Guy Reams (00:01.1)
This is day 343. You actually hold the blade. What most do not understand about medieval sword fighting is that the sword was most deadly when the swordsman used metal or shielded gauntlets to grasp the blade and deliver direct targeted attacks on the opponent. This did not come to light until more concrete study of the martial arts at play during the feudal days of Europe and surrounding regions. Sword fighting was as was discovered.
was a brutal affair that often ended with the opponent down in a matter of seconds, rather than the drawn out fanciful duels that we see in the movies. This idea carries a lesson. If you use an instrument or tool out of context, you are likely playing around rather than being effective. Many of us in life and in business find ourselves using the instruments of a trade without really knowing why or for what purpose those things were intended.
By doing so, we end up needlessly spending energy, money, and resources trying to force a technology into a scenario for which it was not intended. This could be a good thing. You might discover a method that is far more efficient than you thought possible, but most of the time that is not the case. You are trying to put a round peg into a square hole.
This brings up an interesting thought. When I was a toddler, I would not accept that the round peg could not fit into the pesky square hole. Instead of doing the logical thing and finding the square peg, I would spend most of my time trying to figure out how to make that round one fit. This led to partial victories, a stuck peg, or me getting angry and frustrated until I sat down and cried myself to sleep. I remember vividly the day I discovered I could open this contraption by pulling and twisting it apart.
I could stuff all the blocks I wanted inside and close it up again. I still remember the feeling of victory, followed by a sense of betrayal. What else were these adults hiding from me? This is what many of us are tempted to do. I've heard that HubSpot is amazing and the solution to every problem a small business can face. So we try to cram that software into everything we do. Every nail we see, we hit with the HubSpot hammer.
Guy Reams (02:17.858)
We spend countless hours figuring out how to integrate it with everything, spending money, time, energy, contemplating fields, automations, routines, and every other fancy word that HubSpot invented to make us pay more. The problem is that there's a tool for everything you can imagine. And if you are not careful, tools fraud will sink you fast. Remember the show MacGyver? The group would be stuck in a room with no way out.
The lead character would have a paper clip, a hair tie, a small amount of adhesive and a few other sundry items. He would lay it out all on the floor and then, voila, hatch an elaborate escape plan using some concocted machine. A dose X machina in every episode. This is actually what you should ask your team to do occasionally. No more tools, no more subscriptions, no magic eight balls. You get to solve the problem of what you have, MacGyver style.
We used to call this engineering.
I remember the day a young, excited engineer brought me a solution to a client's big problem. He had worked it out, worked on it all weekend, and he was proud of his design. He had pieced together the latest and greatest technology into a neat stack of equipment and software. The price tag would make a billionaire cry. I looked at the design and made one comment. I love your plan. Now figure out how to do this without spending any money on hardware and software. Do it with what the client already has. He looked at me dumbfounded.
That is going to be really hard, he said. Yes, I replied. That is what we're getting paid to figure out. Those who know and understand scarcity tend to solve problems with what they have. My great grandmother would never let a rubber band go to waste. Whenever she saw a scrap of wood, a piece of metal, or a bit of rubber laying around, she would collect it, catalog it, and keep it ready for when that raw material might be needed. She would never have conceived as simply going to buy something to solve her problem.
Guy Reams (04:17.772)
She could figure it out with what inventory she had on hand. Later generations would laugh at that pragmatism, then run down to Walmart and buy another sack of riverbans or pay $20 for a pine two by four at Home Depot. Those who come from plenty tend to be more imaginative about what they don't have. And those who come from scarcity tend to be more imaginative about the resources that they do have. Both mindsets are needed.
You would not want someone so closed off to new tools that they would ignore something that could have a great deal of time-saving value. However, you also do not want the HubSpot zealot running amok either. A balance, usually tipped in favor of less, is often the best approach. One piece of advice before you start your endless run through the subscription forest, bring in an expert or two to help you decide which tools fits the job. Do not build a deck with steel screws that will rust and discolor your wood.
Do not use drywall screws when you require tension strength. Just as you would hire a contractor to help build a house, you would do the same for building your technology stack. Choose the right tool for the job and save yourself a lot of time trying to MacGyver your way out of the room that you find yourself locked in. Just as in medieval times, the sword served a deadly purpose and when used correctly could save the day in a tight skirmish. However,
Most commanders of the age would settle for a troop of spearmen. They were cheap, easy to train, and hard to beat when facing a line of charging sword wielding knights in clumsy, heavy armor.