Builders > Bullshitters: The Truth About Going from 0 to 1
How the best work (and lives) are built one messy version at a time.
Creating something from scratch isn’t sexy. It’s messy. You start with nothing—just an idea, maybe a few notes, a little research—and you try to make something real. That first version is never perfect, but it’s something. Most people either love the idea phase but never ship… or they love executing but panic without a blueprint.
One of our clients in financial services (a damn good one, doing big things) loves hiring people from big tech who’ve built from 0 to 1. But here’s the rub: when we dig in with candidates, they often rattle off requirements they’ve executed—not products or teams they’ve built from scratch.
And maybe they have done it, but they’re not framing it that way.
Which got me thinking: whether you’re in recruiting, finance, product, marketing, or plumbing—building something better than you found it should be the default. That’s table stakes. If the thing you touched ends up worse off, it’s time to look in the mirror.
In recruiting, we live in 0 to 1.
We get a job title and a name. That’s it. No job description. No perfect LinkedIn post. No polished pitch deck. We’re expected to build—find the right talent, tell the story, and help a messy team or early-stage company bring someone great on board. We’re working from nothing more often than not.
But it’s not just work. Look at your life.
You’re always building:
A home.
A circle of friends.
A routine.
A body you’re proud of.
A relationship with your kids or spouse.
You’re building something—so you might as well lean into it.
If you want to build something but don’t know where to start, try this:
Pick something simple.
Shovel dirt. Sweep the garage. Organize a drawer.
Seriously. Doing something gets the momentum going. Some people say it even helps with anxiety or depression.
And one more thing: don’t confuse the talkers on social media with actual builders. Builders have receipts. They show you what they’ve built—not just what they say they’re working on.
Enough talk.
Time to build.
—
P.S. We’re hiring: COOs, Controllers (international), VPs/CMOs, SVPs of Sales, Heads of Design, and Senior Software Engineers. We’re building these teams from 0 to 1 to 2 to 3… Let us know if you want in.