Published in the San Diego Union-Tribune, September 8, 2025
by Neil Senturia
“If you are the smartest guy in the room, you’re in the wrong room,” said Confucius and physicist Richard Feynman. Can’t argue with those two.
That idea has deep resonance for me. It speaks about continuous learning, in contrast to arrogance and certainty. It also suggests that the room needs to be big enough to hold more than just you.
I won’t belabor the point. I simply want to give it priority in placement. Over multiple deals and companies, I have been the beneficiary of brilliant co-founders, much smarter than I ever was. My modest trick was knowing it.
Now, to a new way to understand your team, even better than Myers-Briggs. My little AI company has been around for a little more than a year, and we are now launching the new and improved platform and we decided we needed a new logo. A no-brainer, you say. Hah.
A study of 597 logos by three professors, Jonathan Luffarelli, Mudra Mukesh and Ammara Mahmood, suggest that your logo design is “a ubiquitous communication tool, which impacts consumer behavior and brand performance, as well as brand recognition and investor decisions.” In other words, your logo matters.
Let’s pause. I am not going to give a short course on descriptive vs. non-descriptive logos. There are over 200,000 graphic designers, call one.
However, what interested me is how my little AI company team arrived at its conclusion. There were about eight or nine people who got a vote. We had a process, we came to the final three, along with the associated color schemes.
There were several rounds of emails, with each person voting or giving an argument (treatise) about why they would not vote or why they loved one or hated another. No tampering with the voting machine.
The logo discussion invited a surprising level of passion — or lack thereof, and the personalities and individual behaviors of the team members were revealed and brought into sharp focus by how they responded.
For the record, the final decision was not made by consensus. A bit of the golden rule was imposed. But if this group put as much effort into product market fit as they did into which color was in the center, well, I’m just sayin’.
To quote the most famous of them all, the Nike logo, Phil Knight said when he first saw it, “I don’t love it, but it will grow on me.”
Founders are often told that they need to be able to demonstrate courage. UC Berkeley professor Alex Budak has some thoughts on that subject. In a recent article, he specifically focuses on the difference between bravery, “an innate and heroic quality that is summoned during a one-off crisis, and courage, which is a muscle built through consistent, values-aligned actions in the presence of doubt, risk or fear.”
Call it your basic Russell Crowe gladiator as startup CEO.
Budak defines six types of everyday courage and their associated risks, actions and payoffs. Herewith a quick overview from his article in Harvard Business Review:
Moral courage is defined as what you stand for. And his suggestion is that you “pre-commit before a crisis occurs.” You can’t make it up on the spot.
Social courage is the “willingness to speak out or stand apart.” Silence is easy in the face of group-think. Don’t apologize. Say it straight up.
Emotional courage. Take responsibility in the face of the uncomfortable facts. Budak says, “own the feelings, not the room.” Being clear is intentional and shows accountability.
Intellectual courage. This is baseline. Be willing to interrogate your own thinking in the public forum. Celebrate moments when you are proven wrong. Builds humility. (See above on smartest guy in room).
Creative courage. New ideas (and often better) can come from anywhere in the organization. Open doors allow creative ventilation. Make room for risks. This behavior is closely tied to pivots, sunk costs and the willingness to not play small ball.
Physical courage. Budak says,” Proximity as policy.” In other words, walk the floor. Encourage agenda free time. Don’t hide in the face of setbacks. Budak argues for practicing “everyday courage.”
As my partner reminds me often, call a spade a spade. (A shovel or gardening tool, reference from the Greek philosopher, Plutarch, who emphasized character and moral lessons).
Rule No. 796: “Courage is being scared to death but saddling up anyway,” John Wayne.