Dave KashenStartup CEO Coach / 2x founder

You Can't Decouple Strategy From Your Wants #innergame #founders #startups

7 Dec 2025 · 1 min

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This content was created by Dave Kashen. This content was uploaded by Dave Kashen. This is a YouTube video titled "You Can't Decouple Strategy From Your Wants #innergame #founders #startups" (created 2025-12-07). The excerpt is a conversational exchange between Speaker A and Dave Kashen about founder/CEO decision-making: they argue that a company's strategy must align with the founder's personal wants and motivations (citing Rick Elias of Red Ventures), and that trying to pursue a strategy you don't truly want leads to resistance and failure.

Chapters

Because then they see you doing what you want and they feel comfortable doing what they want. And like, you know, Rick Elias, Red Ventures billionaire founder, said this to me. He was just like, you can't decouple strategy from your own wants. If you think you can, you're wrong. Because if you don't want to make the strategy that you're coming up with, it ain't going to happen. And I was like, no, because him and I had this really interesting conversation and I think it was the first time in my life and I was like, oh, he's totally like And again, I've said that to other people and they don't know what to do with it. I go, you just— if you don't want to do that, that's right. You're the founder and CEO of the company. Like, it doesn't matter how right the answer is.
You're going to be like fighting yourself the whole way and then wonder why it didn't work. It's like, you know, it's like you're choosing to do it and resisting it at the same time. That's not very— it's like two different vectors moving in opposite directions. That's not a lot of force.