The Hidden Physics of Startup Collapse

Why "Excellence" Doesn't Protect Against Failure

I've spent over two decades coaching founders & teams from Asana to Bombas. Here's what blindsides even the best: Companies don't die from their weaknesses. They die from misunderstanding which weaknesses matter.

Look at the data: Most startups don't fail from poor product-market fit or running out of money. They collapse from founder mental health crises and team dysfunction. Founders experience depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation at rates 2-10x higher than the general population. We're watching a crisis unfold, and our current mental models can't touch it. The problem? We're thinking about excellence all wrong.

Everything changes when you understand one distinction: the difference between strong-link and weak-link systems.

The Asymmetry of Excellence and Failure

→ Take YouTube's content ecosystem. Millions of mediocre videos don't hurt the platform. Great content rises. Breakthrough creators define genres. Average content doesn't drag down the exceptional. This is a strong-link system. The peaks matter. The valleys don't.

→ Now look at your cardiovascular system. One blocked artery and you're done. Doesn't matter how strong your lungs are or how toned your muscles. You can't compensate for a blocked artery with excellence somewhere else. This is a weak-link system. One critical failure point brings down the whole thing.

Here's what kills companies: Founders treat every challenge like it's YouTube (just need more excellence!) when their biggest threats are actually blocked arteries.

The Hidden Weak Links Killing Great Companies

→ Founder mental health? Not a challenge you muscle through with more grit. It's a weak-link system where:
• One burnout spiral triggers catastrophic decisions that unravel years of work
• Sleep debt corrupts every decision you make, invisibly
• Untreated anxiety radiates through your org, poisoning everything it touches
• Chronic stress creates fault lines that crack exactly when you can't afford them

→ Team communication? Same trap. Companies pour resources into peak performance—presentation skills, storytelling, influence—while ignoring the weak links that actually kill organizations:
• One toxic communication pattern spreads like a virus
• Passive-aggressive responses breed defensive spirals that choke innovation
• Back-channel conversations destroy trust faster than excellence can build it
• Unclear commitments create anxiety that infects everything

→ And founder relationships? Pure weak-link:
• One trust breach demolishes years of social capital
• Unresolved conflicts poison decisions long after you've forgotten why you were mad
• Fuzzy role boundaries create friction that no amount of execution excellence fixes
• Misaligned values surface at exactly the wrong moment

The Excellence Paradox

Here's the trap most companies fall into: They think they can force excellence. Push harder. Set bigger goals. Demand more creativity. Drive more innovation.

Dead wrong.

Excellence emerges. You can't force it. You can coerce compliance, but you'll never coerce creativity, innovation, or real engagement.

The best teams I work with get this. They build environments where:
• People can raise real concerns before they become crises
• Teams can experiment and fail without fatal consequences
• Everyone can share genuine experiences without fear
• Rest and recovery don't carry stigma

Building Through Positive Subjective Experience

Forget standard feedback. Even positive feedback misses the point. Elite teams practice what I call "Positive Subjective Experience Reporting"...

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>> https://open.substack.com/pub/anthonydavidadams/p/the-hidden...