Right now, execution is the only thing that matters.
Consider this story. A decade ago, Chinese entrepreneur Zhang Yiming had an idea — one that would flip social media upside down and create an empire worth hundreds of billions.
When investor Thomas Laffont met him and learned about the idea, the concept was so simple it almost sounded obvious. But no one else had done it.
At the time, social media was a rigged game. Instagram? Twitter? Your reach wasn’t necessarily determined by how good your content was. It was determined by how many followers you had. The internet had become high school all over again — the popular kids got all the attention, and everyone else was invisible.
On the All-In Podcast, Laffont recalled that TikTok’s founder saw the flaw and asked a game-changing question:
“What if I take every piece of content that’s uploaded into the system and I show it to at least one other user?”
That’s it. No gatekeepers, no legacy advantage, no “who you know” nonsense, just an open field. Post a video, and someone will see it. If they engage, more people will see it. The best ideas (or in this case, videos) would win.
That one shift has changed social media forever. The algorithm wasn’t just surfacing trends, it was democratizing discovery. TikTok didn’t care if you were a nobody. If what you made was “good,” it would be seen.
At Contrarian Thinking, we spend a huge part of our time focused on building at the intersection of media, startups, and acquisitions, so we’ve learned this lesson firsthand.
Most people think business is just about making money, but at its core, it’s about making ideas realities. And the best companies don’t just generate ideas, they build systems that let the best ideas win.
We’ve built our meetings, our decision-making processes, and our investments around this exact philosophy. Status, ego, and seniority don’t win here. The best ideas do. When you embrace the meritocracy of ideas, you stop optimizing for politics and start optimizing for outcomes.
And in 2025, that’s the only game worth playing.
People may not always pick winners based on skill, but eventually, reality does.
In the short term, privilege can outmatch performance. For instance, being born rich has been shown to be a stronger predictor of success than being smart. But advantages like these have also been shown to fade over time. One study found that mutual fund managers from wealthy families underperformed their peers from poorer families by 1.36% per year. Why? Because while connections and credentials can open doors, they can’t guarantee results.
The lesson: merit compounds. The system may favor status upfront, but in the long run, execution beats entitlement. This is the uncomfortable truth about meritocracy: it works — but not evenly, not immediately, and definitely not for those who quit too soon. The longer the horizon, the more merit wins. The cool part? That horizon is getting closer.
The most common misunderstanding of merit is that it’s a sheer game of talent. It’s not. It’s a game of execution. Merit doesn’t stop at having the right answer, it starts when you act on it. Those who succeed through merit:
Most people think their competition is other people with better ideas when their real competition is other people who act on ideas better than they do. The idea that "the best ideas always win" just isn’t true. Many people have good ideas. But only a few are willing to endure what it takes to follow through with them.
That’s why meritocracy — though imperfect — wins in the long run. Intent is only so useful. It’s execution that leaves a mark.
Both are cats, but they’re not equals.
A house cat is comfortable, predictable, needy, and safe. It waits to be fed. It stays in its lane. It does just enough. A cheetah? It hunts. It adapts. It moves fast. Ideas work the same way. Some sit, waiting for permission. Others fight for their place in the world.
Your business will be built on one of these two types of people. Hire house cats, and you’ll spend your life managing them. Hire cheetahs, and you’ll build something that can scale beyond you. At Contrarian Thinking, we bet on execution and use merit as a filter.
What’s that look like? If a candidate we’re considering hiring doesn’t meet these standards, we usually pass.
Every hire shifts the gravity of your business. Taking this to heart will literally impact your bottom line. Roland Fryer, a professor of economics at Harvard put it bluntly in the Wall Street Journal:
Culture often isn’t what you write down — it’s who you let in the door. Every hire moves your business forward or holds it back. Every person makes the business stronger or weaker, faster or slower, sharper or duller, more effective or less.
A single house cat hire won’t kill you, but ten will. Hire a cheetah, and things tilt the right direction. Problems get solved before they hit your inbox. Debates are about ideas, not egos. People move, adjust, and hunt without waiting for permission.
The cultural pendulum always swings. If you want to stay ahead, watch where it’s going next. The next decade belongs to meritocracy, competence, and strength. We will see the rise of trends like:
TikTok’s algorithm was built on this exact idea. It rewarded performance. A kid with no followers could outrank a celebrity if their content was better. The best ideas — the best execution — won.
That’s the playbook for the next decade. The companies, institutions, and individuals who bet against merit will lose. Those who prioritize competence, who put proof over potential, and place execution over excuses, will win.
By definition, merit has to be earned. The next decade belongs to those willing to earn it.
The information contained here is educational, may not be typical, and does not guarantee returns. Background, education, effort, and application will affect your experience and the profitability of any business. Individual results may vary.
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