本文探讨了创业者在经营企业过程中需要承担的“英雄式责任”。作者通过汽车经销商的例子，生动地说明了当出现无人负责或责任推诿的问题时，作为企业主，必须主动承担起解决问题的责任。这种责任不仅仅是管理下属，也包括对外部合作伙伴（如广告代理商）的失误进行追溯和解决。核心在于，如果一个问题无法被现有责任人解决，那么最终的解决者就应该是创业者本人，因为企业面临的后果最终由他们承担。这种主动承担、不推诿的态度是确保企业顺利运营的关键。

💼 **创业者的最终责任：** 作为企业主或管理者，当一项任务没有明确的负责人，或者现有负责人无法有效解决问题时，这项未被认领的责任最终会落到创业者身上。这是因为企业经营的后果最终由创业者承担，因此他们必须确保问题得到解决，即使这意味着要介入并承担他人的工作。

🤝 **管理内部与外部责任：** 英雄式责任不仅体现在管理内部员工上，也包括对外部合作伙伴的失误进行追溯。如果雇佣的广告代理商未能按时发布广告，创业者仍需主动介入，解决代理商内部的官僚主义或沟通障碍，以确保业务目标的实现。这强调了创业者在管理复杂关系中的主动性。

💡 **解决问题的优先性：** 英雄式责任的核心在于“解决问题”本身，而非追究“谁的过错”。无论问题是“公平”还是“不公平”，或者“谁应该负责”，如果当前责任人无法解决，创业者就必须主动接过这个“烫手山芋”，采取一切必要措施来推动问题的解决，以避免对企业造成负面影响。

🚀 **主动承担，不推诿：** 这种责任观要求创业者具备高度的主动性和担当精神。面对“大熔炉”般推诿责任的局面，创业者需要成为那个打破僵局、主动承担并最终解决问题的人。这是一种“当无人解决时，我来解决”的态度，是企业能够克服困难、持续发展的关键。

❗ **“英雄式责任”的定义：** 英雄式责任意味着“责任的终结点在我”。即使某个问题在纸面上是别人的职责，如果对方无法或不愿解决，创业者就有责任站出来，主动承担起解决问题的任务，确保最终结果的达成。

Published on November 4, 2025 11:26 PM GMT

Meta: Heroic responsibility is a standard concept on LessWrong. I was surprised to find that we don't have a post explaining it to people not already deep in the cultural context, so I wrote this one.

Suppose I decide to start a business - specifically a car dealership. 

One day there's a problem: we sold a car with a bad thingamabob. The customer calls up the sales department, which hands it off to the legal department, which hands it off to the garage, which can't find a replacement part so they hand it back to the legal department, which then hands it back off to the finance department, which goes back to the garage. It's a big ol' hot potato. It's not really any specific person's job to handle this sort of problem, and nobody wants to deal with it.

One of the earliest lessons of entrepreneurship is: as the business owner/manager, this sort of thing is my job. When it's not any other specific person's job, it's mine. Because if it doesn't get done, it's my business which will lose money. I can delegate it, I can make it somebody else' job, but I'm still the one responsible for that first step of taking ownership of the unowned problem.

Let's take it a step further.

Suppose I hire Bob to handle our ads. For whatever reason, some days Bob just... doesn't send out any ads. As the business owner/manager, that too is my problem.

It is my job to make sure Bob does his job. If Bob isn't doing his job, it's my job to get him to do it, or to get someone else to do it. Doesn't matter whether it's "fair", doesn't matter whether it's "Bob's fault" that the ads didn't go out. It's my business which bears the consequences, so it's my job to make sure it gets fixed. If the problem is owned by someone who will not in fact solve it, then it's my job to take over ownership of that problem.

Let's take it another step further.

Suppose, rather than Bob, I hire an ad agency to handle our ads. For whatever reason, some days the agency just... doesn't send out any ads. I look into it, and find that the agency's customer support desk hands off the problem to IT who hands it off to legal who hands it back to sales who then sends it back to IT. Another big ol' hot potato, but now it's not even in my company, so I have much less ability to control it.

But if I want to sell my cars, I need to deal with the bureaucracy of the ad agency to make those ads go out. And so, again, it is my job to sort out the problem. It is my job to chase around the ad agency's bureaucracy, sort out what's going on and how to fix it, figure out who I need to talk to and convince them to get those ads out. (Or delegate the work to someone else, and make sure that they will in fact get the ad bureaucracy to put those ads out.) Again, doesn't matter whether it's "fair" or whether it's "the ad agency's fault". If the problem is owned by an agency which will not in fact solve it, then it's my job to take over ownership of that problem, and make sure it gets solved.

That's "heroic responsilibity". It means that the buck stops with me. It means that if a problem isn't actually going to get solved by someone else, then it's my job to make sure it gets solved, no matter who's job it is on paper.

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