The Big Present in the Bathroom
This is a story that Holly never wants anyone to tell ever again, so of course I need to kick off the new season with it (and also thanks for enduring my hiatus)…
One of the things that’s happened as Permanent Equity has grown and we’ve spun off and staffed up our events business Scratchmade and recruiting team 10th Street Talent is that we’ve had to grow our real estate footprint. So whereas if you had come to visit us a few years ago you would have found us all crammed in at 315 North 10th Street in Columbia, Missouri, now you can find us spread out across 315, 305, and 307. In the course of doing that, our landlord (shoutout John and Tanner) did some beautiful renovations for us, particularly so at 305, which was once a motorcycle repair shop, but now very much looks the part of the office of a world-famous private equity firm.
Except for one detail that infuriated our CEO Brent: the trash can in the first floor bathroom. I don’t know where we got it, but it was admittedly an inferior product. It was small and plastic, and it shifted whenever you stepped down on the pedal to open the lid.
“You guys have such a nice office,” Brent would say when he stopped by (he offices at 315, but the investing team is over at 305), “except for the small, crappy trash can in the bathroom.” Then he’d want to know when we were getting a new trash can. And my joke was that if we kept the small, crappy trash can at least he’d always have something to complain about when he stopped by rather than have to look for something new.
But after many months of this scene playing out near daily, Holly had had enough of the grousing and told Brent that she would go buy a new trash can for the bathroom.
“Great,” Brent said. “Use your company card. You have an unlimited budget as long as you buy it at Target.”
Now, I thought this was a pretty risky career move by Holly and told her so afterwards. She had put herself in charge of solving an inconsequential, but highly visible problem with nearly unlimited resources without establishing clear expectations or KPIs. If she ended up doing anything short of procuring the world’s greatest trash can, it would lead to endless ribbing. This is the classic capped upside, lots of downside scenario that we should all strive to avoid.
But it ended up even worse than you think. Because the next time Brent stopped by after Holly had procured a much larger new trash can (thigh high, tasteful) and put it in the bathroom, before he could say anything, Holly stood up out of her chair and said “Brent, I am so glad you’re here. I left you a big present in the bathroom!”
As soon as she said it, you could see she wanted to take all the words back. But it was obviously too late for that. So we all went and did the only thing we could do, which was admire together the big present Holly had left for Brent in the bathroom.
This, of course, is precisely why we should avoid capped upside, lots of downside scenarios. Because no matter how much downside you foresee, it can always end up worse.
Welcome to Season 5.
– Tim
