Fall of Man and the Lamentation, (c1480), diptych detail, Hugo van der Goes, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Original Sin

When you start building a product or startup, you won’t have the perfect team. Maybe there’s not enough technical talent. Maybe there’s not enough design talent. Maybe there’s too much of something.

Your team’s defects — and there are defects — comprise your original sin, the flaw in your nature on which an inordinate amount of your time, energy, and runway will be spent trying to overcome.

If you’re starting something new, try to mitigate these defects as early as possible; their negative effects will increase non-linearly with time.