What I Learned from the eFishery Scandal

• January 23, 2025
• Jesandy
• no comments

Startups often operate in high-stakes environments, where the pressure to secure funding and scale quickly can lead to critical missteps. What we learned from The eFishery scandal serves as a stark reminder of how personality traits in leadership can profoundly influence a company’s trajectory. Among these, two stand out as particularly dangerous when paired together: Overconfidence and People-Pleasing. This post explores how these traits can interact to create a toxic dynamic, especially in the context of dealing with investors.

Leaders bring unique traits that shape how they tackle challenges. These traits can drive success but also create risks if unchecked, especially in high-pressure situations.

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The Overconfident Leader thrives on big visions and bold ambitions but often ignores crucial details. They overestimate their abilities, dismiss risks, and avoid feedback that challenges their perspective. While their confidence can inspire and motivate, it often leads to unrealistic goals and risky decisions that can destabilize projects or teams.

The People-Pleaser prioritizes harmony and approval, often avoiding tough decisions to keep others happy. They may agree to unrealistic demands or alter plans to avoid conflict, creating a facade of success. This short-term focus on pleasing others can undermine accountability and weaken the foundations of any group or organization.

The Lethal Combination: Overconfidence and People-Pleasing

When overconfidence and people-pleasing traits combine in leadership, the result can be catastrophic. Overconfident leaders set ambitious, unrealistic goals, believing in their infallibility and ignoring risks. People-pleasers, eager to maintain harmony, enable these decisions by avoiding confrontation and smoothing over issues.

This combination creates a dangerous cycle. Overconfident leaders push bold, risky plans, while people-pleasers validate these moves by suppressing dissent and presenting an illusion of progress. The outcome is a culture where unrealistic expectations flourish, ethical lines blur, and operational weaknesses are ignored. Together, these traits can lead to decisions that prioritize appearances over substance, destabilizing the organization.

In my experience, I’ve seen how this dynamic fosters poor judgment and compounds mistakes. Overconfident leaders often dismiss warnings, while people-pleasers, afraid to disrupt the peace, go along with flawed decisions. The eFishery scandal reflects how this interplay can escalate into a full-blown crisis, highlighting the need for balanced leadership.

What We Can Learned as A Leader

The eFishery scandal offers valuable lessons on leadership and self-awareness. Confidence and collaboration are essential but must be balanced with accountability and transparency to avoid pitfalls.

One key takeaway is to pair ambition with humility. Confidence inspires teams, but openness to feedback and acknowledgment of limitations ground bold visions in reality. This ensures robust planning and achievable goals.

What we can learned is setting clear boundaries. Pleasing others is natural, but it should never compromise ethical standards or long-term stability. Transparent communication about what is feasible builds trust and supports sustainable growth.

Finally, fostering accountability is crucial. Encouraging constructive feedback and implementing strong internal controls prevent personality-driven risks from spiraling. Leaders who value ethical practices and honest dialogue can build resilient businesses ready for growth.

Building a Sustainable Future is More Important

The eFishery situation should become a reminder of how crucial self-awareness is for leadership and the potential consequences of unchecked personality traits. I kinda hope the news was wrong, but as someone who deeply believes in the promise of Indonesia’s startup ecosystem, I feel a sense of disappointment and concern. This moment should encourage us to reflect, learn, and improve. Startups like eFishery represent not just a company but also the potential of an entire nation’s innovation on the global stage.

This is an opportunity for startup owners across the ecosystem to grow, we learned by setting clear boundaries, fostering transparency, and holding themselves accountable. Let’s focus on building businesses that not only achieve success but also inspire trust and pride, showing the world that Indonesia’s startups are a force for good and resilience.