Bean counters have a bad rep for a reason. And it’s not because paying attention to the numbers is inherently unreasonable. It’s because weighing everything exclusively by its quantifiable properties is an impoverished way to view business (and the world!).

Nobody presents this caricature better than the MBA types who think you can manage a business entirely in the abstract realm of "products," "markets," "resources," and "deliverables." To hell with that. The death of all that makes for a breakout product or service happens when the generic lingo of management theory takes over.

This is why founder-led operations often keep an edge. Because when there’s someone at the top who actually gives a damn about cars, watches, bags, software, or whatever the hell the company makes, it shows up in a million value judgments that can’t be quantified neatly on a spreadsheet.

Now, I love a beautiful spreadsheet that shows expanding margins, healthy profits, and customer growth as much as any business owner. But much of the time, those figures are derivatives of doing all the stuff that you can’t compute and that won’t quantify.

But this isn’t just about running a better business by betting on unquantifiable elements that you can’t prove but still believe matter. It’s also about the fact that doing so is simply more fun! It’s more congruent. It’s vibe management.

And no business owner should ever apologize for having fun, following their instincts, or trusting that the numbers will eventually show that doing the right thing, the beautiful thing, the poetic thing is going to pay off somehow. In this life or the next.

Of course, you’ve got to get the basics right. Make more than you spend. Don’t get out over your skis. But once there’s a bit of margin, you owe it to yourself to lean on that cushion and lead the business primarily on the basis of good vibes and a long vision.