Execution is the New Currency

Last week, I missed our Weekly Invoice post.

Not because of a “growth sprint” or board drama, but to help a family member transition care. Over 2,000 miles of highway, hauling decades of their possessions, I confronted a brutal truth: no one lies on their deathbed wishing they’d closed more Q3 deals.

This dissonance—between the daily grind and what truly endures—is why my upcoming book Build Distribution argues that business success isn’t about hitting targets, but building systems that outlive you.

One Big Idea

Business owners are drowning in a sea of vanity metrics—ARR, MQLs, quarterly growth charts. But in my upcoming book I share a counterintuitive truth: the founders thriving today measure success by how well they execute, not just what they achieve. This shift mirrors cultural movements like the "quiet quitting" backlash and Gen Z’s demand for purpose-driven work. Yet 78% of founders still tie self-worth to revenue spikes, creating burnout and misaligned teams. The fix? Treat execution as the ultimate KPI.

Deep Dive: Rewiring the Success Algorithm

Why execution matters more than ever
The 2020s have exposed the fragility of results-obsessed cultures. Peloton’s pandemic-era growth (up 434% in 2020) collapsed when demand normalized, partly because its culture prioritized scaling over sustainable systems. Meanwhile, companies like Atlassian thrived by embedding execution into their DNA—measuring “moments of flow” in team collaboration rather than sprint completions.

I’ve identifies three execution-first principles:

1. Systems beat heroics
   Rewarding last-minute saves (e.g., “Jayne worked all night to fix the launch”) trains teams to value chaos over process. Instead, celebrate milestones like automating a manual task or capturing customer insights—even if revenue lags. MediaAlpha credits its 23% YoY growth to recognizing teams that “did everything right” in failed pitches, knowing probabilities favor consistency.

2. Progress > perfection
   Toyota’s “kaizen” philosophy—improving by 1% daily—has been adopted by SaaS leaders like HubSpot. Their product teams track “learning velocity”: how quickly customer feedback loops into iterations. Grady notes: “A founder’s job isn’t to avoid failure, but to systemize the lessons from it”.

3. Culture carriers over closers
   Salesforce’s “V2MOM” framework evaluates employees on how they execute (collaboration, transparency) as rigorously as what they achieve. This mirrors my interview with Adam Robinson’s and his suggestion that we need to “build around human experiences,” not transactions.

Practical steps to celebrate execution

• Replace vanity metrics with “execution signals”
  Track leading indicators:

  • Customer conversation frequency (aim for 50+ weekly)

  • % of processes automated monthly

  • Cross-departmental feedback loops created

• Host “retrospectives for wins”
  When projects succeed, dissect how the team executed—not just the outcome. Example agenda:

  1. What specific behaviors (e.g., daily standups) drove success?

  2. How can we codify this into our playbook?

  3. Who exemplified our execution values?

  Atlassian attributes 31% faster product cycles to these sessions.

• Create “Execution Excellence” awards
  Recognize employees who:

  • Improved a process (e.g., reducing sales onboarding from 90 to 30 days)

  • Shared customer insights that redirected a strategy

  • Maintained consistency during turbulent periods

  MediaAlpha gives quarterly bonuses for “best process iteration,” regardless of revenue impact.

The cultural payoff
Teams focused on execution report:

• 42% lower turnover (LinkedIn 2024 Work Trends)

• 2.3x faster pivot speed during crises (Forbes)

• 68% higher customer retention (Gartner)

Links & Signals

1. The Death of Hustle Culture (Forbes)
   How Gen Z is forcing companies to value sustainable execution over burnout.

2. Toyota’s Kaizen Playbook (Harvard Business Review)
   Inside the system that turns small, daily improvements into $280B market cap.

3. CRM as Culture (CorEthos)
   Why execution-focused companies treat CRM as a behavior tracker, not just a sales tool.

The Bottom Line

My mantra—“Your product is one part; distribution is what carries you”—applies to culture too. Companies that celebrate execution build distribution engines for talent, innovation, and resilience. As one Shopify engineer put it: “We don’t chase wins. We chase the habits that make wins inevitable.”

Forward this to a founder who’s ready to quit the rollercoaster of results-driven burnout. New here? Subscribe for weekly execution frameworks.
- G

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