People often talk about business, and many things, as like baking a cake; bring together the right ingredients then mix them together.

But that assumes that anything you’re building is a single point in time, like a cake.

For anything that develops over time it needs to be more like building an engine.

You need to be crystal clear about each element and its place in the whole, and have the ability to improve individual elements based on information learned.

Building a business like baking a cake is lazy thinking.