What If Your Vision Is the Problem?

It starts with a whiteboard.

Then a Miro board. Then another offsite.

You sketch out the next big move.

People nod. Energy spikes. Slack threads explode.

Two weeks later, your team’s morale is flatlining again.

Why?

Because this is the fifth “vision” they’ve been asked to rally behind in 14 months.

And quietly, they’re not inspired anymore.

They’re exhausted.

The addiction no one talks about

There’s a kind of founder who’s addicted to vision.

They live for the strategy decks, the back-of-napkin insights, the dopamine hit of clarity when the next big idea drops.

They mistake that buzz for leadership.

But vision isn’t leadership.

And leadership without stability is just chaos with charisma.

You might think you’re steering the ship.

But from below deck, it feels like you’re spinning the wheel with your eyes closed.

Clarity is the currency

If your team can’t finish a sentence that starts with “We’re building...”, your vision has already failed.

If every new quarter comes with a new hill to die on, they’re not following you—they’re surviving you.

The job of a founder isn’t just to see the future.

It’s to hold the future still long enough for people to build it.

The more your vision changes, the less real it becomes.

And eventually, it’s not a direction.

It’s a distraction.

Vision is not an excuse

When vision becomes an excuse to skip the boring parts—documentation, hiring discipline, prioritization—it’s no longer a strength.

It’s a liability.

Here’s the quiet part no one says out loud:

You think you’re the torch.

But to your team, you’re just a moving target.

They don’t need you to inspire them again.

They need to believe this time, the thing they’re building will actually last.

Because people don’t leave chaotic startups because of hours, or money, or even failure.

They leave because they’re tired of building castles out of sand.

So here’s the question to ask:

Is your vision creating momentum?

Or is it making meaning harder to find?

If your vision needs constant re-explaining, if it changes every time you get bored, if your team can’t repeat it without checking your Notion doc…

Then your vision isn’t helping.

It’s the problem.

Best,
Peter Delle

P.S. Want to get the hell out of vision town? This one’s for you: Stop Inspiring People. Start Giving Them Something to Kill.