What entrepreneurs can learn from Moby Dick

Few entrepreneurs get a standing ovation when they first talk about their business model. After all, new ideas often sound outlandish or outrageous. This is when they have to dig in, persist. Angela Duckworth calls it grit and shows that success is likelier if you have it.

But, crucially, having grit is not the same as being entirely inflexible. Behavioural scientist have long recognised the issue of loss aversion, our tendency to throw good money after bad money as we do not want to admit defeat. For those with a strong calling – and entrepreneurs tend to fall into this category – it is even harder to throw in the towel when they should. As with many virtues, grit in its purest and most uncompromising form it can turn out to be a vice. This is when entrepreneurs would be well advised to learn a valuable lesson from literature (I have argued before that managers should read fiction), or more precisely Moby Dick.

The dangerous of taking persistence taken too far

On a cold Christmas day, the Pequod leaves Nantucket harbour. Whaling is big business during the first part of the 19th century and the crew is ready to get their share. Their captain’s intention only becomes clear once they are out on sea. “It was Moby Dick that brought me to this dead stump I stand on now,” he begins, “… and I will chase him round Good Hope, and round the Horn, and round the Norway Maelstrom, and round perdition’s flames before I give him up. And this is what ye have shipped for, men! To chase that white whale on both sides of land, and over all sides of earth, till he spouts black blood and rolls fin out.” Revenge for his lost leg, not hunt for profit has brought him on this voyage.

D. H. Lawrence called Moby Dick "the greatest book of the sea ever written," and William Faulkner lamented that he wished that he had written it himself. Few books spin such a powerful tale about the danger of becoming consumed by single-minded pursuits. Captain Ahab’s obsession with Moby Dick is mesmerizing. “They think me mad …; but I’m demoniac, I am madness maddened! That wild madness that’s only calm to comprehend itself! The prophecy was that I should be dismembered; and–Aye! I lost this leg. I now prophesy that I will dismember my dismemberer.”

No good comes of this madness. Ahab’s inability to deviate leads to the destruction of him and his crew.

The difference between good and bad persistence

Smart entrepreneurs know that there is a fine line between genius and madness. Unfortunately, it is only with the benefit of hindsight that we can tell for sure which category an entrepreneur falls into. But there are a couple questions you can ask yourself. The first is whether you are prepared to adjust the mechanics of your idea. Experiment with versions of how your idea can be implemented and do a quick pivot where necessary. This way you are still persisting on the core but stay flexible on the how. The second question is whether you have any supporters. Even the craziest ideas usually find some cheerleaders. If you are unable to get any collaborators of substance, you are probably strayed too far down the path of Captain Ahab’s “lonely madness”.

It is the ability to deviate when necessary, which most easily distinguishes good from bad persistence.