The Peacock, The Spreadsheet, and the Power of a 'Handicap'

If you want to witness the poverty of modern "logic," look no further than the average business plan.

It is a document obsessed with "efficiency." It wants to be "lean." It worships at the altar of "ROI" and "optimisation." It is, in short, a spectacular failure of the imagination.

This spreadsheet-thinking has one mortal enemy: waste.

To the logical mind, anything that isn't 100% functional is a cost to be cut. A heavier-than-necessary glass bottle? Waste. A beautifully designed, embossed package? Waste. Spending five extra, "unproductive," minutes on a customer service call just to be charming? Criminal waste.

This "logic" will give you a perfectly functional, utterly charmless, and completely unloved business.

It’s the kind of thinking that, if it were in charge of biology, would look at a peacock and say, "Good heavens, that tail. It's metabolically costly, an aerodynamic disaster, and makes it a target for predators. We must 'optimise' it immediately."

And in doing so, it would miss the entire point of the peacock.

The 'Benign Bullshit' That Creates All the Value

That tail is what biologists call a "costly signal." It is, as you rightly noted, a handicap. And its power comes precisely from the fact that it is a handicap.

The tail is an unfakeable signal to the peahen that says, "I am so genetically fit, so healthy, and so competent, that I can afford to 'waste' resources on this absurd, shimmering, and completely useless appendage... and still thrive."

The "waste" is the message.

This is the psycho-logic that logical business forgets. We humans are not rational actors. We are evolved primates, and we are exquisitely sensitive to "costly signals."

When you receive a product in a heavy, beautifully designed box, your logical brain says "what a waste of packaging." But your primate brain says, "Wow. This company is so successful and so confident in its quality that it can afford to 'waste' money on this. This must be a high-status, reliable product."

This is the power of "benign bullshit." The "thunk" of a luxury car door. The unnecessary weight of a fountain pen. The polite doorman. None of it is functional. All of it is value.

The Ultimate 'Costly Signal'

This brings us to the real alchemy at the heart of Rise Beyond Barriers.

The logical world frames disability as a "handicap" in the purely negative sense. It's seen as a cost, a deficit, a problem. The spreadsheet sees only a liability.

A perfectly logical view, and therefore almost certainly wrong.

In the counter-intuitive world of psycho-logic, it is the ultimate "costly signal."

When an entrepreneur with a disability builds a thriving, brilliant business, they are, by definition, a peacock. They are sending the most unfakeable signal of quality that exists.

They are saying, "I have succeeded despite navigating a world of friction, assumption, and absurd barriers that my 'able-bodied' competitors do not even see. I am so resilient, so creative, and so committed that I can afford to carry this handicap and still build something extraordinary."

This imbues their brand, their product, and their story with a level of authenticity and trust that an "efficient," spreadsheet-driven competitor could never, ever fake.

So when that entrepreneur then chooses to "waste" money on the "benign bullshit," like the beautiful packaging, the obsessive customer care, or the delightful little details, the signal is amplified a thousand times.

It’s not just a business signaling quality. It’s a founder who has already proven their exceptional nature against the odds, signaling profound care.

That is a combination that "logic" cannot compute, and cannot beat.

So, my advice? Stop being so damned "efficient." Stop cutting the "waste." Start thinking like a peacock. Your "handicap" isn't a liability. It's the most powerful, authentic, and valuable signal you own.