THINKDROP 27: Choose your Swim technic!
- Pierre Stanghellini
- Dec 9, 2025
- 5 min read
>Because not every founder dives for the same reason.
🎤 From Me to You
In Le Grand Bleu, Jacques Mayol and Enzo Molinari both dive — but not for the same reasons.
Enzo dives to prove something.
Jacques dives to find something.
Enzo races against others.
Jacques moves in rhythm with the deep.
Where one is conquering water, the other is surrendering to it.
Their rivalry looks like competition — but reveals a deeper truth: they’re not even swimming the same way.
One Dives for records. The other dives for return.
This isn’t just a film about diving.
It’s a meditation on purpose, form, and the quiet rebellion of doing things differently.
And it’s the perfect lens for entrepreneurship.
Because in business, we’re taught to be like Enzo — chase metrics, optimize technique, outpace the competition.
But what if you're more like Jacques?What if your strength isn’t your speed… but your depth?
This edition of Thinkdrop is for the ones who don’t fit the mold — and don't want to.
It’s a call to abandon the standardized strokes… and trust the movement only you can make.
To stop chasing formulas.To stop mimicking other swimmers.To stop sprinting toward goals that were never yours.
Because here's the truth: There are infinite swimming styles.
Not all of them are taught. And the most powerful ones are often instinctive, even invisible.
Let’s dive in.
Pierre Stanghellini -
HARi.wtf founder
1. The Four Styles Are Just the Start
Freestyle. Backstroke. Breaststroke. Butterfly.These are codified, celebrated, perfected strokes.But they’re only useful if the game you’re playing requires them.
Most entrepreneurs aren’t Olympic athletes.
They’re explorers. Survivors. Artists.
What looks inefficient in a pool may be genius in the open sea.
👉 Try This:List 3 things you do differently in your business.Now ask: Are they weaknesses — or simply your own way of swimming?
2. Your Market Is Not a Swimming Pool
Swimming pools are measured. Chlorinated. Safe.
Markets are messy — full of unpredictable tides, rogue waves, and unknown depths.
The perfect technique in a pool might get you killed in a current.
Real entrepreneurship demands adaptation, not standardization.
The best founders don’t just “swim well” — they read the water.
👉 Try This:What’s the strangest or most unexpected feedback you've received from a client or audience?Trace it. It might lead to your edge.
3. Your Body, Your Rhythm
Enzo trains for power and speed.
Jacques waits. Listens. Sinks.
Some founders thrive in sprints — others need long, quiet dives.
Trying to work like someone else is like breathing on someone else’s schedule.You’ll either burn out, or drown in anxiety.
Your energy isn’t just a fuel — it’s a compass.
👉 Try This:What time of day or pace brings out your best work?
Block one week to follow that rhythm — not hustle culture.
4. There Are Unwritten Styles
Not all swimming looks good on camera.
Not all brilliance fits in a framework.
Some founders blend instinct with experimentation.
They’re not rebels — they’re realists.
They respond instead of replicate.The style that works might not be in any handbook… yet.
👉 Try This:What’s one thing you do that breaks the rules — but always works?
Write it down. Own it. Build around it.
5. Your Goal Isn’t the Podium — It’s the Depth
Enzo dives to beat the world.
Jacques dives to belong to it.
In entrepreneurship, winning is often confused with arriving.
But many founders aren't chasing status — they’re answering a call.
Depth, not applause, is the real destination.
👉 Try This:Define success for yourself in one sentence — no numbers, titles, or external validation.Make it your north star.
🔁 Quick Recap
🏊 You don’t need to swim like everyone else.
🌊 Pools don’t prepare you for oceans.
⏱️ Your energy is your strategy.
🔮 Instinct beats imitation.
🐚 Swim toward meaning — not medals.
🔥 FINAL DROP
There’s a moment in Le Grand Bleu when Jacques disappears into the deep — no audience, no finish line, no applause.
He doesn’t swim to be seen.
He swims because it’s who he is.
Because he feels something beneath the surface calling him back.
Entrepreneurship is often painted as a race — but for some, it’s more like a return.
If someone says “I like your swimming technique,”
they’re not complimenting your form.They’re acknowledging your freedom.
No one remembers who placed second in the pool.
But they’ll remember the one who dove deeper than anyone thought possible.
Swim on.
Pierre Stanghellini
→ Let’s connect, drop me a line directly at pierre@hari.wtf .
🌊 Side Note — The Blue That Stayed With Us
Since its release in 1988, Le Grand Bleu has left a profound mark on generations — especially in France, where it became nothing short of a phenomenon.
More than 10 million people have seen it in cinemas. For many, it wasn’t just a film — it was a rite of passage. A collective breath. A slow, saltwater awakening to silence, depth, and beauty.
Luc Besson’s vision, Eric Serra’s haunting soundtrack, and Jean-Marc Barr’s portrayal of Jacques Mayol created something that transcended narrative.
They made a mood. A myth.
Even in 2025, Le Grand Bleu remains an extraordinary experience — whether you're watching it for the first time, revisiting it alone, or introducing it to your kids or grandkids.
It’s not just a film about diving. It’s about belonging. About instinct. About the quiet, terrifying freedom of doing things your own way.
Oh — and by the way?
At the end of the film, Enzo almost dies trying to follow Jacques into the depths.
And Jacques? He became a legend. 😉
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About the Creator
Pierre Stanghellini is a creative strategist, systems thinker, and curator of mental rabbit holes. He created Thinkdrop Weekly to feed the brains that don’t want the same old Business advice. If you’re building something bold, beautiful, or strange—this is your corner of the internet.
About HARi.wtf
HARi.wtf is a creative strategy studio for businesses that hate business-as-usual.
Born in Hong Kong, in 2017, we work with restless founders, operators, and teams who’d rather break things thoughtfully than grow them blandly. We don’t do generic decks or bloated strategies—we build clarity, guts, and traction.
From street-level restaurants to global brands, from Asia to Europe, we help shape ideas that move fast when it matters, and slow when it counts.
→ Explore more at hari.wtf
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