The startup co-founder said dead fish will drift with the tide, but so will smart fish. Here’s why.
As the saying goes, only dead fish drift with the tide. But Nicholas Syhler, co-founder of medical startup Embla, disagrees.
“In our world, flow means culture,” he said on CNBC’s “My Biggest Lesson.”
When you go with the flow, he says, your behavior is guided by the cultural norms of your community, whether that’s your industry, your workplace, or even your family.
However, he distinguished between dead fish, which simply follow in the footsteps of others, and “smart fish.”
“Smart fish…know when a waterfall is approaching,” he said. These people come up with new ways of doing things when they see that the company’s entrenched thinking could lead to problems down the road, Thaler said.
“You know, it’s okay to challenge today’s norms. That’s how we change,” he said.
Watch videos of the rest of Syhler’s classes.
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