Being back in zero-to-one founder mode, one of the biggest challenges I’m facing is needing two completely different lenses:
- The telescope: Long-term vision
- The microscope: Day-to-day execution
Focus only on day-to-day execution (the microscope)? You lose your true north. No sense of mission.
Focus only on the big vision (the telescope)? You can’t advance the business. Dreams alone can’t ship products.
I find most of my time being spent in the microscope – building and fixing. But I have to remind myself to zoom out and go to the telescope at least every now and then.
What probably doesn’t work: trying to use both lenses at the same time. Imagine wearing glasses with a telescope on one side and a microscope on the other – you’d be so dizzy.
So as founders, we should all find the right rhythm for alternating between two lenses that works for us.