I would say that the lesson learned for
me to anybody else out there interested
in starting a business is please find
something you’re passionate about
because it’s so much work it’s so much
time it’s so much effort but if the
subject matter is something that you you
genuinely love to be involved with it’s
it’s not gonna be that big of a drag and
it’s not gonna be that much work it’s
gonna be incredibly exciting and
rewarding because to your point you’ll
feel like you’re living your the life
that you’re meant to live a company is
simply a group of people and as a leader
of people you have to be a great
listener you have to be a great
motivator
you have to be very good at praising and
looking for the best in people you know
people are no different than flowers if
you water flowers they flourish if you
praise people they flourish and and
your actions you should always feel in
life in your jobs your actions are
somehow have a good purpose behind them
they better the world in some way don’t
ever do something just because it’s an
assignment you better believe that it’s
there is some end of end goal that is
good for the world almost every new
invention and computer and all came
about from those ideals I mean I really
want to help the world communicate so
much you know other people inspired me
into a revolution I want to be a part of
changing things want to be a part of
better education what the apart of the
young person having so much mastery over
technology and be able to do things they
never could before
those were the goods that were pushing
me it was almost all without those goods
I wanted me to design the computer if
you’re gonna start your own thing you
know maybe you have a grand grand vision
of like all the different features its
gonna have and all the different you
know revenue lines you’re gonna do and
you know keep keep that vision but do
one piece of that first and do it really
really really well it’s so much better
to do a few things well then many things
you can’t you can’t fulfill your full
passion whether it’s through music or
art or dance if you’ve lost sight of the
things that make you a real person and I
had to like refine myself almost like
wow what is it that makes me me and once
I refined that it’s like everything else
came together again I was able to write
again I was able to create but without
those things then you lose sight of
everything the definition of values is
there the behaviors or principles that
you religiously adhere to within your
company
when I say religious I mean that no
amount of data will sway you and from
from those principles and the degree to
which that you have the courage to
maintain your conviction around those
ideas is the degree to which you’re
going to be successful over the long
so many things go wrong when you’re
starting a company and often I think
people ask you know what mistakes should
you avoid making and you know my answer
the question is don’t even bother trying
to avoid mistakes because you’re going
to make tons of mistakes alright and the
the important thing is actually learning
quickly from whatever mistakes you make
and not giving up right and I mean there
are things every single year of
Facebook’s existence that could have
killed us or made it so that it just
seemed like moving forward and making a
lot of progress just seemed intractable
but you just want to bounce back and you
learned and nothing is impossible you
just have to kind of keep running
through the walls
basically the theory is we’re all born
thinking like entrepreneurs you know
like when we crawl and we start and we
fall you know we’re trying to walk we
figure it out entrepreneurs always
figure out you’re born thinking like an
entrepreneur that you know what I’m
gonna figure this out regardless and I’m
gonna keep going now often the challenge
is families and friends convince you not
to be an entrepreneur because when you
say I’m gonna change the world moving
the most famous person I’m gonna save
the seals they say don’t do that you it
didn’t happen before it’s never happened
you’re gonna you’re gonna you’re gonna
fail you can embarrass us and put the
limiters on it they put the limiters
they put the blinders on you but true
entrepreneurs will just keep figuring it
out if you’ve got a movie fan you’ve got
a movie maker like there’s I’ve never
met a filmmaker that wasn’t a movie buff
first I don’t care who it is whether
it’s like me or great directors like
Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino they’re
hardcore movie fans who still imbibe so
I don’t think it’s possible to be a
filmmaker unless you’re a film fan so I
always encourage everyone in those q and
A’s where I’m like if you’re here
listening to me talk about this stuff
you are not a film fan your filmmaker
you just haven’t made a film yet go out
and make your film because who knows
better how to do this stuff than the
pretty people that consume it on a
we’re not different I was you i sat
there watching other people’s stuff and
I just got to a place where I was like
why then why not me
like if this counts as a movie why can’t
I make a movie and stuff which is funny
because that’s what my movies make
people do that like you know Gosar’s
counts I’m making a movie and that’s
that’s a good call to arms on I’m not
even insulted by that I’m like good
whatever makes you step forward and try
your self expression it’s the only
reason anyone knows my name or my work
and I’ve been doing this for 22 years I
haven’t had to get a real job is because
it started with the first step have gone
like why can’t I do that you know like I
see people do it and that’s interesting
and I like their stories but never saw
my world represented up on the screen
and that’s where I looked for myself I
never found myself in a classroom never
found myself in the church man closest
moments I’ve ever had to finding out who
I am
they’ve been in the art sitting in a
movie theater watching a movie man it’s
the dark hair you see yourself reflected
in a weird way in reading and listening
to music watching TV these were the
closest moments where I was like oh I
think this is who I am stiffly good so
the people I talked to you thought I was
crazy and like it’s very possible in an
alternate universe I might have been
wrong but just the fact that people were
taking more photos and that each and
every person had a camera in their
pocket meant that there was no way that
there was gonna be something around
photos that would happen in in the
valley and people starting companies
around it the question would be can you
compete against the big guys and we were
just unique enough and we positioned
herself in such a way that we were
differentiated and people wanted to use
it and not just like kind of started the
and you know what everybody wants to
hear what they already believe to be
true and so the last thing they want to
hear is an original idea that
contradicts their belief system so it’s
very hard to even bring that kind of
stuff up but those are the things those
are the only things things that you
believe
that everybody around you doesn’t
believe when you’re right that create
real value in the world everything else
people already know there’s no value
created it’s just business as usual
so it’s so important to think for
don’t solicit feedback on your product
your idea or their business just for
validation purposes be really careful
about that you want to tell the people
that can help move your idea forward but
if you’re just looking to your friend
co-worker husband wife for validation be
careful because out of love and concern
a lot of people will express some
concerns and it can stop a lot of
multi-million dollar ideas right in
their tracks in the beginning and if
you’re really trying to achieve
something then so to say hey here’s my
vision and I’d like to say be obstinate
about your vision but be really flexible
about your tactics what does that mean
it’s sort of like think big act small
what that means is it’s important to
have a vision of where you’re trying to
go how you get there is a series of
experiments now you can call them if
aliens when they don’t work but they’re
learning experiments where you try
but I think that’s what people always
have to ask themselves do you believe in
the concept of what you’re doing do you
believe that there’s really they’re
there because I can figure out the right
you know product package or the right
way to reach users if you believe that
then you don’t keep keep scrapping
you’re all our limitations are those
which you set up in your own mind or
permit others to set up for you but it’s
things like knowing who you are inside
who you are and believe it in that
person and remember the through life and
say them today it’s a good person I am
and I have some fifty on this and a good
hand on my shoulders and I don’t want to
be corrupted by the successes I’m gonna
have in life and in business I don’t
want to be corrupted and go in different
ways if I make a lot of money I still
want to be that good you’re human who
thinks well like I said don’t don’t set
yourself up for those frowns you know
and you don’t always have to win every
single argument you can think your way
and believe your thoughts are good in
your own brain and somebody else doesn’t
agree with you it’s okay they just think
a different way there’s no need to look
at the world of oh we’ve all got to be
in competition it’s my way everyone has
to be just like me or they’re no good
they have to use my computer then to go
to my school they have to be my country
you know they have to do things my way
that’s not the way the things be very
open to a lot of different people have
differences and we can all still see
each other as good and we get along a
lot better and have a lot more peace
what we really want to do is raise our
level of awareness so the expectation
becomes a natural state for our mind to
be in and we’ve already mentioned that
expectation is a mindset it’s a mental
state and you’re going to find that that
state comes to you with an increase of
awareness
I never give up and never give up I go
my own way risk my life so this way I
always tell that the people not because
one one things fall down you just give
up never give up never give up one day
I think it’s really to be true to
yourself and listen as much as one is
able to other people whose opinions you
respect and look up to but in the end it
has to come from from you and you you
can’t really worry too much by looking
to the left or the right about what the
competition might be doing or other
people in your field might be doing it
and there are a lot of people from whom
we can learn a lot and I think like you
know the one piece of advice is like
don’t underestimate anyone you come
across a friend like whether they’re you
know a blue collar worker waiting for
the bus or they’re you know helping you
at your they’re the server a bartender
at the restaurant or they’re a
lower-ranking employee I mean the
smartest leaders I’ve ever seen have
always gone around the room and asked
for everybody’s opinion and oftentimes
the best methodology is to start with
the perfect experience with just one
person get that right and then forget
how to scale something great instead of
scaling something not so great and then
trying to improve it that’s really hard
you’re really trying to solve a new
problem in a different way you have to
come to problems with beginner’s mind
right not knowing something can be a
very powerful tool in to accomplishing
it because you don’t know that it’s not
possible that’s what doing a startup is
not realizing that something is
we get to create any company we want
right we get to create the reason for
its existence we get to create the rules
of the game and who we hire and how we
hire them and who can stay and who can’t
stay all right it’s beautiful and so I
just would encourage everyone that as we
all contemplate life to try to question
the assumptions that we live by and the
default options are given to us and
expand our thinking to wonder what we
but your job is to make sure that you
stay as agile as possible so that you
can find what will be your company as
you grow and it comes down to the fact
you need to iterate as quickly as
a lot of people don’t want to try things
that might not work you know what I’m
saying everyone wants to try the short
thing and there is no such thing as the
short thing and if you’re looking at
somebody else’s work to try to gauge
your own as I have for years you will
constantly feel like a failure instead
concentrate on telling your story like
this is the thing I’m real big on your
voice is your only currency that’s all
you got
the things you see and perceive the
prison through which you process all the
information that you take in a city the
most unique supercomputer on the planet
unique from everybody else that
perspective is valuable insanely
valuable there’s nobody else could give
it but you and that’s why it’s always
better to shoot weird or shoot different
or shoot original as opposed to shoot
what works like or go for a successful
model or as I’ve tried to do try to be
John Hughes or something like that
you’ll never succeed that way if you try
using your own boys you try expressing
your own thoughts that nobody else can
do that’s your best shot at success
because that’s the thing that you bring
to the table then nobody else could
bring and if your timing is fantastic
you say the right thing at the right
time you could have a career so when you
get into this business they tend to like
tell you to shape it up and like take
off the edges and make it look like this
hey that work do that but always shoot
a wealth a well-thought-out critique of
whatever you’re doing is as valuable as
gold and you should seek that from
everyone you can but particularly your
friends performing under pressure
whether it’s me or anybody else is the
same
you know I have the same pressures as
anyone else there’s time there’s
performance there’s financial I mean
there you know there’s deadlines my
pressures are not unique the situations
may be different or you know but but
everybody has the same kinds of
pressures but what I found or what I
find fascinating is the interpretation
of the stimuli if let me let me explain
so I was watching the Olympics this last
Summer Olympics and I was amazed at how
bad the questions were that the
reporters would ask all the athletes and
almost always they asked the same
question whether they were about to
compete or after they competed were you
nervous right and to a tee all the
athletes went no right and what I
realized is it’s not that they’re not
nervous it’s their interpretation of
what’s happening in their bodies I mean
what it what happens when you’re nervous
right your heart rate starts to go
you’re you know you sort of get a little
tense you get a little sweaty right you
have expectation of what’s coming and we
interpreted that is I’m nervous now
what’s the interpretation of excited
your heart rate starts to go you become
you’re anticipating what’s coming right
you get a little sort of like tense it’s
all the same thing it’s the same stimuli
except these athletes these these
Olympic quality athletes have learned to
interpret the stimuli that the rest of
us would say as nervous as excited they
all said the same thing no I’m not
nervous I’m excited and so I’ve actually
practiced it just to tell myself when I
start to get nervous that this is
excitement you know and so where when
you used to be speaking for the large
audience and somebody’d say how do you
feel I say
nervous now when somebody says how do
you feel like really excited actually
and it it came from just sort of telling
myself no no this is excitement and it
becomes a little bit automatic later on
but it’s kind of a remarkable thing to
deal with pressure by interpreting what
your body is experiencing as excitement
rather than nerves and it’s really kind
of effective it makes you want to rush
for is rather than pull back and yet
the hardest thing to do is start you
have all these ideas and everyone has an
idea but it’s really about executing the
idea and building the idea and
attracting other people to help you work
on the idea that is the biggest
challenge but the way to begin is to get
the idea out of your head draw it out
you know talk about it program it if
you’re a programmer or make it if you’re
building something you are going to
encourage and turn a lot of
disappointment a lot of failure a lot of
pain a lot of setbacks a lot of defeats
but in the process of doing that you
will discover some things about yourself
that you don’t know right now what you
will realize is that you have greatness
within you what you’ll realize is that
you’re more powerful than you can ever
begin to imagine what you will realize
is that you’re greater than your
circumstances that you don’t have to go
through life being a victim
the road to success is through
commitment and through the strength to
drive through that commitment when it
gets hard and it is going to get hard
and you’re gonna want to quit sometimes
but it’ll be colored by who you are and
it’s not about having more followers on
Twitter than your friends it’s not about
outdoing anyone it’s about how to outdo
yourself it’s not about selling more
books or getting more TED views than
somebody else it’s about how to make
sure that the work that you’re producing
is better than the work you produced
before you are your competition and that
is what ensures you stay in the game the
longest and that is what ensures you
find joy because the joy comes not from
now when I decided to leave the gym and
go independent this was already a goal
of mine I read out I’ve written out all
of my goals writing goals are very
important it was very important
I wrote my goals out and I think we
would like 10 of them and then a year
later maybe two years later I went back
to that book and I swear to everything
I’ve written now I hate it without even
thinking about it something powerful
we’re not gonna always make the right
steps and sometimes you have to back up
and try again and if you’re in a
position where you can’t back up and try
again you’ve trapped yourself and the
system will set out honey pots for
people to get trapped in the system will
set out the ideas of retirement the
ideas of the golden years providing you
benefits providing you a healthy work
environment why well because they want
people to work for them they don’t want
people to realize their own dreams and
escape those pain the ass you gotta hire
more people and train them and they want
to set it up so that you stick around
stick around some sort of an
unsatisfying world it’s up to you to see
that video game problem to see that
issue as it comes up on the map and
known I think this is a right turn to
see all the problems that could
potentially lay in front of you and
calculate your your future and then also
look around all the people that didn’t
do it and look at the misery that
they’re in and learn that you don’t want
to be like them and then look at the
people that have kind of taken chances
and navigated their way what do they do
differently than you
what would objectivity do they have that
maybe you lack what insight into their
own mistakes are they willing to delve
into that you’re not that you step back
and go you know I don’t just don’t I
just don’t want to look at myself that
closely but the person who’s able to
look at themselves the closest it’s
gonna get the more rational results
[Music]
you already know who you are and that
piece that piece that we’re after lies
somewhere beyond personality your need
for acceptance can make you invisible in
this world don’t let anything stand in
the way of the light that shines through
this form risk being seen in all of your
[Music]
and it’s okay it’s okay to have a sense
of self-awareness and identity but it’s
not okay to have an ego because what an
ego does is the ego is a funny it’s a
funny
it’s a funny entity within the human
brain it is on your side when you are
doing great but have you ever noticed
when you when you think you’ve failed
it’s the ego in your mind that tells you
it’s so bad everyone’s looking at you
you start to sweat across your forehead
and you’re like oh my god I can’t
believe this is happening the whole
entire world is watching and none of it
is true when you’re doing great you
shouldn’t listen to that voice when
you’re not doing as great you should
have listened to that voice because it’s
not good when you’re doing great it’s
gonna get you hooked on that feeling so
that when you come down and you because
we our life is a rollercoaster there’s
valleys and peaks when you hit that
valley if you can’t deal then you won’t
I feel guilty at 10 to 5 if I’m not in
the office I know that might sound
strange to you but that’s a it’s there’s
a work ethic that I have to be half-dead
when you give somebody your word your
word is so important once I gave her my
word I had to come you were not I’ve got
the million other things I got to do is
say well I gave up my word and that’s
gonna go a long way with you in business
once you give somebody your word it’s
good to get it and write everything that
you need to get done but when you give
somebody your word you got to stand by
because when you start standing by your
word you’ll be able to build more
if you don’t you’re not done to the
passion and love and your student for
money it’s dumb the emotional outcomes
will be disastrous
that’s for my expense this is really
well know so I know has to be able just
for pure passion and the love for what
the separation of talent and skill is
one of the the the greatest
misunderstood concepts for people who
are trying to excel who have dreams that
want to do things talent you have
naturally skill is only developed by
hours and hours and hours of beating on
your craft there’s no easy way around it
no matter how talented you are your
talent is going to fail you if you’re
not skilled you know if you don’t study
if you don’t work really hard and
dedicate yourself to being better every
single day you’ll never be able to
a bunch of people that will say yeah
well I’ve a family so you know it’s a
great idea for you to just go out there
and go crazy you have people to support
you need to listen stop saying that
stop saying any of those things every
single person who has ever done anything
worthwhile or exceptional or difficult
or extraordinary anyone whether it’s
great artists or authors or
mathematicians or whatever the it is
everyone encounters difficulties there
is no easy road it does not exist it is
impossible
everyone has issues if you have time to
pursue a hobby if you have time to do
anything in your life you can better
yourself and here’s one way you never
better yourself when you come up with
excuses for why other people are
successful you’re not that’s it’s
dangerous when you give yourself an
escape yeah well that’s easy for you to
say you know you do dude you need to
trust me
everybody has a hard road I wanted to
jump out a window several times during
my young life I wanted to jump in front
of a train just end it because too much
pressure not really but you know I’m
saying theoretically we all go through
hard times we all go through depression
we all do go through doubt and then
moments in your life where it’s relief
it difficult and you’re trying to figure
out what the your path is gonna be it’s
hardest but Stefan and I we’re talking
about this before the podcast starts
that hay is what makes you a person and
those difficult moments are what build
your care
show me a great man who’s the son of a
it’s it’s very easy to be seduced by
doing things efficiently trying to do a
lot of things well I don’t believe
that’s the most important thing the most
important thing is picking the right
things to do in the first place and
that’s being effective versus just being
efficient so within a start-up its
success I don’t think it’s measured by
how many things you can do at once it’s
measured by how effectively you’re able
to pick the one or two things into the
highest priority and there’s always
going to be a seduction to get
distracted and focus on 20 things at
once and the most effective
entrepreneurs I know are very good at
focusing on one or two things and either
eliminating the rest of delegating to
other people or outsourcing and so it’s
not done within the team but it’s
one of the things that I do do before I
go to bed at night is that make a quick
list of the things that I know I have to
deal with the next day and I try to get
those knocked out before noon because
from noon on it’s kind of like the wild
wild west I don’t know what’s gonna
happen I don’t know what new issues
gonna come up and so you want to really
be smart about your time to knock out
the things that you have – who do I have
to talk to what do I have to review what
do I have to do with a bank or an
employee or one of the businesses you
want to get out what I would call the
housekeeping you get the housekeeping
done in the morning and then you get to
kind of go farm the fields for the rest
of the day and part of the challenge or
part of the challenge for me at least is
that that lines get very blurry of when
the day actually shuts off and that can
present a real challenge to you know
your personal life and your friends and
in kind of that balance so it’s it’s
hard but the first part of my day is the
and on this particular day when we got
to the end of the run there were some
free bagels and they had picnic tables
set up and on one side was a group of
volunteers on the table were boxes of
bagels and on the other side was a long
line of runners waiting to get their
free bagel so I said to my friend let’s
let’s get a bagel and he looked at me
and said that lines too long and I said
free bagel and he said I don’t want to
wait in line and I was like free bagel
and he says nah that’s it’s too long and
that’s when I realized that there’s two
ways to see the world some people see
the thing that they want and some people
see the thing that prevents them from
getting the thing that they want I could
only see the bagels he could only see
the line and so I walked up to the line
I leaned in between two people put my
hand in the box and pulled out two
bagels and no one got mad at me because
the rule is you can go after whatever
you want
you just cannot deny anyone else to go
after whatever they want
now I had to sacrifice choice I didn’t
get to choose which bagel I got I got
whatever I pulled out but I didn’t have
to wait in line
so the point is is you don’t have to
wait in line you don’t have to do it the
way everybody else has done it you can
do it your way you can break the rules
you just can’t get in the way of
the other thing is is that you get to
work your butt off if you think that
you’re gonna go and accomplish something
really special and be the best in
anything in the world if you think you
can do it without working you make a big
mistake because no matter what I did if
it was a bodybuilding or an acting or if
it is in the political arena it always
took a lot a lot of work and you gotta
put out and you got the you know
something to make a lot of sacrifices
notice if you’re not willing to work
hard forget about it so this is another
when you wake up in the morning and your
life means something to somebody other
than you that you have a purpose if you
don’t go do the things that you’re going
to do people’s lives will suffer and I
think that that kind of purpose that
like to live in service not to you but
to live in service to humanity to live
in service to your family to live in
service to your church to your city to
your country to the world living in
service is that I feel like that is the
sometimes your life will be in a slump
just like sports some of the best
shooters can’t hit baskets different
times and games they get in a slump do
they sit on the sidelines and say you
know I just didn’t hit a basket today
no they continue to execute I suggest to
you that if you are facing a challenge
don’t stop
stay busy work your plan continue to do
those things that you know that work for
you after you have evaluated yourself in
the situation
continue to move stay busy stay busy
just have to have a total and complete
passion because there’s gonna be so many
dark moments you know I think the dark
moments are true for any entrepreneur or
any startup company I’m sure that you
talk to Steve Jobs and Apple you’d see
many many dark dark moments ours
happened to last a little longer than
most of them but he really emotionally
have to be prepared for those dark
moments I think every entrepreneur I’ve
ever spoken to which would echo that
yeah everything’s on the line that’s the
life of an entrepreneur and so you’re
gonna be into it you better be prepared
you know you have two choices in life
basically it’s it’s basically to succeed
or to fail you know I’m saying and I’ve
been the negative Road and I’ve been the
positive Road and I would never give up
the positive road never I would never
even if you know I’m saying if I was the
I only invest in things that I
understand and things that I use or
would use myself this is really really
really important
anytime I step outside of that is
usually when the universe kicks me in
the nuts really are and I lose my money
I think it’s it’s critical to as an
entrepreneur scratch your own itch it
increases the odds of success or the
probability of success and then it’s as
an investor I look for people who are
passion is not an actionable word it’s
correct you know that those who do the
things that they’re passionate about do
better but it’s not helpful advice and
so the question is where does passion
come from passion is a result passion as
an energy passion is the feeling you
have when you’re engaged in something
that you love passion is the feeling you
have that you would probably do this for
free you know and you can’t believe
somebody pays you to do it you know and
I think we mistake that passion is
something we do in our private lives but
it shouldn’t be done you know in our
careers for example and I’m a firm
believer that you are who you are and
anybody who says I’m different at home
than I am at work and one of those two
places you’re lying and the goal is to
make everything you do in home and it
works something that you have excitement
to do so how do you find the things that
you’re excited to do well it’s actually
easier than you think what are the
things that you love to do what are the
everywhere everyone likes to talk about
failures you know but the main thing is
you might have a lot of little small
steps every one of those steps seemed to
not take you anywhere in money it didn’t
get you much more money it didn’t get
any money but you know you’re kind of
proud you show them off to friends even
your mind was increasing your methods of
coming up with better solutions was
increasing you not only have to now read
a book on how things are done you can
write the book and that’s called
creativity you create new things
success was the progressive realisation
of a worthy ideal anyone that has a goal
and they’re moving towards that they’re
successful and so you want to begin to
take some chances you want to begin to
challenge yourself and make it okay to
fail and learn from your failures I wake
up to have a chance to meet new people
and learn things it’s a people game
right like the people you surround
yourself with over time or the people
that kind of influence what you end up
doing further on and I just I saw so
many people starting companies that I
was like seems like a lot of fun I want
anybody can do this crap I’ve spent 20
years trying to tell people like pick up
a camera it doesn’t take much sometimes
you just need somebody to be like it’s
this simple dude and give you three
steps and suddenly you’re like that’s it
I can take it the rest of the way
getting started is always the hardest
part
yeah the best business models in the
world are the ones where you like ask
people what they want and they tell you
and you go and you build it like every
now and then you have to read between
the lines because no one at the
beginning of Instagram was like I want a
photo sharing app no one in fact very
few people but when we built it they
were like oh wait no I don’t want a
photo sharing app that just does what I
know photo-sharing apps do I do want a
photo sharing app that makes my photos
look cool some of the greatest work
comes from paying or some great word
comes from some love some loss it’s like
wanting to be the best at whatever you
do never stop it to you the best like I
don’t believe in doing anything halfway
I believe in going all the way so never
[Music]
you know you you can’t change the way
you were wired much but you can change a
lot of what you do with that wiring when
you write down the qualities of that
person that you’d like to buy to ten
percent of look at that list and ask
yourself is there anything on that list
I couldn’t do the answers there aren’t
there won’t be and when you look at the
person yourself short and you look at
those qualities that you don’t like if
you see any of those in yourself you can
tell them whatever may be selfishness
you can get rid of that I mean that is
not ordained and if you follow that yeah
and Ben Franklin did this and my old
boss Ben Graham did this of early ages
and their young teens they’d just been
grant looked around and he said who do I
admire you know and he want to be
admired himself and he said you know why
do I bother these other people and he
said if I admire them for these reasons
maybe other people will admire me if I
behave in a similar manner and he and he
decided what kind of a person he wanted
to be and if you follow that at the end
you’ll be the person you want to buy 10%
off I mean that’s the goal in the end
and it’s it’s something that’s
we all go through hard times we all go
through depression we all do go through
doubt trust me everybody has a hard road
that is what makes you a person and
those difficult moments are what build
your character sometimes you just got to
get up and get done there’s some times
we have to pull yourself up and you have
to push forward even if you want to stay
it constantly seek criticism hey well a
well-thought-out critique of whatever
you’re doing is as valuable as gold and
you should seek that from everyone you
my thing is this I keep my eyes on the
prize
I never focus on things outside array my
focus is the guy that’s in front of me I
always had a dream and my dream was to
be the best no matter what happens
see we can’t control the thoughts that
come in our minds but we can control the
now why did I say that entrepreneurship
is the solution to all problems because
entrepreneurship in my view is not about
business it’s about the willingness to
anybody can be an entrepreneur in any
situation whatsoever you don’t have to
be a business owner for that you are an
entrepreneur as long as you stand up and
say I am responsible for what happens to
me and I am taking ownership of my life
and I will do what is necessary to make
I had the privilege of going to a Marine
base once and talking to Marines about
how they plan their next move there’s
this phrase called bias towards action
the idea that you can spend all of your
time thinking about what the perfect
next move is trying to plan am I gonna
work at Google am I gonna work at
Microsoft like which one McKinsey are
bein like the next perfect move and
spending a tremendous amount of time
trying to figure that out
the Marines say you can spend all the
time you want but by the time you
figured it out you’re dead
so like sometimes you need to make a
trade-off of what is the action I can
take with the appropriate amount of
information and risk to move because
moving and progress is what gets us to
the next step by moving and learning it
all adds up that summation of your
experience over the last 10 years is
what makes you into the thing tomorrow
that will be successful all the other
jobs that I had offered there were like
two or three a couple out of startup one
at Microsoft one at Google I took the
lowest salary of anyone any of the
offers that I had because I wanted to
work in a specific job at Google I
didn’t care what job it was actually I
just cared that it was at Google and I
would surround myself by amazing people
and that was the first lesson that I
learned just like go to where the people
are short term long term trade-offs just
go to where the people are of course we
look for disconfirming evidence
one of the directors said very simply we
should make a list of everything that
irritates a customer and then we should
eliminate those defects one by one and
of course that’s the way to compete in
our service business
it involves continuing fanaticism and so
forth one of the reasons we bought the
little company in Logan Utah is that we
like the service at ethos of the place
and they’re all isn’t to be the best
every day the goal isn’t out to outdo
your competition every day
that’s a finite construction finite
players play to be bet to beat the
people around them infinite players play
to be better than themselves to wake up
every single day and say how can we make
our company a better version of itself
today than it was yesterday how can we
create a product this week that’s better
than the product we created last week we
also have to play the infinite game it’s
not about being ranked number one it’s
not about having more followers on
Twitter than your friends it’s not about
outdoing anyone it’s about how to outdo
yourself it’s not about selling more
books or getting more Ted views than
somebody else it’s about how to make
sure that the work that you’re producing
is better than the work you produced
before you are your competition and that
is what ensures you stay in the game the
longest and that is what ensures you
find joy because the joy comes not from
I just didn’t spend money on myself I
just dumped all the profit back in the
business and we were buying vintage
stuff you know for years that it costs
five ten and fifteen $50 when you’re
selling it for you know one hundred two
hundred thousand I mean I bought things
for $8.00 that I’ve sold for a thousand
and that’s like that’s really good cash
flow right I didn’t know what that word
even meant you know but it was just like
it looked really good just like building
the separation of talent and skill is
one of the the the greatest
misunderstood concepts for people who
are trying to excel who have dreams that
want to do things talent you have
naturally skill is only developed by
hours and hours and hours of beating on
and I think that’s actually a really
interesting part of this for me
is and I mean being at a place like this
work we’re obviously a lot of you guys
are thinking about starting these
starting companies and you know for me
so much of the lesson that that I feel
like I’ve learned is I feel like it’s
really hard to decide to start a company
right you know Facebook I didn’t start
it to start a company I started it
because I really wanted this thing
personally and I believed that it should
exist globally although I wasn’t quite
sure that that we would be able to play
a role in doing that it was mostly just
through kind of like wanting to build it
and having it be this hobby and getting
people around me excited that it
eventually kind of evolved into and got
the momentum to become a company but I
never really understood the psychology
of deciding that you want to start a
company before you understand what you
want to do and this gets back to the
question of why did we why did we first
open it at colleges that had competitors
all right I have this big fear I think
of getting locked into doing things that
aren’t actually the most impactful
things I’m to me this is like the trait
that entrepreneurs have is they just
have this like laser-like ability to go
find where they can have the most impact
and you know when you take on a new
project especially if you hire people or
start a company you’re doing that
project and I mean there are ways
they’re obviously different ways that it
can exit and all that but I think having
the flexibility to explore a lot of
different things which you can do when
you’re in college which is one of the
amazing things about being in college is
you can work on all these hobbies and
and encode a lot of stuff and try a lot
of different things
if this amazing flexibility that I think
most people take for granted and once
you decide okay I’m gonna start a
company and I’m gonna do it with someone
else you immediately now need to
convince someone else if you want to
change your mind on something and I
think people really undervalued the
option value and flexibility I think
explore what you want to do before
committing is really like the key thing
and keep yourself flexible and no I
think that that’s yeah I agree yeah but
but I think it you can definitely do
that within the framework of a company
but I think you have to be wary about
starting a company too rigidly because
you’re gonna change what you do I mean
people talk about pivots all the time as
if it’s like it didn’t didn’t
your thing didn’t work so you pivoted
Facebook pivoted many times i’ma just
that you know we kind of work college
and then we were not college and then we
were just a website and then we were a
platform right and um you’re gonna
change what you do to the first step
before even thinking about investing
he’s getting out of debt once person
gets out of debt now you want to think
about money building money creation
right and money savings like how to save
on tags and so on and so forth and
that’s where I really like like the
focus of people is getting their beliefs
straight and then building up wealth all
right and then once they build up wealth
there’s this idea of you know let’s
invest for the future and so on and you
know what are you investing for the
future for and usually they’ll say well
retirement and that’s only gonna be like
let’s say you know for some people they
might not even reach there other people
might be like three years five years
maybe it’s gonna be ten years maybe
maybe longer something like that but why
would you leave your whole life and miss
out on all your younger years because
you want to have some money and if you
live a frugal life in your younger years
believe me when you get older what are
you gonna buy them in your home but you
just gonna go on vacation or something
like that it’d be like I think there’s
just over emphasis on the retirement
people can focus better on getting
financially independent and financially
free and enjoying their life while
they’re young and also doing good things
when they have that energy and time and
and really bring the happiness that
everybody’s looking for
but understand that naturally nobody was
interested the world cared less you have
to persuade that
you have to show that you’re the one
and so it’s not just about doing focus
groups it’s not just about you know
double-checking your vision it really is
about integrating this concept of
testing our ideas rigorously throughout
the product development process out the
and I think the reality is just you know
not quite so glamorous they’re sort of
it there’s no glee side to being an
entrepreneur and also just more
importantly with when you’re actually
spending your time on is just a lot of
hard work say I mentioned this but
you’re basically just sitting at your
desk heads down focused answering
customers some customer support emails
doing sales figuring out hard
engineering problems so it’s really
important that you kind of like going
I think too is you got to make sure that
that you that whatever you’re doing is a
great product or service and it has to
be really great and I go back to what I
was saying earlier where if you’re a new
company I mean unless it’s like some new
industry or or new market that method if
it’s an untapped market or then then you
have more ability to give is this the
standard is lower for your Park Service
but if you’re entering anything where
there’s an existing market face against
lodge and trenched competitors then your
product or service needs to be much
better than that it can’t be a little
bit better
because then you put yourself in the
shoes of a consumer and they say why
would you buy it as a consumer you
always gonna buy the trusted brand
unless there’s a big difference so a lot
of times you know entrepreneur will come
up with something which is only slightly
better and it’s it’s not you can’t just
be slightly better it’s not a good lot
if anybody ever knocks you down in life
guys or tells you you can’t do something
or you know just puts a downer on what
you’re trying to do in general don’t
don’t take don’t let these things get to
you don’t let what these people say have
any effect on you whatsoever you have
the control of your future the control
of you is all in your mind your mind and
your hands trust me if you want
something you you can go out there and
get it and and it might take a bit
longer than you first thought does it
mother if you keep going
you will get there in the end if you
want it that bad you will don’t let
anybody take control of your future
so I have like four friends that are
billionaires have one one mentor with
two mentors that are billionaires I’ve
always wanted to be a billionaire since
87 so I’m almost halfway there and I
think if you surround yourself with the
people who are at where you’re trying to
go you get there a whole lot faster you
tend to make half the mistakes you know
you’ve kind of marginalized the risk and
so it’s you know if I could give you
some really good advice you know you
don’t need to read the next book it’s
not gonna unlock you my gender because
books educate you but they don’t make
you apply anything and it you know if
you want to attend a course courses are
great to events are great because you
know you learn a lot but the application
and the execution is still up to you a
mentor on the other hand will hold you
accountable
you know he’ll make you responsible and
you challenge you to really execute on
for the stuff that you’re learning so if
ideas a dime a dozen if you can’t
execute on it it’s worth nothing you
have a brilliant idea in the world all
I’ve never really viewed myself as
ridiculous sickening work ethic you know
while the other guys sleeping I’m
working a lot of other guys eating I’m
working there’s no easy way around it no
matter how talented you are your talent
is going to fail you if you’re not
skilled you know if you don’t study if
you don’t work really hard and dedicate
yourself to being better every single
day you’ll never be able to communicate
with with people with your artistry the
let’s say you’re the leader in a
particular arena if your competitor
focused and you’re already the leader
then where does your energy come from
whereas if your customer focused and
you’re already the leader customers are
never satisfied so you always if your
customer focused you’re always waking up
how can we make that customers say wow
how can we you know our energy are
passionate we want to impress our
customers we want them to say wow it’s
that kind of divine discontent comes
from observing customers and noticing
that you know things can always be
if you don’t have a team you got to
figure out what that balances it for
yourself you can’t take on too much but
at the same time you don’t want to just
do one thing I like to spin a lot of
plates because you put all your eggs in
one basket don’t work out you’re bored
you’ve wasted all that time but the fact
of the matter is back in the day we used
to make a movie and then work on just
the movie and wait till the movie was
out and then figure out what to do next
and now you know it would lead sometimes
to like let’s say you made Jersey girl
you make the movie over the course of a
while it comes out and then boom that’s
it it’s over like in a week or two weeks
so I like to spin as many plates as
possible that way like this thing in
panning out or this thing is too far off
in the distance or this thing gonna
happen the way I wanted boom we could
shift over to something else so that’s
why I do it but when you do it be
careful you got to find the right
balance I wish there’s a formula to give
you there’s not it’s all up to you
that’s inside of you just do as much as
you can before you get to the point
to express oneself honestly not lying to
oneself and to express myself honestly
know that my friend is very hard to do
it’s not difficult to learn and speak
the word the hard thing the difficult
thing
it’s behind what is the meaning what all
on the expression and feelings behind
those word now I think the successful
ingredient in it was because I was being
loosely yourself a myself right and did
that part just express myself like I say
honestly express myself
boys you must strive to find your own
voice but the longer you wait to begin
the less likely you are to find it at
all
Thoreau said most men lead lives of
quiet desperation
if you want a thing bad enough to glide
and fight for to work day and night to
give up your time your peace and your
sleep free and if you gladly sweat for
it and fret for it and plan for it and
lose all your terror of the opposition
for it and if you simply go after that
thing that you want with all of your
capacity give me the cold poverty
families your gold sickness the pain of
body and brain and keep you away for the
thing that you want you’ll get
reflecting now back on my career like my
dedication is what made me successful
because I’ll be honest I wasn’t the most
genetically blessed guy on stage I just
had a lot of dedication and commitment
it all begins kind of with you so you
know that’s about belief you can’t
expect a bunch of people out there to
believe you are this thing unless you be
you have to be focused I think to be
successful you have to be focused you
need to go why do you want that cheese
where’s the fireworks will go whether
how many people have you met in your
life who have said things like I had
that idea I knew about that or I I was
so close but I gave up I think sometimes
the difference between success and
failure winning and losing is a very
fine line between those people who will
often I just want to ask or I want to
find out what drives people some people
are really driven by money and I don’t
think that’s a bad thing it’s just like
not usually a fit here some people are
really driven by like wanting to make
the world a better place some people are
really driven by wanting to learn like
what drives people like what gets them
up in the morning what like where does
the fire come from because like the best
people in the world just have a fire
about something not about everything but
this is my time I own my life I had to
start thinking I have the ability to do
this and I had the mindset that I’m
unstoppable
there is something in you that can
transcend your circumstances that can
transcend the nose and rejections that
can transcend anything that you’re going
most startups that fail do it ultimately
because they did not make something that
people wanted they made something that
you know that they thought people would
want but they were either in denial
about it
about you know whether it was actually
any good or somebody else came along and
made something that people wanted even
I mean if other people are putting in
40-hour work weeks and you’re putting in
100 hour work weeks then even if you’re
doing the same thing you know that you
will achieve in four months what it
when you start with a little your
company you’re gonna have a lot of
anxiety and stress and fear and your job
is to transform that into
self-confidence and to give you kind of
that you know the ability to say I have
clarity I trust myself I have a feeling
for my vision I can see that happening I
work with entrepreneurs all the time
that kind of shift from you know anxiety
to trust that’s the most important thing
but what you really need to do is think
about what is the smallest possible test
that I can run for this idea for this
concept for this theory get it out there
and get customers using it because your
customers are going to be the ones to
what this all comes down to is doing
something exceptional for your users
whether it’s in community whether it’s
in connection or whether it’s in design
this is our big advantage is that we can
actually get away with doing it we can
make this the core part of why we’re
about this two sides of pain that I
don’t think a lot of people really
understand right there’s there’s one
side of pain that’s the suffering and
the discomfort side of thing because
that hurts you remember what that felt
like
but being there’s another side of pain
let’s go effort
it’s called glory it’s called if you can
find a way to push through pain there’s
something great on the other side of it
I do believe that organizations human
organizations are inherently unstable
they will fall over and you have to work
to keep them apart
but they fall slowly most people don’t
notice it they let their success blind
them they don’t see if falling over the
following takes place but the collapse
is quick you have to do constant
assessment you have to look for the hard
we are generally a little bit forward
leaning when it comes to trying to make
progress happen for me it’s about
problem-solving and loving to solve
problems and so if you are passionate
about solving problems I in some
sometimes I just like to describe this
as like imagine a really great math
professor
with no problems to solve right the
great a great math professor somebody
who who wants the hardest problems who
wants to solve them and love solving
them that’s kind of how I feel about my
work and so it’s not about a man in a
hurry it’s more about really interesting
problems in the world and how you lean
into them and solve things that people
maybe thought weren’t even possible to
I always want to better myself I don’t
consider myself I don’t sorry I don’t
consider other designers competition you
know for me my competition is me from
the season before I’m very ambitious I
always want to better myself I never sit
[Music]
I knew that I wanted to change my life I
knew that I didn’t want to go down the
path that I was going down because I got
I think that success in business is a
very difficult thing to achieve and it’s
more difficult today probably than any
other time despite the vast number of
opportunities and as it relates to
finding your calling in terms of what
the opportunity or the entrepreneurial
adventure is going to be it has to be
linked to something that you are so
passionate and crazed about that you’re
willing to knock down walls and climb
mountains and do the things that are
going to put yourself in a position of
sacrificing so many other things for its
success and you can only do that when
there’s a compelling underlying feeling
that you have that this is something I’m
gonna fight to the death field and
without that I think it’s gonna be a
commodity based experience not only for
the customer but for you and I think you
can’t really succeed at the levels that
you want to unless you find that thing
that you’re so passionate excited and in
love with and I think because you’ve got
it along the way you’re gonna have to
convince so many other people to believe
in you
and the idea and the opportunity and the
struggle and the obstacles that are
going to come can over only be overcome
by this passion that you have in which
you’re going to be able to get people to
follow you over though over those
hurdles I know it sounds a little bit
first of all I’d say starting a business
is not for everyone yeah
so generally starting a business I’d say
number one is have a high pain threshold
so the friend of mine who’s got a good
saying which is that signing a company
is like eating glass to staring into the
abyss
okay that’s best generally what happens
because when you first start a company
there’s lots of optimism and things of
things are great and then so happiness
at first is high then you encounter all
sorts of issues and happiness will
steadily decline and then you’ll go
through a whole world of hurt and then
eventually you’ll if you succeed and in
most cases you will not succeed
and Tesla almost didn’t succeed came
very close to failure then if you
succeed then after a long time you will finally get back to happiness
me to anybody else out there interested
in starting a business is please find
something you’re passionate about
because it’s so much work it’s so much
time it’s so much effort but if the
subject matter is something that you you
genuinely love to be involved with it’s
it’s not gonna be that big of a drag and
it’s not gonna be that much work it’s
gonna be incredibly exciting and
rewarding because to your point you’ll
feel like you’re living your the life
that you’re meant to live a company is
simply a group of people and as a leader
of people you have to be a great
listener you have to be a great
motivator
you have to be very good at praising and
looking for the best in people you know
people are no different than flowers if
you water flowers they flourish if you
praise people they flourish and and
your actions you should always feel in
life in your jobs your actions are
somehow have a good purpose behind them
they better the world in some way don’t
ever do something just because it’s an
assignment you better believe that it’s
there is some end of end goal that is
good for the world almost every new
invention and computer and all came
about from those ideals I mean I really
want to help the world communicate so
much you know other people inspired me
into a revolution I want to be a part of
changing things want to be a part of
better education what the apart of the
young person having so much mastery over
technology and be able to do things they
never could before
those were the goods that were pushing
me it was almost all without those goods
I wanted me to design the computer if
you’re gonna start your own thing you
know maybe you have a grand grand vision
of like all the different features its
gonna have and all the different you
know revenue lines you’re gonna do and
you know keep keep that vision but do
one piece of that first and do it really
really really well it’s so much better
to do a few things well then many things
you can’t you can’t fulfill your full
passion whether it’s through music or
art or dance if you’ve lost sight of the
things that make you a real person and I
had to like refine myself almost like
wow what is it that makes me me and once
I refined that it’s like everything else
came together again I was able to write
again I was able to create but without
those things then you lose sight of
everything the definition of values is
there the behaviors or principles that
you religiously adhere to within your
company
when I say religious I mean that no
amount of data will sway you and from
from those principles and the degree to
which that you have the courage to
maintain your conviction around those
ideas is the degree to which you’re
going to be successful over the long
so many things go wrong when you’re
starting a company and often I think
people ask you know what mistakes should
you avoid making and you know my answer
the question is don’t even bother trying
to avoid mistakes because you’re going
to make tons of mistakes alright and the
the important thing is actually learning
quickly from whatever mistakes you make
and not giving up right and I mean there
are things every single year of
Facebook’s existence that could have
killed us or made it so that it just
seemed like moving forward and making a
lot of progress just seemed intractable
but you just want to bounce back and you
learned and nothing is impossible you
just have to kind of keep running
through the walls
basically the theory is we’re all born
thinking like entrepreneurs you know
like when we crawl and we start and we
fall you know we’re trying to walk we
figure it out entrepreneurs always
figure out you’re born thinking like an
entrepreneur that you know what I’m
gonna figure this out regardless and I’m
gonna keep going now often the challenge
is families and friends convince you not
to be an entrepreneur because when you
say I’m gonna change the world moving
the most famous person I’m gonna save
the seals they say don’t do that you it
didn’t happen before it’s never happened
you’re gonna you’re gonna you’re gonna
fail you can embarrass us and put the
limiters on it they put the limiters
they put the blinders on you but true
entrepreneurs will just keep figuring it
out if you’ve got a movie fan you’ve got
a movie maker like there’s I’ve never
met a filmmaker that wasn’t a movie buff
first I don’t care who it is whether
it’s like me or great directors like
Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino they’re
hardcore movie fans who still imbibe so
I don’t think it’s possible to be a
filmmaker unless you’re a film fan so I
always encourage everyone in those q and
A’s where I’m like if you’re here
listening to me talk about this stuff
you are not a film fan your filmmaker
you just haven’t made a film yet go out
and make your film because who knows
better how to do this stuff than the
pretty people that consume it on a
we’re not different I was you i sat
there watching other people’s stuff and
I just got to a place where I was like
why then why not me
like if this counts as a movie why can’t
I make a movie and stuff which is funny
because that’s what my movies make
people do that like you know Gosar’s
counts I’m making a movie and that’s
that’s a good call to arms on I’m not
even insulted by that I’m like good
whatever makes you step forward and try
your self expression it’s the only
reason anyone knows my name or my work
and I’ve been doing this for 22 years I
haven’t had to get a real job is because
it started with the first step have gone
like why can’t I do that you know like I
see people do it and that’s interesting
and I like their stories but never saw
my world represented up on the screen
and that’s where I looked for myself I
never found myself in a classroom never
found myself in the church man closest
moments I’ve ever had to finding out who
I am
they’ve been in the art sitting in a
movie theater watching a movie man it’s
the dark hair you see yourself reflected
in a weird way in reading and listening
to music watching TV these were the
closest moments where I was like oh I
think this is who I am stiffly good so
the people I talked to you thought I was
crazy and like it’s very possible in an
alternate universe I might have been
wrong but just the fact that people were
taking more photos and that each and
every person had a camera in their
pocket meant that there was no way that
there was gonna be something around
photos that would happen in in the
valley and people starting companies
around it the question would be can you
compete against the big guys and we were
just unique enough and we positioned
herself in such a way that we were
differentiated and people wanted to use
it and not just like kind of started the
and you know what everybody wants to
hear what they already believe to be
true and so the last thing they want to
hear is an original idea that
contradicts their belief system so it’s
very hard to even bring that kind of
stuff up but those are the things those
are the only things things that you
believe
that everybody around you doesn’t
believe when you’re right that create
real value in the world everything else
people already know there’s no value
created it’s just business as usual
so it’s so important to think for
don’t solicit feedback on your product
your idea or their business just for
validation purposes be really careful
about that you want to tell the people
that can help move your idea forward but
if you’re just looking to your friend
co-worker husband wife for validation be
careful because out of love and concern
a lot of people will express some
concerns and it can stop a lot of
multi-million dollar ideas right in
their tracks in the beginning and if
you’re really trying to achieve
something then so to say hey here’s my
vision and I’d like to say be obstinate
about your vision but be really flexible
about your tactics what does that mean
it’s sort of like think big act small
what that means is it’s important to
have a vision of where you’re trying to
go how you get there is a series of
experiments now you can call them if
aliens when they don’t work but they’re
learning experiments where you try
but I think that’s what people always
have to ask themselves do you believe in
the concept of what you’re doing do you
believe that there’s really they’re
there because I can figure out the right
you know product package or the right
way to reach users if you believe that
then you don’t keep keep scrapping
you’re all our limitations are those
which you set up in your own mind or
permit others to set up for you but it’s
things like knowing who you are inside
who you are and believe it in that
person and remember the through life and
say them today it’s a good person I am
and I have some fifty on this and a good
hand on my shoulders and I don’t want to
be corrupted by the successes I’m gonna
have in life and in business I don’t
want to be corrupted and go in different
ways if I make a lot of money I still
want to be that good you’re human who
thinks well like I said don’t don’t set
yourself up for those frowns you know
and you don’t always have to win every
single argument you can think your way
and believe your thoughts are good in
your own brain and somebody else doesn’t
agree with you it’s okay they just think
a different way there’s no need to look
at the world of oh we’ve all got to be
in competition it’s my way everyone has
to be just like me or they’re no good
they have to use my computer then to go
to my school they have to be my country
you know they have to do things my way
that’s not the way the things be very
open to a lot of different people have
differences and we can all still see
each other as good and we get along a
lot better and have a lot more peace
what we really want to do is raise our
level of awareness so the expectation
becomes a natural state for our mind to
be in and we’ve already mentioned that
expectation is a mindset it’s a mental
state and you’re going to find that that
state comes to you with an increase of
awareness
I never give up and never give up I go
my own way risk my life so this way I
always tell that the people not because
one one things fall down you just give
up never give up never give up one day
I think it’s really to be true to
yourself and listen as much as one is
able to other people whose opinions you
respect and look up to but in the end it
has to come from from you and you you
can’t really worry too much by looking
to the left or the right about what the
competition might be doing or other
people in your field might be doing it
and there are a lot of people from whom
we can learn a lot and I think like you
know the one piece of advice is like
don’t underestimate anyone you come
across a friend like whether they’re you
know a blue collar worker waiting for
the bus or they’re you know helping you
at your they’re the server a bartender
at the restaurant or they’re a
lower-ranking employee I mean the
smartest leaders I’ve ever seen have
always gone around the room and asked
for everybody’s opinion and oftentimes
the best methodology is to start with
the perfect experience with just one
person get that right and then forget
how to scale something great instead of
scaling something not so great and then
trying to improve it that’s really hard
you’re really trying to solve a new
problem in a different way you have to
come to problems with beginner’s mind
right not knowing something can be a
very powerful tool in to accomplishing
it because you don’t know that it’s not
possible that’s what doing a startup is
not realizing that something is
we get to create any company we want
right we get to create the reason for
its existence we get to create the rules
of the game and who we hire and how we
hire them and who can stay and who can’t
stay all right it’s beautiful and so I
just would encourage everyone that as we
all contemplate life to try to question
the assumptions that we live by and the
default options are given to us and
expand our thinking to wonder what we
but your job is to make sure that you
stay as agile as possible so that you
can find what will be your company as
you grow and it comes down to the fact
you need to iterate as quickly as
a lot of people don’t want to try things
that might not work you know what I’m
saying everyone wants to try the short
thing and there is no such thing as the
short thing and if you’re looking at
somebody else’s work to try to gauge
your own as I have for years you will
constantly feel like a failure instead
concentrate on telling your story like
this is the thing I’m real big on your
voice is your only currency that’s all
you got
the things you see and perceive the
prison through which you process all the
information that you take in a city the
most unique supercomputer on the planet
unique from everybody else that
perspective is valuable insanely
valuable there’s nobody else could give
it but you and that’s why it’s always
better to shoot weird or shoot different
or shoot original as opposed to shoot
what works like or go for a successful
model or as I’ve tried to do try to be
John Hughes or something like that
you’ll never succeed that way if you try
using your own boys you try expressing
your own thoughts that nobody else can
do that’s your best shot at success
because that’s the thing that you bring
to the table then nobody else could
bring and if your timing is fantastic
you say the right thing at the right
time you could have a career so when you
get into this business they tend to like
tell you to shape it up and like take
off the edges and make it look like this
hey that work do that but always shoot
a wealth a well-thought-out critique of
whatever you’re doing is as valuable as
gold and you should seek that from
everyone you can but particularly your
friends performing under pressure
whether it’s me or anybody else is the
same
you know I have the same pressures as
anyone else there’s time there’s
performance there’s financial I mean
there you know there’s deadlines my
pressures are not unique the situations
may be different or you know but but
everybody has the same kinds of
pressures but what I found or what I
find fascinating is the interpretation
of the stimuli if let me let me explain
so I was watching the Olympics this last
Summer Olympics and I was amazed at how
bad the questions were that the
reporters would ask all the athletes and
almost always they asked the same
question whether they were about to
compete or after they competed were you
nervous right and to a tee all the
athletes went no right and what I
realized is it’s not that they’re not
nervous it’s their interpretation of
what’s happening in their bodies I mean
what it what happens when you’re nervous
right your heart rate starts to go
you’re you know you sort of get a little
tense you get a little sweaty right you
have expectation of what’s coming and we
interpreted that is I’m nervous now
what’s the interpretation of excited
your heart rate starts to go you become
you’re anticipating what’s coming right
you get a little sort of like tense it’s
all the same thing it’s the same stimuli
except these athletes these these
Olympic quality athletes have learned to
interpret the stimuli that the rest of
us would say as nervous as excited they
all said the same thing no I’m not
nervous I’m excited and so I’ve actually
practiced it just to tell myself when I
start to get nervous that this is
excitement you know and so where when
you used to be speaking for the large
audience and somebody’d say how do you
feel I say
nervous now when somebody says how do
you feel like really excited actually
and it it came from just sort of telling
myself no no this is excitement and it
becomes a little bit automatic later on
but it’s kind of a remarkable thing to
deal with pressure by interpreting what
your body is experiencing as excitement
rather than nerves and it’s really kind
of effective it makes you want to rush
for is rather than pull back and yet
the hardest thing to do is start you
have all these ideas and everyone has an
idea but it’s really about executing the
idea and building the idea and
attracting other people to help you work
on the idea that is the biggest
challenge but the way to begin is to get
the idea out of your head draw it out
you know talk about it program it if
you’re a programmer or make it if you’re
building something you are going to
encourage and turn a lot of
disappointment a lot of failure a lot of
pain a lot of setbacks a lot of defeats
but in the process of doing that you
will discover some things about yourself
that you don’t know right now what you
will realize is that you have greatness
within you what you’ll realize is that
you’re more powerful than you can ever
begin to imagine what you will realize
is that you’re greater than your
circumstances that you don’t have to go
through life being a victim
the road to success is through
commitment and through the strength to
drive through that commitment when it
gets hard and it is going to get hard
and you’re gonna want to quit sometimes
but it’ll be colored by who you are and
it’s not about having more followers on
Twitter than your friends it’s not about
outdoing anyone it’s about how to outdo
yourself it’s not about selling more
books or getting more TED views than
somebody else it’s about how to make
sure that the work that you’re producing
is better than the work you produced
before you are your competition and that
is what ensures you stay in the game the
longest and that is what ensures you
find joy because the joy comes not from
now when I decided to leave the gym and
go independent this was already a goal
of mine I read out I’ve written out all
of my goals writing goals are very
important it was very important
I wrote my goals out and I think we
would like 10 of them and then a year
later maybe two years later I went back
to that book and I swear to everything
I’ve written now I hate it without even
thinking about it something powerful
we’re not gonna always make the right
steps and sometimes you have to back up
and try again and if you’re in a
position where you can’t back up and try
again you’ve trapped yourself and the
system will set out honey pots for
people to get trapped in the system will
set out the ideas of retirement the
ideas of the golden years providing you
benefits providing you a healthy work
environment why well because they want
people to work for them they don’t want
people to realize their own dreams and
escape those pain the ass you gotta hire
more people and train them and they want
to set it up so that you stick around
stick around some sort of an
unsatisfying world it’s up to you to see
that video game problem to see that
issue as it comes up on the map and
known I think this is a right turn to
see all the problems that could
potentially lay in front of you and
calculate your your future and then also
look around all the people that didn’t
do it and look at the misery that
they’re in and learn that you don’t want
to be like them and then look at the
people that have kind of taken chances
and navigated their way what do they do
differently than you
what would objectivity do they have that
maybe you lack what insight into their
own mistakes are they willing to delve
into that you’re not that you step back
and go you know I don’t just don’t I
just don’t want to look at myself that
closely but the person who’s able to
look at themselves the closest it’s
gonna get the more rational results
[Music]
you already know who you are and that
piece that piece that we’re after lies
somewhere beyond personality your need
for acceptance can make you invisible in
this world don’t let anything stand in
the way of the light that shines through
this form risk being seen in all of your
[Music]
and it’s okay it’s okay to have a sense
of self-awareness and identity but it’s
not okay to have an ego because what an
ego does is the ego is a funny it’s a
funny
it’s a funny entity within the human
brain it is on your side when you are
doing great but have you ever noticed
when you when you think you’ve failed
it’s the ego in your mind that tells you
it’s so bad everyone’s looking at you
you start to sweat across your forehead
and you’re like oh my god I can’t
believe this is happening the whole
entire world is watching and none of it
is true when you’re doing great you
shouldn’t listen to that voice when
you’re not doing as great you should
have listened to that voice because it’s
not good when you’re doing great it’s
gonna get you hooked on that feeling so
that when you come down and you because
we our life is a rollercoaster there’s
valleys and peaks when you hit that
valley if you can’t deal then you won’t
I feel guilty at 10 to 5 if I’m not in
the office I know that might sound
strange to you but that’s a it’s there’s
a work ethic that I have to be half-dead
when you give somebody your word your
word is so important once I gave her my
word I had to come you were not I’ve got
the million other things I got to do is
say well I gave up my word and that’s
gonna go a long way with you in business
once you give somebody your word it’s
good to get it and write everything that
you need to get done but when you give
somebody your word you got to stand by
because when you start standing by your
word you’ll be able to build more
if you don’t you’re not done to the
passion and love and your student for
money it’s dumb the emotional outcomes
will be disastrous
that’s for my expense this is really
well know so I know has to be able just
for pure passion and the love for what
the separation of talent and skill is
one of the the the greatest
misunderstood concepts for people who
are trying to excel who have dreams that
want to do things talent you have
naturally skill is only developed by
hours and hours and hours of beating on
your craft there’s no easy way around it
no matter how talented you are your
talent is going to fail you if you’re
not skilled you know if you don’t study
if you don’t work really hard and
dedicate yourself to being better every
single day you’ll never be able to
a bunch of people that will say yeah
well I’ve a family so you know it’s a
great idea for you to just go out there
and go crazy you have people to support
you need to listen stop saying that
stop saying any of those things every
single person who has ever done anything
worthwhile or exceptional or difficult
or extraordinary anyone whether it’s
great artists or authors or
mathematicians or whatever the it is
everyone encounters difficulties there
is no easy road it does not exist it is
impossible
everyone has issues if you have time to
pursue a hobby if you have time to do
anything in your life you can better
yourself and here’s one way you never
better yourself when you come up with
excuses for why other people are
successful you’re not that’s it’s
dangerous when you give yourself an
escape yeah well that’s easy for you to
say you know you do dude you need to
trust me
everybody has a hard road I wanted to
jump out a window several times during
my young life I wanted to jump in front
of a train just end it because too much
pressure not really but you know I’m
saying theoretically we all go through
hard times we all go through depression
we all do go through doubt and then
moments in your life where it’s relief
it difficult and you’re trying to figure
out what the your path is gonna be it’s
hardest but Stefan and I we’re talking
about this before the podcast starts
that hay is what makes you a person and
those difficult moments are what build
your care
show me a great man who’s the son of a
it’s it’s very easy to be seduced by
doing things efficiently trying to do a
lot of things well I don’t believe
that’s the most important thing the most
important thing is picking the right
things to do in the first place and
that’s being effective versus just being
efficient so within a start-up its
success I don’t think it’s measured by
how many things you can do at once it’s
measured by how effectively you’re able
to pick the one or two things into the
highest priority and there’s always
going to be a seduction to get
distracted and focus on 20 things at
once and the most effective
entrepreneurs I know are very good at
focusing on one or two things and either
eliminating the rest of delegating to
other people or outsourcing and so it’s
not done within the team but it’s
one of the things that I do do before I
go to bed at night is that make a quick
list of the things that I know I have to
deal with the next day and I try to get
those knocked out before noon because
from noon on it’s kind of like the wild
wild west I don’t know what’s gonna
happen I don’t know what new issues
gonna come up and so you want to really
be smart about your time to knock out
the things that you have – who do I have
to talk to what do I have to review what
do I have to do with a bank or an
employee or one of the businesses you
want to get out what I would call the
housekeeping you get the housekeeping
done in the morning and then you get to
kind of go farm the fields for the rest
of the day and part of the challenge or
part of the challenge for me at least is
that that lines get very blurry of when
the day actually shuts off and that can
present a real challenge to you know
your personal life and your friends and
in kind of that balance so it’s it’s
hard but the first part of my day is the
and on this particular day when we got
to the end of the run there were some
free bagels and they had picnic tables
set up and on one side was a group of
volunteers on the table were boxes of
bagels and on the other side was a long
line of runners waiting to get their
free bagel so I said to my friend let’s
let’s get a bagel and he looked at me
and said that lines too long and I said
free bagel and he said I don’t want to
wait in line and I was like free bagel
and he says nah that’s it’s too long and
that’s when I realized that there’s two
ways to see the world some people see
the thing that they want and some people
see the thing that prevents them from
getting the thing that they want I could
only see the bagels he could only see
the line and so I walked up to the line
I leaned in between two people put my
hand in the box and pulled out two
bagels and no one got mad at me because
the rule is you can go after whatever
you want
you just cannot deny anyone else to go
after whatever they want
now I had to sacrifice choice I didn’t
get to choose which bagel I got I got
whatever I pulled out but I didn’t have
to wait in line
so the point is is you don’t have to
wait in line you don’t have to do it the
way everybody else has done it you can
do it your way you can break the rules
you just can’t get in the way of
the other thing is is that you get to
work your butt off if you think that
you’re gonna go and accomplish something
really special and be the best in
anything in the world if you think you
can do it without working you make a big
mistake because no matter what I did if
it was a bodybuilding or an acting or if
it is in the political arena it always
took a lot a lot of work and you gotta
put out and you got the you know
something to make a lot of sacrifices
notice if you’re not willing to work
hard forget about it so this is another
when you wake up in the morning and your
life means something to somebody other
than you that you have a purpose if you
don’t go do the things that you’re going
to do people’s lives will suffer and I
think that that kind of purpose that
like to live in service not to you but
to live in service to humanity to live
in service to your family to live in
service to your church to your city to
your country to the world living in
service is that I feel like that is the
sometimes your life will be in a slump
just like sports some of the best
shooters can’t hit baskets different
times and games they get in a slump do
they sit on the sidelines and say you
know I just didn’t hit a basket today
no they continue to execute I suggest to
you that if you are facing a challenge
don’t stop
stay busy work your plan continue to do
those things that you know that work for
you after you have evaluated yourself in
the situation
continue to move stay busy stay busy
just have to have a total and complete
passion because there’s gonna be so many
dark moments you know I think the dark
moments are true for any entrepreneur or
any startup company I’m sure that you
talk to Steve Jobs and Apple you’d see
many many dark dark moments ours
happened to last a little longer than
most of them but he really emotionally
have to be prepared for those dark
moments I think every entrepreneur I’ve
ever spoken to which would echo that
yeah everything’s on the line that’s the
life of an entrepreneur and so you’re
gonna be into it you better be prepared
you know you have two choices in life
basically it’s it’s basically to succeed
or to fail you know I’m saying and I’ve
been the negative Road and I’ve been the
positive Road and I would never give up
the positive road never I would never
even if you know I’m saying if I was the
I only invest in things that I
understand and things that I use or
would use myself this is really really
really important
anytime I step outside of that is
usually when the universe kicks me in
the nuts really are and I lose my money
I think it’s it’s critical to as an
entrepreneur scratch your own itch it
increases the odds of success or the
probability of success and then it’s as
an investor I look for people who are
passion is not an actionable word it’s
correct you know that those who do the
things that they’re passionate about do
better but it’s not helpful advice and
so the question is where does passion
come from passion is a result passion as
an energy passion is the feeling you
have when you’re engaged in something
that you love passion is the feeling you
have that you would probably do this for
free you know and you can’t believe
somebody pays you to do it you know and
I think we mistake that passion is
something we do in our private lives but
it shouldn’t be done you know in our
careers for example and I’m a firm
believer that you are who you are and
anybody who says I’m different at home
than I am at work and one of those two
places you’re lying and the goal is to
make everything you do in home and it
works something that you have excitement
to do so how do you find the things that
you’re excited to do well it’s actually
easier than you think what are the
things that you love to do what are the
everywhere everyone likes to talk about
failures you know but the main thing is
you might have a lot of little small
steps every one of those steps seemed to
not take you anywhere in money it didn’t
get you much more money it didn’t get
any money but you know you’re kind of
proud you show them off to friends even
your mind was increasing your methods of
coming up with better solutions was
increasing you not only have to now read
a book on how things are done you can
write the book and that’s called
creativity you create new things
success was the progressive realisation
of a worthy ideal anyone that has a goal
and they’re moving towards that they’re
successful and so you want to begin to
take some chances you want to begin to
challenge yourself and make it okay to
fail and learn from your failures I wake
up to have a chance to meet new people
and learn things it’s a people game
right like the people you surround
yourself with over time or the people
that kind of influence what you end up
doing further on and I just I saw so
many people starting companies that I
was like seems like a lot of fun I want
anybody can do this crap I’ve spent 20
years trying to tell people like pick up
a camera it doesn’t take much sometimes
you just need somebody to be like it’s
this simple dude and give you three
steps and suddenly you’re like that’s it
I can take it the rest of the way
getting started is always the hardest
part
yeah the best business models in the
world are the ones where you like ask
people what they want and they tell you
and you go and you build it like every
now and then you have to read between
the lines because no one at the
beginning of Instagram was like I want a
photo sharing app no one in fact very
few people but when we built it they
were like oh wait no I don’t want a
photo sharing app that just does what I
know photo-sharing apps do I do want a
photo sharing app that makes my photos
look cool some of the greatest work
comes from paying or some great word
comes from some love some loss it’s like
wanting to be the best at whatever you
do never stop it to you the best like I
don’t believe in doing anything halfway
I believe in going all the way so never
[Music]
you know you you can’t change the way
you were wired much but you can change a
lot of what you do with that wiring when
you write down the qualities of that
person that you’d like to buy to ten
percent of look at that list and ask
yourself is there anything on that list
I couldn’t do the answers there aren’t
there won’t be and when you look at the
person yourself short and you look at
those qualities that you don’t like if
you see any of those in yourself you can
tell them whatever may be selfishness
you can get rid of that I mean that is
not ordained and if you follow that yeah
and Ben Franklin did this and my old
boss Ben Graham did this of early ages
and their young teens they’d just been
grant looked around and he said who do I
admire you know and he want to be
admired himself and he said you know why
do I bother these other people and he
said if I admire them for these reasons
maybe other people will admire me if I
behave in a similar manner and he and he
decided what kind of a person he wanted
to be and if you follow that at the end
you’ll be the person you want to buy 10%
off I mean that’s the goal in the end
and it’s it’s something that’s
we all go through hard times we all go
through depression we all do go through
doubt trust me everybody has a hard road
that is what makes you a person and
those difficult moments are what build
your character sometimes you just got to
get up and get done there’s some times
we have to pull yourself up and you have
to push forward even if you want to stay
it constantly seek criticism hey well a
well-thought-out critique of whatever
you’re doing is as valuable as gold and
you should seek that from everyone you
my thing is this I keep my eyes on the
prize
I never focus on things outside array my
focus is the guy that’s in front of me I
always had a dream and my dream was to
be the best no matter what happens
see we can’t control the thoughts that
come in our minds but we can control the
now why did I say that entrepreneurship
is the solution to all problems because
entrepreneurship in my view is not about
business it’s about the willingness to
anybody can be an entrepreneur in any
situation whatsoever you don’t have to
be a business owner for that you are an
entrepreneur as long as you stand up and
say I am responsible for what happens to
me and I am taking ownership of my life
and I will do what is necessary to make
I had the privilege of going to a Marine
base once and talking to Marines about
how they plan their next move there’s
this phrase called bias towards action
the idea that you can spend all of your
time thinking about what the perfect
next move is trying to plan am I gonna
work at Google am I gonna work at
Microsoft like which one McKinsey are
bein like the next perfect move and
spending a tremendous amount of time
trying to figure that out
the Marines say you can spend all the
time you want but by the time you
figured it out you’re dead
so like sometimes you need to make a
trade-off of what is the action I can
take with the appropriate amount of
information and risk to move because
moving and progress is what gets us to
the next step by moving and learning it
all adds up that summation of your
experience over the last 10 years is
what makes you into the thing tomorrow
that will be successful all the other
jobs that I had offered there were like
two or three a couple out of startup one
at Microsoft one at Google I took the
lowest salary of anyone any of the
offers that I had because I wanted to
work in a specific job at Google I
didn’t care what job it was actually I
just cared that it was at Google and I
would surround myself by amazing people
and that was the first lesson that I
learned just like go to where the people
are short term long term trade-offs just
go to where the people are of course we
look for disconfirming evidence
one of the directors said very simply we
should make a list of everything that
irritates a customer and then we should
eliminate those defects one by one and
of course that’s the way to compete in
our service business
it involves continuing fanaticism and so
forth one of the reasons we bought the
little company in Logan Utah is that we
like the service at ethos of the place
and they’re all isn’t to be the best
every day the goal isn’t out to outdo
your competition every day
that’s a finite construction finite
players play to be bet to beat the
people around them infinite players play
to be better than themselves to wake up
every single day and say how can we make
our company a better version of itself
today than it was yesterday how can we
create a product this week that’s better
than the product we created last week we
also have to play the infinite game it’s
not about being ranked number one it’s
not about having more followers on
Twitter than your friends it’s not about
outdoing anyone it’s about how to outdo
yourself it’s not about selling more
books or getting more Ted views than
somebody else it’s about how to make
sure that the work that you’re producing
is better than the work you produced
before you are your competition and that
is what ensures you stay in the game the
longest and that is what ensures you
find joy because the joy comes not from
I just didn’t spend money on myself I
just dumped all the profit back in the
business and we were buying vintage
stuff you know for years that it costs
five ten and fifteen $50 when you’re
selling it for you know one hundred two
hundred thousand I mean I bought things
for $8.00 that I’ve sold for a thousand
and that’s like that’s really good cash
flow right I didn’t know what that word
even meant you know but it was just like
it looked really good just like building
the separation of talent and skill is
one of the the the greatest
misunderstood concepts for people who
are trying to excel who have dreams that
want to do things talent you have
naturally skill is only developed by
hours and hours and hours of beating on
and I think that’s actually a really
interesting part of this for me
is and I mean being at a place like this
work we’re obviously a lot of you guys
are thinking about starting these
starting companies and you know for me
so much of the lesson that that I feel
like I’ve learned is I feel like it’s
really hard to decide to start a company
right you know Facebook I didn’t start
it to start a company I started it
because I really wanted this thing
personally and I believed that it should
exist globally although I wasn’t quite
sure that that we would be able to play
a role in doing that it was mostly just
through kind of like wanting to build it
and having it be this hobby and getting
people around me excited that it
eventually kind of evolved into and got
the momentum to become a company but I
never really understood the psychology
of deciding that you want to start a
company before you understand what you
want to do and this gets back to the
question of why did we why did we first
open it at colleges that had competitors
all right I have this big fear I think
of getting locked into doing things that
aren’t actually the most impactful
things I’m to me this is like the trait
that entrepreneurs have is they just
have this like laser-like ability to go
find where they can have the most impact
and you know when you take on a new
project especially if you hire people or
start a company you’re doing that
project and I mean there are ways
they’re obviously different ways that it
can exit and all that but I think having
the flexibility to explore a lot of
different things which you can do when
you’re in college which is one of the
amazing things about being in college is
you can work on all these hobbies and
and encode a lot of stuff and try a lot
of different things
if this amazing flexibility that I think
most people take for granted and once
you decide okay I’m gonna start a
company and I’m gonna do it with someone
else you immediately now need to
convince someone else if you want to
change your mind on something and I
think people really undervalued the
option value and flexibility I think
explore what you want to do before
committing is really like the key thing
and keep yourself flexible and no I
think that that’s yeah I agree yeah but
but I think it you can definitely do
that within the framework of a company
but I think you have to be wary about
starting a company too rigidly because
you’re gonna change what you do I mean
people talk about pivots all the time as
if it’s like it didn’t didn’t
your thing didn’t work so you pivoted
Facebook pivoted many times i’ma just
that you know we kind of work college
and then we were not college and then we
were just a website and then we were a
platform right and um you’re gonna
change what you do to the first step
before even thinking about investing
he’s getting out of debt once person
gets out of debt now you want to think
about money building money creation
right and money savings like how to save
on tags and so on and so forth and
that’s where I really like like the
focus of people is getting their beliefs
straight and then building up wealth all
right and then once they build up wealth
there’s this idea of you know let’s
invest for the future and so on and you
know what are you investing for the
future for and usually they’ll say well
retirement and that’s only gonna be like
let’s say you know for some people they
might not even reach there other people
might be like three years five years
maybe it’s gonna be ten years maybe
maybe longer something like that but why
would you leave your whole life and miss
out on all your younger years because
you want to have some money and if you
live a frugal life in your younger years
believe me when you get older what are
you gonna buy them in your home but you
just gonna go on vacation or something
like that it’d be like I think there’s
just over emphasis on the retirement
people can focus better on getting
financially independent and financially
free and enjoying their life while
they’re young and also doing good things
when they have that energy and time and
and really bring the happiness that
everybody’s looking for
but understand that naturally nobody was
interested the world cared less you have
to persuade that
you have to show that you’re the one
and so it’s not just about doing focus
groups it’s not just about you know
double-checking your vision it really is
about integrating this concept of
testing our ideas rigorously throughout
the product development process out the
and I think the reality is just you know
not quite so glamorous they’re sort of
it there’s no glee side to being an
entrepreneur and also just more
importantly with when you’re actually
spending your time on is just a lot of
hard work say I mentioned this but
you’re basically just sitting at your
desk heads down focused answering
customers some customer support emails
doing sales figuring out hard
engineering problems so it’s really
important that you kind of like going
I think too is you got to make sure that
that you that whatever you’re doing is a
great product or service and it has to
be really great and I go back to what I
was saying earlier where if you’re a new
company I mean unless it’s like some new
industry or or new market that method if
it’s an untapped market or then then you
have more ability to give is this the
standard is lower for your Park Service
but if you’re entering anything where
there’s an existing market face against
lodge and trenched competitors then your
product or service needs to be much
better than that it can’t be a little
bit better
because then you put yourself in the
shoes of a consumer and they say why
would you buy it as a consumer you
always gonna buy the trusted brand
unless there’s a big difference so a lot
of times you know entrepreneur will come
up with something which is only slightly
better and it’s it’s not you can’t just
be slightly better it’s not a good lot
if anybody ever knocks you down in life
guys or tells you you can’t do something
or you know just puts a downer on what
you’re trying to do in general don’t
don’t take don’t let these things get to
you don’t let what these people say have
any effect on you whatsoever you have
the control of your future the control
of you is all in your mind your mind and
your hands trust me if you want
something you you can go out there and
get it and and it might take a bit
longer than you first thought does it
mother if you keep going
you will get there in the end if you
want it that bad you will don’t let
anybody take control of your future
so I have like four friends that are
billionaires have one one mentor with
two mentors that are billionaires I’ve
always wanted to be a billionaire since
87 so I’m almost halfway there and I
think if you surround yourself with the
people who are at where you’re trying to
go you get there a whole lot faster you
tend to make half the mistakes you know
you’ve kind of marginalized the risk and
so it’s you know if I could give you
some really good advice you know you
don’t need to read the next book it’s
not gonna unlock you my gender because
books educate you but they don’t make
you apply anything and it you know if
you want to attend a course courses are
great to events are great because you
know you learn a lot but the application
and the execution is still up to you a
mentor on the other hand will hold you
accountable
you know he’ll make you responsible and
you challenge you to really execute on
for the stuff that you’re learning so if
ideas a dime a dozen if you can’t
execute on it it’s worth nothing you
have a brilliant idea in the world all
I’ve never really viewed myself as
ridiculous sickening work ethic you know
while the other guys sleeping I’m
working a lot of other guys eating I’m
working there’s no easy way around it no
matter how talented you are your talent
is going to fail you if you’re not
skilled you know if you don’t study if
you don’t work really hard and dedicate
yourself to being better every single
day you’ll never be able to communicate
with with people with your artistry the
let’s say you’re the leader in a
particular arena if your competitor
focused and you’re already the leader
then where does your energy come from
whereas if your customer focused and
you’re already the leader customers are
never satisfied so you always if your
customer focused you’re always waking up
how can we make that customers say wow
how can we you know our energy are
passionate we want to impress our
customers we want them to say wow it’s
that kind of divine discontent comes
from observing customers and noticing
that you know things can always be
if you don’t have a team you got to
figure out what that balances it for
yourself you can’t take on too much but
at the same time you don’t want to just
do one thing I like to spin a lot of
plates because you put all your eggs in
one basket don’t work out you’re bored
you’ve wasted all that time but the fact
of the matter is back in the day we used
to make a movie and then work on just
the movie and wait till the movie was
out and then figure out what to do next
and now you know it would lead sometimes
to like let’s say you made Jersey girl
you make the movie over the course of a
while it comes out and then boom that’s
it it’s over like in a week or two weeks
so I like to spin as many plates as
possible that way like this thing in
panning out or this thing is too far off
in the distance or this thing gonna
happen the way I wanted boom we could
shift over to something else so that’s
why I do it but when you do it be
careful you got to find the right
balance I wish there’s a formula to give
you there’s not it’s all up to you
that’s inside of you just do as much as
you can before you get to the point
to express oneself honestly not lying to
oneself and to express myself honestly
know that my friend is very hard to do
it’s not difficult to learn and speak
the word the hard thing the difficult
thing
it’s behind what is the meaning what all
on the expression and feelings behind
those word now I think the successful
ingredient in it was because I was being
loosely yourself a myself right and did
that part just express myself like I say
honestly express myself
boys you must strive to find your own
voice but the longer you wait to begin
the less likely you are to find it at
all
Thoreau said most men lead lives of
quiet desperation
if you want a thing bad enough to glide
and fight for to work day and night to
give up your time your peace and your
sleep free and if you gladly sweat for
it and fret for it and plan for it and
lose all your terror of the opposition
for it and if you simply go after that
thing that you want with all of your
capacity give me the cold poverty
families your gold sickness the pain of
body and brain and keep you away for the
thing that you want you’ll get
reflecting now back on my career like my
dedication is what made me successful
because I’ll be honest I wasn’t the most
genetically blessed guy on stage I just
had a lot of dedication and commitment
it all begins kind of with you so you
know that’s about belief you can’t
expect a bunch of people out there to
believe you are this thing unless you be
you have to be focused I think to be
successful you have to be focused you
need to go why do you want that cheese
where’s the fireworks will go whether
how many people have you met in your
life who have said things like I had
that idea I knew about that or I I was
so close but I gave up I think sometimes
the difference between success and
failure winning and losing is a very
fine line between those people who will
often I just want to ask or I want to
find out what drives people some people
are really driven by money and I don’t
think that’s a bad thing it’s just like
not usually a fit here some people are
really driven by like wanting to make
the world a better place some people are
really driven by wanting to learn like
what drives people like what gets them
up in the morning what like where does
the fire come from because like the best
people in the world just have a fire
about something not about everything but
this is my time I own my life I had to
start thinking I have the ability to do
this and I had the mindset that I’m
unstoppable
there is something in you that can
transcend your circumstances that can
transcend the nose and rejections that
can transcend anything that you’re going
most startups that fail do it ultimately
because they did not make something that
people wanted they made something that
you know that they thought people would
want but they were either in denial
about it
about you know whether it was actually
any good or somebody else came along and
made something that people wanted even
I mean if other people are putting in
40-hour work weeks and you’re putting in
100 hour work weeks then even if you’re
doing the same thing you know that you
will achieve in four months what it
when you start with a little your
company you’re gonna have a lot of
anxiety and stress and fear and your job
is to transform that into
self-confidence and to give you kind of
that you know the ability to say I have
clarity I trust myself I have a feeling
for my vision I can see that happening I
work with entrepreneurs all the time
that kind of shift from you know anxiety
to trust that’s the most important thing
but what you really need to do is think
about what is the smallest possible test
that I can run for this idea for this
concept for this theory get it out there
and get customers using it because your
customers are going to be the ones to
what this all comes down to is doing
something exceptional for your users
whether it’s in community whether it’s
in connection or whether it’s in design
this is our big advantage is that we can
actually get away with doing it we can
make this the core part of why we’re
about this two sides of pain that I
don’t think a lot of people really
understand right there’s there’s one
side of pain that’s the suffering and
the discomfort side of thing because
that hurts you remember what that felt
like
but being there’s another side of pain
let’s go effort
it’s called glory it’s called if you can
find a way to push through pain there’s
something great on the other side of it
I do believe that organizations human
organizations are inherently unstable
they will fall over and you have to work
to keep them apart
but they fall slowly most people don’t
notice it they let their success blind
them they don’t see if falling over the
following takes place but the collapse
is quick you have to do constant
assessment you have to look for the hard
we are generally a little bit forward
leaning when it comes to trying to make
progress happen for me it’s about
problem-solving and loving to solve
problems and so if you are passionate
about solving problems I in some
sometimes I just like to describe this
as like imagine a really great math
professor
with no problems to solve right the
great a great math professor somebody
who who wants the hardest problems who
wants to solve them and love solving
them that’s kind of how I feel about my
work and so it’s not about a man in a
hurry it’s more about really interesting
problems in the world and how you lean
into them and solve things that people
maybe thought weren’t even possible to
I always want to better myself I don’t
consider myself I don’t sorry I don’t
consider other designers competition you
know for me my competition is me from
the season before I’m very ambitious I
always want to better myself I never sit
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I knew that I wanted to change my life I
knew that I didn’t want to go down the
path that I was going down because I got
I think that success in business is a
very difficult thing to achieve and it’s
more difficult today probably than any
other time despite the vast number of
opportunities and as it relates to
finding your calling in terms of what
the opportunity or the entrepreneurial
adventure is going to be it has to be
linked to something that you are so
passionate and crazed about that you’re
willing to knock down walls and climb
mountains and do the things that are
going to put yourself in a position of
sacrificing so many other things for its
success and you can only do that when
there’s a compelling underlying feeling
that you have that this is something I’m
gonna fight to the death field and
without that I think it’s gonna be a
commodity based experience not only for
the customer but for you and I think you
can’t really succeed at the levels that
you want to unless you find that thing
that you’re so passionate excited and in
love with and I think because you’ve got
it along the way you’re gonna have to
convince so many other people to believe
in you
and the idea and the opportunity and the
struggle and the obstacles that are
going to come can over only be overcome
by this passion that you have in which
you’re going to be able to get people to
follow you over though over those
hurdles I know it sounds a little bit
first of all I’d say starting a business
is not for everyone yeah
so generally starting a business I’d say
number one is have a high pain threshold
so the friend of mine who’s got a good
saying which is that signing a company
is like eating glass to staring into the
abyss
okay that’s best generally what happens
because when you first start a company
there’s lots of optimism and things of
things are great and then so happiness
at first is high then you encounter all
sorts of issues and happiness will
steadily decline and then you’ll go
through a whole world of hurt and then
eventually you’ll if you succeed and in
most cases you will not succeed
and Tesla almost didn’t succeed came
very close to failure then if you
succeed then after a long time you will finally get back to happiness
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