We don’t talk about this enough:
Teams don’t fail because of bad strategy. They fail when someone starts rationalizing their effort.
“I’ve already put in too much time.”
“This isn’t going anywhere.”
“There’s no ROI.”
“I’m not feeling it anymore.”
If you’ve ever heard those words—you know it’s over.
Because what breaks a team isn’t misalignment.
It’s when one person emotionally checks out… and justifies it with logic.
And here’s the harsh truth: you can’t logic someone back in.
You can’t force them to fall in love with a mission again.
Just like marriage—when someone decides the struggle isn’t worth it anymore, it’s already dead.
I’ve seen it happen. I’ve lived it.
As a professor. As a founder. As someone who’s tried to build things that mattered.
And I can tell you this:
The best teams aren’t built on convenience.
They’re built on irrational grit.
The kind that says: “This is hard. We’ll keep going anyway.”
Not because it’s efficient.
Not because the spreadsheet says so.
But because something deeper drives them—something unmeasurable.
Call it love. Call it stubbornness.
Call it refusing to quit when you know what you’re doing still matters.
It’s not about psychological safety.
It’s about the act of getting back up, again and again, when things break.
So here’s what I look for now:
Are they going to get back up—no matter what?
Are they responsive when it’s ugly, not just when it’s exciting?
Are they okay with starting over and still pushing forward?
Because if they aren’t, the team’s already broken.
And no ROI calculation will fix that.