Ah, another pandemic week of wild news. Through two of the most unrelated stories one can think of I was reminded of perhaps the most important thing when it comes to working and managing in startups. There’s the mission. The product. The team. But behind all that…there’s the amount of fucks you give.

I present to you two images:

On the top, haven’t you heard? That’s Heather Morgan. She’s a crypto hacker, Forbes contributor and rapper extraordinaire. How many FCKS did she give? I’ll give you a hint. It’s on her hat.

Then there’s John from Peloton sitting right underneath. I’m sure you saw the headlines of the company’s precipitous stock market drop and 20% staff layoff announced this week. John Foley, Peloton’s Founder & CEO, announced that he’s stepping down (up?) to Executive Chairman. Blackwells Capital, an activist investor, pulled some painful quotes and splashed them on a slide to accuse John Foley one of the greatest sins in management…not giving a fuck. Ouch, to put it lightly.

There might be nothing worse (or cooler), depending upon you worldview, than not caring.

Now it’s important to call out I don’t know anything about the Peloton team or how they run their business. The above quotes are certainly taken out of context. And the growth of the actual underlying business itself is incredibly impressive. The product is great. Many things have gone incredibly right at that company.

Still, you should probably meet with your CTO a little more often? Interview…some people? I don’t know! I’m not the Founder & CEO of Peloton! It’s fair to wonder if somewhere along the way some of that grit, glue, or whatever else institutionally causes people to go above & beyond their work may have been…stolen? Sorry I couldn’t resist!

This stuff happens all the time. People that give a FCK in startups are special and certainly more rare than those that do not. Find them, treasure them, and if you can find a way to track that caring quotient please do share because it just might be the most important one of all.

A good Friday reminder that most people who see that additional task are going to want to push it to Monday, let alone wonder if it’s “part of their job”. FCKS given. Who knew, maybe it’s the most important management principle of them all.