Guy Reams (00:01.103)
This is day 349. I pity the fool. Being in a startup company reminds me too often of a television series from the mid 1980s. The one that comes to mind is the action adventure series that ran in the mid 80s called the A-Team. The A-Team were former U.S. Army Special Forces soldiers who were wrongly accused of a crime during the Vietnam War. They escaped from military prison and became soldiers of fortune.
While fugitives, they helped innocent people in trouble, often standing up to corrupt businessmen, criminals, or local bullies. Now I am not a soldier of fortune and I am not fighting crime, but the basic outline of the cookie cutter plot pretty much mimics my normal day. Here's the formula for the A-Team episode. First, a client seeks their help. Second, the team investigates and develops a plan, albeit a very loose plan.
Third, they face setbacks and betrayals. Fourth, they build improvised weapons or vehicles, often out of scrap parts. Five, they have a big final showdown where the plan all comes together miraculously. And then six, the villains are defeated, often without any bloodshed at all. There's lots of bullets and lots of explosions, but rarely any serious injury. The fun part is at the end, Colonel John Hannibal Smith, played by George Pepper, would pop
a cigar in his mouth and say with a wide grin, I love it when a plan comes together. Of course, they never really had a plan. They had never intended to do what they did at all. It all just sort of happened and by some miracle and stroke of luck, maybe some charisma and some ingenuity, they would somehow escape certain death and live for another episode. The show has a few main characters. The leader is Hannibal. And then you have B.A. Baracus who was played famously by Mr. T.
Then there was Murdock, the crazy nonsensical helicopter pilot, and Face, the smooth-talking, charismatic, handsome devil who would get them both in and out of trouble with equal amount of skill. Not to name any names or point any fingers, but there are times when I feel like I've landed right in the middle of one of these episodes. I think the reason is that the show sold this fantasy of competence quite well. The A-Team represented the idea that with the right skills, teamwork, and creativity,
Guy Reams (02:23.042)
you could overcome any problem. Improvised tank out of farm equipment? No problem. Outsmarting an army of thugs with just four guys? Done. The show sold the dream of being resourceful, brave, and always one step ahead. Every episode positioned the A-Team as the champions of the oppressed. The villains were usually bullies, mobsters, or corrupt officials, easy for audiences to root against.
The team's fugitive status also made them a little bit of an underdog themselves. This gave the show a built in sense of moral clarity. The good guys may be outlaws, but they fight for justice. Also, you will notice that from time to time, we all tend to fall into various archetypes. We may play different archetypes on different days and often be a mixture of all of them.
But the A-Team defined four architects quite well and stuck to them. This clean and easy to find view of team mechanics was encapsulated quite succinctly in these following distinct roles. First, there was the mastermind. Second was the charmer. Third was the muscle. And then fourth was the wild card. Sounds like a little bit of Norse mythology. But this is an interesting consideration. In the startup world, you need a Hannibal.
Too many Hannibals and you have endless plans with no action. Too many BAs and you have execution but with no vision. Too many faces and you are all sizzling, no steak. Too many Murdochs and you just have plain chaos. Just like in the show, the friction between personalities, BA versus Murdoch for example, pushes the team to innovate. In startups, that tension is often where growth happens. Both the A team and startups are about making something out of nothing.
which means taking scarce resources, short timelines, and scrappy problem solving to produce something that wins. What I learned in this meandering thought process about the A team is that a successful startup like the A team does not need perfect people. It needs complimentary archetypes who can tolerate each other long enough to pull off the impossible.