What is up everyone? This is Alex Lieberman, co-founder and CEO of Morning Brew.

Welcome back to Founders Journal, my personal audio diary, where I give you the business builder,

the tools you need to think better in order to build better, whether that's building a business,

a team, or a new product. Have a question for you. When I say the word strategy, what do you think of?

Seriously, take a second to think about it. Because there isn't one right answer. And if my listeners

are anything like the founders and investors that I've spoken to about this, I am bound to get

dozens of different answers when you email me. And I find that fascinating. Think about it. It is a

word in business that has so much pride and ego associated with it. Everyone wants to say they're

involved in strategy or their strategic. Yet we don't have one unified way of defining this word.

So my goal for this episode is to unpack why we as builders want to be considered strategic so badly.

And also what I believe to be a really strong attempt at defining this word. Let's hop into it.

The word strategy truly has taken a life of its own. I feel like it's become business jargon,

like synergy and cooperative and EBITDA. It's become a prerequisite in business for every person

that reaches a senior enough level to say that they are strategic. And the word strategy has become

appended to every other buzzword in business. You don't just have business strategy anymore.

You have product strategy, brand strategy, people strategy. You have strategic planning. And why is it

that we feel the need to call everything strategy and to identify ourselves as strategic.

I think the biggest reason is because we live in the knowledge economy where thought and decisions

reign supreme to effort and brute force. Right. So we went from an agricultural economy to an

industrial economy. And now we're in the internet economy. And in the world of the internet economy,

some of the most quote-unquote prestigious jobs and so much of where talent is going is in knowledge

worker positions where being analytical, making decisions, being thoughtful is considered a super

...