[Music]
just to go after it I mean the thing
about being an entrepreneur is this it’s
just all to you you know a lot of people
like to make excuses I don’t have
connections I don’t have money I don’t
have this but you know if you find
something that you like to do or love to
do be great at it and see if you can
turn it into a business and worst case
you’re going to have fun doing what it
is you love to do in best case you can
turn it into a business
I’m just not big on excuses I just think
if you’re really everybody has an
opportunity to go for it they just got
to do
whatever it is that you want to do
there’s going to be risk in your life
and risk is a necessary component of
progress you can make any pioneering
movements in the world of any kind
whether they be the geographical
physical exploration that I just been
talking about whether it be you know a
more cerebral exploration of a
scientific field or I bet you could ask
that question of every speaker here and
I bet that every speaker here has taken
substantial risk whether it be
intellectual or otherwise to achieve
what they’re you know what they’ve done
[Music]
what happens with people is we tend to
go out into the world and we look for
those sort of excuse about wife and
conduit and when you do that you lose
all your power in life you start
focusing on the external on your keys
you use your power here is the way
people really think I will say if I can
go out on stage and bomb you go laughter
you just bomb right people will respect
you for going out there and trying your
hardest it’s not how you actually
perform that earns the respect of your
peers it’s the fact that you went out
naturally did it that’s the difference
so you’re out there right now you’re a
new salesperson where you’re struggling
as a salesperson there’s no
embarrassment in the struggle there’s
just not the embarrassment in quitting
the embarrassment is not trying you’re
artist
[Music]
if you treat people well people will
come back and and come back for more and
it’s a very small world I actually think
that the you know the bet the best way
of becoming a successful business leader
is is is dealing with people you know
fairly and well and like to think that’s
how how we run virgin
I’ve always just really enjoyed just the
competition of business I think you know
in the sports business I’ll talk to our
players and and it’ll be like well you
guys can people 48 minutes and you
practice a couple hours and work on your
game independently a couple hours but
the ultimate sport is business because
you have to compete with everybody and
you have to do it 24 by 7 by 365 days a
year forever and there’s always somebody
out there trying to kick your butt
there’s always somebody who looks at
your business and says I can do that
better I have a better idea
and you’re you have to compete with that
person and all the while you have to
make your customers happy employees
happy it
it’s the competitive side of me that in
any entrepreneur that I think that that
has to drive you and and I think that
carries over into the Mavericks I want
to win and I want to compete
when you’re starting something at salmon
it’s just kind of hard you need to be
pretty headstrong about it right they’re
gonna be all these challenges that come
up and I think the main thing that you
need to do is just not give up right and
in kind of know what you want to do and
you know the best entrepreneurs that
provide that don’t really start
companies because their goal is to build
a company they do it because they want
to make a change in the world and help
people and I think if you if you kind of
stayed true to that and and if you just
focus on kind of powering through no
matter what the the challenges are that
will inevitably come up in your path
then you’ll find that there are lots of
tools that are available and a lot of
people who will help you build when
you’re building for people believes they
are creatures of circumstance that means
that the life life happens to them you
get that wall rich people
our creators of circumstance I will tell
you this there is no more destructive
belief in the world and to think that
life happens to you because the three
things that you do when you don’t think
that you can create your own destiny
I’ll tell you exactly what they are
right number one the first thing you do
is you play what I call the blame game
you stop blaming everybody but why you
don’t have what you want you’ll blame
the government you’ll bring your
families explain your mouth you’ll blame
your boss you’ll blame the economy
you’ll blend the people on Wall Street
which probably serve some claim but you
win anybody in everybody when you think
the world happens to you the perils the
second thing you do is you justified
it is the cause because the economy
seems to source more unfair to me it’s
because money doesn’t really matter
anyway third this is the worst one of
all so write it down in big letters they
complain I hate you know why I play
water but I do believe in some laws of
the universe
I go and one of them is that what you
focus on expands it’s bigger and what
you focus on you or slap suppose you
move forces your focus is on you attract
but here’s what happens when you’re
complaining what are you focusing on
[Music]
one of the things that companies do or
startups – they come up with an idea
they’ll Google it and if they don’t see
it in the first two pages they think
it’s original you’ve got to go back
right because over the past 15 years
there’s so many different businesses
that have tried and failed you have to
go back and find those and learn from
those so you’ve got to understand all
the implications and you have to learn
from history and so the best advice I
can give you on a video before talking
to you or emailing with you is that
you’ve got to find out the history of
people who have tried your idea because
there’s a 99.99999% chance that your
ideas to try before that’s not a good
reason not to start it because you might
be able to outperform them but you
better learn from the history of your
idea um because you know what they say
about people who don’t learn from
history
[Music]
[Music]
what kills great businesses if you look
at I do believe in looking at history
and I and I try to I like to study
failure actually and my partner says all
I want to know is where I’ll die so I’ll
never go there and and we want to see
what has caused businesses to go bad and
the biggest thing that kills them is
complacency I mean you you want a
restlessness feeling that you know that
that somebody’s always after you but
you’re going to stay ahead of them if
you always want to be on the move and
and when you’ve got a great business you
know like coca-cola wishes there aren’t
any like over but what is he really the
danger would always be you rest on your
laurels but I see none of that obviously
a coca-cola but that’s that if that is
the key to it competes the same way when
you’ve got 1.8 billion servings being
sold daily as when you were selling you
know ten today and and that restlessness
that belief that that tomorrow’s more
exciting than today you just have to
have a plumbing AG organization
[Music]
as you can hold a ballet and that can be
successful and you can hold a rock
concert and that can be successful this
don’t hold a ballet and advertise it as
a rock concert and so you need to be
clear with all your stakeholders with
you know are you holding a ballet or you
holding a rock concert and then people
get to self-select in you know we hire
people who are who are really motivated
by building new customer experiences
they like to pioneer they like the rate
of change they they wake up in the
shower motivated by thinking about
customers and occasionally somebody
joins Amazon who their primary
motivation comes from being thinking
about competition or competitors those
people can find Amazon a little dull you
know so and again it’s not about right
or wrong it’s just that different people
are motivated by different things and
what happens with corporate cultures is
that over time that you people collect
themselves in a way where they like that
culture and then it becomes
self-sustaining
[Music]
one of the big things that all startups
do if they lie to themselves over and
over and over mines faster mines cheaper
lights better mines this mines that no
it’s not and the reason it’s not is
because whoever it is you’re competing
with it’s not like they’re ignoring you
Teli oh my goodness this guy just
started on Shopify in the startup
competition he’s doing a million dollars
this year what was me I might as well
close up the doors what are they doing
I’m gonna copy what they’re doing and
now you’ve got to stay ahead and so you
know you’ve got to be very careful as an
entrepreneur to be brutally honest with
yourself and those are some of the
things that you’ll hear from me as a
mentor that you know know what you know
know what you don’t know but you got to
know your business better than anybody
my advice would be the same for any kind
of entrepreneur and that is make sure
that you are focused on something you’re
passionate about so if you look at the
early internet companies they were
started and focused on doing something
that they thought was very interesting
long before the internet was fashionable
anyway you know I I you know we are
currently an underdog once again we’ve
been in business for six years and there
was exactly one year where we were not
the underdog and that was 1999 I like
that the underdog years because it makes
the you know I liked it when all the
people we hired their parents told them
they were crazy like that was the that
was kind of the good era fortunately
it’s back in 1999 all the parents were
like you know given their brothers and
sisters high fives you know my son is
working at amazon.com so that’s a very
you can’t follow the smash when you’re
trying to do a startup company or I
think really anything in life but you
have to as an entrepreneur if you’re
going to if you’re going to build a
company pick something you think is
interesting that has the intersection of
genuinely creating real customer value
and then just stay right there and let
the waves catch you
[Music]
I actually I spent a bunch of time
analyzing and in reflecting on why it
was that we were even able to do it
because all like all reasons suggest
that we shouldn’t have been able to do
it right because all these other
companies had way more engineering power
and and and servers and time and money
and all this stuff and I actually think
that this is a pretty instructive thing
for anything that you want to go do
because this is the same properties can
be true for any thing that you guys
start is that someone else is going to
have more resources and be able to do it
the reason why I think we actually ended
up being the ones doing it is because we
just cared way more about it than
everyone else right so there were always
projects some of these other companies
that were these hobbies but we always
thought that it was this really
important thing and really just like
felt in our gut in our heart that we
wanted to do it and you know early on
there were always these skeptics saying
that oh this can’t be a business we can
actually care that much about it being a
business early on but a lot of the
reason why bigger companies didn’t
invest in it which because it wasn’t
clear that there was a model that would
work for it it seems like a bad idea
yeah and I actually think that that’s
true for a lot of the best ideas where
it is that it’s not that someone else
can’t do it they actually can and the
odds are stacked against you but I think
often that’s the least and the fact that
you just care so much about what you’re
doing is the only thing that kind of
drives you to do it and you know to be
honest that kind of drives me to this
day I mean one of the big emphasis
points for the company right now is
internet.org and you know for why we
have this rallying cry of can we connect
a billion people and you know when we
start talking about that we thought
those crazy right with way bigger than
any service in the world that had been
built and you know is ten digits long
right it was like a you know it just it
felt crazy we’d never get to that but
then the thing is as we started to
actually get closer to that we took a
step back and like alright well our
mission isn’t actually to get one in
seven people in the world we’ve seen
exodus we want to connect everyone so
it’s um it’s a big issue that only
around a third of the people in the
world have access to the Internet and
that’s something that we think that we
can do something about and similar to
early Facebook we do
there’s no business model around this I
mean all the people who have all the
money in the world I mean it’s not
necessarily a fair thing or already the
people who are on Facebook right it’s in
the first you know 7th of the world but
we just believe really strongly it’s
like this is what we are here to do this
is what our company cares about I care
about it the team cares about it our
culture cares about it so we’re just
going to keep pushing on it and I
actually think a lot of the reason why
great stuff gets built is because it’s
kind of irrational at the time but so it
kind of selects where the people who
care the most about it doing it
[Music]
knowing your strengths and weaknesses
and knowing what you enjoy doing you
know if you look at it as a job you’ve
always lost it it’s not going to be your
passion and you’re going to count the
hours if you look at it as something you
love to do and then you know what your
strengths are then you can leverage
those strengths in your business and in
helping others and once you recognize
your weaknesses then you can work with
people that compliment you I mean every
one of my businesses I’ve had a partner
who’s very anal Martin Woodall Todd
Wagner I mean incredibly anal people
perfectionist because on the flop you
know I’m a big-picture think about
what’s around the corner
how’s technology going to change things
how can I change you know this industry
and you know making sure that there’s
somebody there to make it to dot the i’s
cross the t’s and keeping in the
baseline films and you know recognizing
my weaknesses is just as important as
recognizing my strengths my core
competencies and and you know having a
passion to do
[Music]
right framework I found is a regret
minimization frame and that’s just a
nerdy way of saying that you want to
project yourself to age II and then
think back over your life and if you’re
if you’re if you’re 81 or this we want
to minimize number of regrets you have
throughout that period of time I think
this is something a lot of people do
maybe subconsciously they probably very
few people probably name it regret
minimization framework because most
people are healthier than that but but
it was a very clear way for me to think
about making that kind of life decision
and then in the way it helped was I
thought okay if I go do this thing and
participate in this thing called the
Internet that I genuinely believe is
going to be a big deal and if I fail am
I going to regret having tried and fail
and I knew the answer that was no but I
also knew that if I didn’t try that I
would always regret that I would always
wonder and it would haunt me
[Music]
it never bothered me if people disagreed
with what I thought as long as I fell
under the facts I mean there’s a whole
bunch of things I don’t know think about
I just stay away from those so I stay
within what I call my circle of
competence you know it
Tom Watson said it best he said you know
he said he said I’m no genius but I’m
smart in spots and I stay around those
spots well I try and stay around those
spots and I I just don’t have a problem
if somebody says you know you’re wrong
on something I’d go back and look at the
facts and I think that I think that
really is much more important frankly
than than having a few points of IQ or
or having an extra course or chewin in
school or anything of the sort you need
emotional stability
[Music]
my best business decisions really have
to do with picking people and deciding
to go into partnership with Paul Allen
is probably the top of the list and then
subsequently hiring a friend Steve
Ballmer and having somebody who you
totally trust who totally committed who
shares your vision and yet he has a
little bit different set of skills and
also acts as a check on you you know
some of the ideas you come up with you
run by them because you know they’re
going to say hey wait a minute have you
thought about this and that and just you
know the benefit of sparking off of
somebody who he’s got that kind of
growing in it’s not only made it Tom but
it’s really led to a lot of success so
picking picking a partner is crucial
[Music]
you’ve got to be differentiated and
unique you’ve got to know what your core
competency is and be great at it I think
what people fail to realize is that
there’s got to be a defining feature of
your company and you’ve got to be the
best in the world of that whatever
industry you’re in if you’re if you
don’t know more about it than anybody
else in the world wherever those other
people out that know more go to kick
your ass
[Music]
just to go after it I mean the thing
about being an entrepreneur is this it’s
just all to you you know a lot of people
like to make excuses I don’t have
connections I don’t have money I don’t
have this but you know if you find
something that you like to do or love to
do be great at it and see if you can
turn it into a business and worst case
you’re going to have fun doing what it
is you love to do in best case you can
turn it into a business
I’m just not big on excuses I just think
if you’re really everybody has an
opportunity to go for it they just got
to do
whatever it is that you want to do
there’s going to be risk in your life
and risk is a necessary component of
progress you can make any pioneering
movements in the world of any kind
whether they be the geographical
physical exploration that I just been
talking about whether it be you know a
more cerebral exploration of a
scientific field or I bet you could ask
that question of every speaker here and
I bet that every speaker here has taken
substantial risk whether it be
intellectual or otherwise to achieve
what they’re you know what they’ve done
[Music]
what happens with people is we tend to
go out into the world and we look for
those sort of excuse about wife and
conduit and when you do that you lose
all your power in life you start
focusing on the external on your keys
you use your power here is the way
people really think I will say if I can
go out on stage and bomb you go laughter
you just bomb right people will respect
you for going out there and trying your
hardest it’s not how you actually
perform that earns the respect of your
peers it’s the fact that you went out
naturally did it that’s the difference
so you’re out there right now you’re a
new salesperson where you’re struggling
as a salesperson there’s no
embarrassment in the struggle there’s
just not the embarrassment in quitting
the embarrassment is not trying you’re
artist
[Music]
if you treat people well people will
come back and and come back for more and
it’s a very small world I actually think
that the you know the bet the best way
of becoming a successful business leader
is is is dealing with people you know
fairly and well and like to think that’s
how how we run virgin
I’ve always just really enjoyed just the
competition of business I think you know
in the sports business I’ll talk to our
players and and it’ll be like well you
guys can people 48 minutes and you
practice a couple hours and work on your
game independently a couple hours but
the ultimate sport is business because
you have to compete with everybody and
you have to do it 24 by 7 by 365 days a
year forever and there’s always somebody
out there trying to kick your butt
there’s always somebody who looks at
your business and says I can do that
better I have a better idea
and you’re you have to compete with that
person and all the while you have to
make your customers happy employees
happy it
it’s the competitive side of me that in
any entrepreneur that I think that that
has to drive you and and I think that
carries over into the Mavericks I want
to win and I want to compete
when you’re starting something at salmon
it’s just kind of hard you need to be
pretty headstrong about it right they’re
gonna be all these challenges that come
up and I think the main thing that you
need to do is just not give up right and
in kind of know what you want to do and
you know the best entrepreneurs that
provide that don’t really start
companies because their goal is to build
a company they do it because they want
to make a change in the world and help
people and I think if you if you kind of
stayed true to that and and if you just
focus on kind of powering through no
matter what the the challenges are that
will inevitably come up in your path
then you’ll find that there are lots of
tools that are available and a lot of
people who will help you build when
you’re building for people believes they
are creatures of circumstance that means
that the life life happens to them you
get that wall rich people
our creators of circumstance I will tell
you this there is no more destructive
belief in the world and to think that
life happens to you because the three
things that you do when you don’t think
that you can create your own destiny
I’ll tell you exactly what they are
right number one the first thing you do
is you play what I call the blame game
you stop blaming everybody but why you
don’t have what you want you’ll blame
the government you’ll bring your
families explain your mouth you’ll blame
your boss you’ll blame the economy
you’ll blend the people on Wall Street
which probably serve some claim but you
win anybody in everybody when you think
the world happens to you the perils the
second thing you do is you justified
it is the cause because the economy
seems to source more unfair to me it’s
because money doesn’t really matter
anyway third this is the worst one of
all so write it down in big letters they
complain I hate you know why I play
water but I do believe in some laws of
the universe
I go and one of them is that what you
focus on expands it’s bigger and what
you focus on you or slap suppose you
move forces your focus is on you attract
but here’s what happens when you’re
complaining what are you focusing on
[Music]
one of the things that companies do or
startups – they come up with an idea
they’ll Google it and if they don’t see
it in the first two pages they think
it’s original you’ve got to go back
right because over the past 15 years
there’s so many different businesses
that have tried and failed you have to
go back and find those and learn from
those so you’ve got to understand all
the implications and you have to learn
from history and so the best advice I
can give you on a video before talking
to you or emailing with you is that
you’ve got to find out the history of
people who have tried your idea because
there’s a 99.99999% chance that your
ideas to try before that’s not a good
reason not to start it because you might
be able to outperform them but you
better learn from the history of your
idea um because you know what they say
about people who don’t learn from
history
[Music]
[Music]
what kills great businesses if you look
at I do believe in looking at history
and I and I try to I like to study
failure actually and my partner says all
I want to know is where I’ll die so I’ll
never go there and and we want to see
what has caused businesses to go bad and
the biggest thing that kills them is
complacency I mean you you want a
restlessness feeling that you know that
that somebody’s always after you but
you’re going to stay ahead of them if
you always want to be on the move and
and when you’ve got a great business you
know like coca-cola wishes there aren’t
any like over but what is he really the
danger would always be you rest on your
laurels but I see none of that obviously
a coca-cola but that’s that if that is
the key to it competes the same way when
you’ve got 1.8 billion servings being
sold daily as when you were selling you
know ten today and and that restlessness
that belief that that tomorrow’s more
exciting than today you just have to
have a plumbing AG organization
[Music]
as you can hold a ballet and that can be
successful and you can hold a rock
concert and that can be successful this
don’t hold a ballet and advertise it as
a rock concert and so you need to be
clear with all your stakeholders with
you know are you holding a ballet or you
holding a rock concert and then people
get to self-select in you know we hire
people who are who are really motivated
by building new customer experiences
they like to pioneer they like the rate
of change they they wake up in the
shower motivated by thinking about
customers and occasionally somebody
joins Amazon who their primary
motivation comes from being thinking
about competition or competitors those
people can find Amazon a little dull you
know so and again it’s not about right
or wrong it’s just that different people
are motivated by different things and
what happens with corporate cultures is
that over time that you people collect
themselves in a way where they like that
culture and then it becomes
self-sustaining
[Music]
one of the big things that all startups
do if they lie to themselves over and
over and over mines faster mines cheaper
lights better mines this mines that no
it’s not and the reason it’s not is
because whoever it is you’re competing
with it’s not like they’re ignoring you
Teli oh my goodness this guy just
started on Shopify in the startup
competition he’s doing a million dollars
this year what was me I might as well
close up the doors what are they doing
I’m gonna copy what they’re doing and
now you’ve got to stay ahead and so you
know you’ve got to be very careful as an
entrepreneur to be brutally honest with
yourself and those are some of the
things that you’ll hear from me as a
mentor that you know know what you know
know what you don’t know but you got to
know your business better than anybody
my advice would be the same for any kind
of entrepreneur and that is make sure
that you are focused on something you’re
passionate about so if you look at the
early internet companies they were
started and focused on doing something
that they thought was very interesting
long before the internet was fashionable
anyway you know I I you know we are
currently an underdog once again we’ve
been in business for six years and there
was exactly one year where we were not
the underdog and that was 1999 I like
that the underdog years because it makes
the you know I liked it when all the
people we hired their parents told them
they were crazy like that was the that
was kind of the good era fortunately
it’s back in 1999 all the parents were
like you know given their brothers and
sisters high fives you know my son is
working at amazon.com so that’s a very
you can’t follow the smash when you’re
trying to do a startup company or I
think really anything in life but you
have to as an entrepreneur if you’re
going to if you’re going to build a
company pick something you think is
interesting that has the intersection of
genuinely creating real customer value
and then just stay right there and let
the waves catch you
[Music]
I actually I spent a bunch of time
analyzing and in reflecting on why it
was that we were even able to do it
because all like all reasons suggest
that we shouldn’t have been able to do
it right because all these other
companies had way more engineering power
and and and servers and time and money
and all this stuff and I actually think
that this is a pretty instructive thing
for anything that you want to go do
because this is the same properties can
be true for any thing that you guys
start is that someone else is going to
have more resources and be able to do it
the reason why I think we actually ended
up being the ones doing it is because we
just cared way more about it than
everyone else right so there were always
projects some of these other companies
that were these hobbies but we always
thought that it was this really
important thing and really just like
felt in our gut in our heart that we
wanted to do it and you know early on
there were always these skeptics saying
that oh this can’t be a business we can
actually care that much about it being a
business early on but a lot of the
reason why bigger companies didn’t
invest in it which because it wasn’t
clear that there was a model that would
work for it it seems like a bad idea
yeah and I actually think that that’s
true for a lot of the best ideas where
it is that it’s not that someone else
can’t do it they actually can and the
odds are stacked against you but I think
often that’s the least and the fact that
you just care so much about what you’re
doing is the only thing that kind of
drives you to do it and you know to be
honest that kind of drives me to this
day I mean one of the big emphasis
points for the company right now is
internet.org and you know for why we
have this rallying cry of can we connect
a billion people and you know when we
start talking about that we thought
those crazy right with way bigger than
any service in the world that had been
built and you know is ten digits long
right it was like a you know it just it
felt crazy we’d never get to that but
then the thing is as we started to
actually get closer to that we took a
step back and like alright well our
mission isn’t actually to get one in
seven people in the world we’ve seen
exodus we want to connect everyone so
it’s um it’s a big issue that only
around a third of the people in the
world have access to the Internet and
that’s something that we think that we
can do something about and similar to
early Facebook we do
there’s no business model around this I
mean all the people who have all the
money in the world I mean it’s not
necessarily a fair thing or already the
people who are on Facebook right it’s in
the first you know 7th of the world but
we just believe really strongly it’s
like this is what we are here to do this
is what our company cares about I care
about it the team cares about it our
culture cares about it so we’re just
going to keep pushing on it and I
actually think a lot of the reason why
great stuff gets built is because it’s
kind of irrational at the time but so it
kind of selects where the people who
care the most about it doing it
[Music]
knowing your strengths and weaknesses
and knowing what you enjoy doing you
know if you look at it as a job you’ve
always lost it it’s not going to be your
passion and you’re going to count the
hours if you look at it as something you
love to do and then you know what your
strengths are then you can leverage
those strengths in your business and in
helping others and once you recognize
your weaknesses then you can work with
people that compliment you I mean every
one of my businesses I’ve had a partner
who’s very anal Martin Woodall Todd
Wagner I mean incredibly anal people
perfectionist because on the flop you
know I’m a big-picture think about
what’s around the corner
how’s technology going to change things
how can I change you know this industry
and you know making sure that there’s
somebody there to make it to dot the i’s
cross the t’s and keeping in the
baseline films and you know recognizing
my weaknesses is just as important as
recognizing my strengths my core
competencies and and you know having a
passion to do
[Music]
right framework I found is a regret
minimization frame and that’s just a
nerdy way of saying that you want to
project yourself to age II and then
think back over your life and if you’re
if you’re if you’re 81 or this we want
to minimize number of regrets you have
throughout that period of time I think
this is something a lot of people do
maybe subconsciously they probably very
few people probably name it regret
minimization framework because most
people are healthier than that but but
it was a very clear way for me to think
about making that kind of life decision
and then in the way it helped was I
thought okay if I go do this thing and
participate in this thing called the
Internet that I genuinely believe is
going to be a big deal and if I fail am
I going to regret having tried and fail
and I knew the answer that was no but I
also knew that if I didn’t try that I
would always regret that I would always
wonder and it would haunt me
[Music]
it never bothered me if people disagreed
with what I thought as long as I fell
under the facts I mean there’s a whole
bunch of things I don’t know think about
I just stay away from those so I stay
within what I call my circle of
competence you know it
Tom Watson said it best he said you know
he said he said I’m no genius but I’m
smart in spots and I stay around those
spots well I try and stay around those
spots and I I just don’t have a problem
if somebody says you know you’re wrong
on something I’d go back and look at the
facts and I think that I think that
really is much more important frankly
than than having a few points of IQ or
or having an extra course or chewin in
school or anything of the sort you need
emotional stability
[Music]
my best business decisions really have
to do with picking people and deciding
to go into partnership with Paul Allen
is probably the top of the list and then
subsequently hiring a friend Steve
Ballmer and having somebody who you
totally trust who totally committed who
shares your vision and yet he has a
little bit different set of skills and
also acts as a check on you you know
some of the ideas you come up with you
run by them because you know they’re
going to say hey wait a minute have you
thought about this and that and just you
know the benefit of sparking off of
somebody who he’s got that kind of
growing in it’s not only made it Tom but
it’s really led to a lot of success so
picking picking a partner is crucial
[Music]
you’ve got to be differentiated and
unique you’ve got to know what your core
competency is and be great at it I think
what people fail to realize is that
there’s got to be a defining feature of
your company and you’ve got to be the
best in the world of that whatever
industry you’re in if you’re if you
don’t know more about it than anybody
else in the world wherever those other
people out that know more go to kick
your ass
[Music]
Please follow and like us: