The Winter Jacket Principle: Why Smart Founders Fix Systems, Not Symptoms

I had a realization while shopping for winter gear this morning.

I was comparing expensive gloves - $80, $120, $150 - trying to find the perfect pair to keep my hands warm. Then it hit me: I was solving the wrong problem.

Here's the thing about cold hands: they're not a glove problem. They're a core temperature problem.

When your body gets cold, it prioritizes your vital organs and pulls blood away from your extremities.

You can buy the most expensive, technical gloves on the market, but if your core isn't warm, your hands will still freeze.

The solution? A better jacket. Fix the core issue, and suddenly even cheap gloves work fine.

This is exactly what I see founders doing in their businesses.

You're laser-focused on the "cold hands" - the visible problem right in front of you. Revenue's down, so you hire more salespeople. Customer complaints are up, so you expand support. Projects are delayed, so you add more project managers.

But you're buying expensive gloves when what you really need is a better jacket.

These aren't isolated problems. They're symptoms of systemic issues upstream:

• That sales underperformance? It might stem from unclear positioning or a broken lead qualification process

• Those customer complaints? Could be a flawed onboarding system setting wrong expectations

• The project delays? Perhaps it's unclear decision-making frameworks or misaligned priorities at the leadership level

When you're inside the business every day, you're too close to see it. You feel the cold hands, so you focus on the hands. It's natural. It's human.

But it's expensive and exhausting.

You end up in a cycle of putting out fires, treating symptoms, buying increasingly expensive "gloves" that never quite solve the problem. Meanwhile, the core issue continues generating new problems downstream.

Find the root - find the cause - fix that.

....and if you can't call us! ☎️

0 comments

Foundations Revenue Academy

skool.com/foundations-revenue-academy-8765

The GTM community for founders who sell. Learn, build, and scale a repeatable sales engine with structure, support, and zero fluff.

Members

Online

Admins