下次去Pizza店，请尽量不要点色拉

那天我和朋友一起去了一家披萨店。她没有点披萨，而是点了一份色拉，结果非常不满意，并因此说以后再也不来这家店了。我朋友的选择本身并没有对错，但那一刻我突然意识到，很多不满，其实并不是发生在结果阶段，而是在选择发生的那一刻，就已经被写进了结局。

就像海鲜餐厅的师傅也会做牛排一样，披萨店当然可以做色拉，但完全有可能做不到极致。因为它真正花时间、花精力、反复打磨的，是披萨本身：面饼的发酵、酱料的比例、芝士的搭配，以及整个出餐流程。色拉对它来说，更像是一种补充，是为了照顾不同顾客的需求，而不是它存在的核心理由。所以，当你在披萨店里点了色拉，却还希望它“特别好吃”，这件事本身，其实已经偏离了现实。

当这个逻辑跳出餐厅，放到职场里，其实几乎每天都在发生。很多人之所以觉得工作痛苦，并不是能力不足，而是长期被放在并不匹配的位置上。你让一个擅长执行的人承担公司愿景与决策，让一个偏策略的人天天处理细节，让一个本就内向、需要深度思考的人承担大量情绪协调和沟通工作……然后，当结果不理想的时候，我们下意识的第一个反应往往是质疑这些人的能力。

但问题真的在能力吗？

很多时候，真正的问题不在个人，而在如何配置他们的能力。一个优秀的管理人清楚地知道什么工作需要什么样技能的人来完成。因为当一个员工长期在不属于自己优势区间的位置上工作，再多的努力，都会转化为内耗。

同样的情况，在创业决策中往往被放大得更加明显。很多创业者并不是不努力，而是一开始就对公司提了过高、过早的期待。公司还在学走路，却已经要求自己跑马拉松；产品还没跑通，就急着做品牌；商业模型尚未稳定，就开始追求规模；创始人本身偏产品，却硬要主导销售，或者本就擅长市场，却迟迟不愿放权给更专业的人。

于是，创业失败常常被解释为“方向不对”“运气不好”，但回头看，很多时候并不是方向错了，而是“菜单”选错了，或者在创业的不同阶段里，点了不该点的菜。

所以，真正成熟的决策，并不是不断加东西，而是懂得收敛。知道什么阶段该专注什么，哪些事情必须亲自抓，哪些事情应该交给更合适的人。这不是保守，而是对现实的尊重。

回到最开始那个例子。去披萨店就点披萨，去牛排店就吃牛排，去海鲜店就尝海鲜。当你一开始就选择正确的话，不只是保证味道会好，也会更有可能避免生活和工作里的很多失望。

因此很多问题看起来很复杂，但根源往往很简单：错位而求，难免失望；顺势而为，结果自明。

Don’t Order Salad at a Pizza Place

The other day, a friend and I went to a pizza restaurant. She didn’t order pizza. Instead, she ordered a salad, and then complained about its taste. By the end of the meal, she said she would never come back again.

Her choice wasn’t wrong in itself. But in that moment, I realized something: many disappointments don’t accidentally appear at the final outcome stage. They are already embedded in the decisions we make at the very beginning.

A seafood restaurant can prepare a steak, just as a pizza place can serve a salad. But that doesn’t mean either will be exceptional. A pizza restaurant spends its time and energy perfecting pizza - the fermentation of the dough, the balance of the sauce, the choice of cheese, the timing, the entire kitchen workflow. Salad exists more as an accommodation, a supporting alternative for different preferences, not the core reason the restaurant exists.

So when you order a salad at a pizza place and still expect it to be outstanding, you’re already potentially setting yourself up for disappointment.

Once you take this logic beyond restaurants, you’ll notice it in other scenarios as well. For example, in the workplace, many people feel unhappy at work, not because they lack talent, but because they’ve been placed in roles that don’t fit them. We ask people whose strength is in execution to define the company vision and strategy. We ask strategic thinkers to spend their days buried in operational details. We expect introverted, reflective individuals to manage constant emotional coordination and communication.

And when things don’t go well, our instinctive reaction is often to question their ability.

But is ability really the issue?

More often than not, the problem isn’t the person; it’s how their strengths are being used. Good managers understand that different types of work require different capabilities. When someone works outside their strengths for too long, even their best effort stops producing good results.

This misalignment also exists in startup decisions. Many founders aren’t lacking effort; they simply expect too much, too early. The company is still learning how to walk, yet it’s expected to run a marathon. The product hasn’t been validated, but branding becomes the priority. The business model isn’t stable, yet scaling is already on the agenda. Founders who are product-driven insist on leading sales, while those strong in marketing hesitate to hand product decisions to more qualified experts.

When startups fail, the explanation is often framed as “wrong direction” or “bad luck.” But looking back, the issue is frequently neither. More often, the wrong items were chosen from the “menu”, or the right items were chosen at the wrong stage.

Good decision-making isn’t about adding more options. It’s about knowing when to narrow the focus. It means understanding what deserves attention and focus at each stage, which problems require direct involvement, and which should be handled by people better suited for the job. This isn’t playing it safe, it’s respecting the business reality.

Which brings us back to the original example. Order pizza at a pizza place. Order steak at a steakhouse. Order seafood at a seafood restaurant. When you make the right choice from the start, you’re not just improving the outcome, you’re also potentially avoiding many unnecessary disappointments in both work and life.

Many problems appear complex on the surface, but their root is often simple: seeking results in the wrong place almost guarantees disappointment. When your choices align with reality, outcomes become far more predictable.