Thx. Reminds me of why I hate all those people who say they’re leaving the country if so and so wins. They should just shut up and work to make things better.”

Four years later, the candidates have changed, but this wisdom has not. The game is the same and the two most valuable things you have are your time and your cash. Regardless of who you like or loathe in candidates, if you are like most people and have paid attention to them, then you have allowed them to steal vast amounts, many valuable hours and days in total, of your time and attention. You are not getting paid a “premium” for that “call option” on your most valuable resource, your time and attention. So remember the one thing an entrepreneur needs to about politics: Ignore them. Focus on you. You are who we are counting on to just make things better. Let the market, your customers, your colleagues and your investors “elect” you every day.