good morning believe nation today’s
message is learn people skills over to
you Ben Horowitz you know in the world
of entrepreneurship the big skills are
kind of programming skills and people
skills like those are the big two and I
think people skills tend to be highly
underestimated in terms of kind of just
ability to run a company and so forth
and what I mean by people skills is the
ability to understand other people’s
motivation and other people’s motivation
so you’re talking to and then who you’re
also not talking to and how they’re
going to think about something and where
they’re coming from and relate to that
in a way that gets you to the right
conclusion about how you build an
organization or build a company or or
you know make a deal or any of these
kinds of things is incredibly valuable
and that’s what I would say most of the
kind of good entrepreneurs end up
lacking more than the technical skills
that we see now like being like a boss
level engineer like that’s extremely
valuable I’m not discounting that but
that that’s really the other big big
skill that you can learn so what do you
think I’m a strong believer in having
people skills when I was in university I
write an awesome book and I think this
is like a staple of anyone who wants to
learn to deal with people better
understand them it’s by Dale Carnegie
was written in the 30s how to win
friends and influence people what I
loved about it was it doesn’t really the
book doesn’t teach you how to manipulate
people or how to be rude or you know
conniving with people it’s it’s more of
like you said good expectations high
expectations for people even if they
don’t have those skill sets yet and they
start to live up to them I’ve learned a
lot of great people skills from Evan too
when someone’s doing something that is
uh you know you don’t agree with that’s
not quite it executed well it’s always
very easy to say know what you’re doing
it wrong that’s it stop it versus you
know taking a little bit of time and be
like why I understand you know where
you’re coming from here’s maybe a better
way to do it what can I do how can I
empower you to
to make this better and what happens at
the end of the day is that more people
respect you more people value you more
people support you if you pick up those
skill sets so read that book it’s super
awesome I’m going for a bit of a curve
ball on this one and I feel like another
way to do it is to hire the people
skills or to partner up with somebody
who has the people skills where if you
are the strong technician you are the
coder you are the programmer you the
greatest engineer of all time go all in
on that and partner up with somebody who
can do all the people skills stop so you
can be really good at it I look at this
business and trying to dance salsa and
alex is better at dealing with people
than I am he’s much more extroverted
he’s you know he’s cracking the jokes
and he’s the life of the party I’m good
with people with more in an introverted
way and I wanted him to be part of
trying to dance salsa and kind of lead
us forward because of that a bunch of
other stuff and and so it was actually
interesting we’re a couple weeks ago I
had somebody come over here and for the
first time I saw somebody who wasn’t
getting along with Alex and was really
weird this is weird dynamic between them
and I was like what’s happening here why
are they not getting along because Alex
just gets along with everybody doesn’t
matter what background you come from who
you are he just gets along with them
you’ll leave a conversation with him
feeling better that’s one of his great
skills you know if you want to focus on
bein engineering side of the product
side then another way to do it is
instead of you trying to work on your
own people skills to be that person find
that person partner with them or higher
would hire them to join your team it
might be the better way to go just a
little bit of a curveball answering them
a hundred percent i agree with you but
you have very good skill set that you’ve
had to learn and hone i hope that people
don’t think that ok so now i can just
hire people to solve sort of my
shortcomings it doesn’t mean that
there’s there’s not a room for
improvement right like maybe evan will
never be as extroverted as me but
there’s a huge amount of communication
skills on how to improve people how to
work with you that i picked up from you
that I never had even though I’m sort of
life of the party or I’m extroverted so
there’s always room for improvement yes
you should hire people that are like
sort of you know if you need someone
who’s loud and spontaneous extroverted
that’s sort of
front end of your business that’s
important but you should still continue
to work on yourself even if you’re like
them the most you know you’re a
programmer and you’re shutting
completely you never go outside never
see daylight you’re pale right like
almost translucent skin kind of thing
but you should be educating yourself you
should be improving because at the end
of the day you know people won’t want to
even work for you if you’re not able to
understand them a little bit or know how
to communicate them with them and so you
have that strike you have a shrink that
you know your analytical but you still
communicate with me you still sort of
bring give me confidence in you and you
you know mentor me and so that’s
important even though that’s not
necessarily but maybe it was your
initial skill when you started becoming
entrepreneur aight i’m really good at
communications and i’m really good at
dealing with people i’m just not
extroverted and so that’s what a part of
what you’re learning picking up but if
you are just a rock star programmer i’m
ok with you going all in on programming
just being the mad science genius and
not having to worry with building a team
in improving your communication
delegation skills if that’s what you’re
really good at but to build a company
you need to have somebody who can deal
with you right like I can deal with
crazy people you look at my team i have
i have people on my team or a team of
misfits some people on my team have a
really hard time fitting in with other
people at but i can deal with them maybe
because i have patients or whatever it
is so those people are really important
and if you’re that person then you just
need to find the person who can deal
with you and communicate your message
out to everybody else I think there’s a
lot of this a lot of artists who suck a
communication who suck a dealing with
people and they’ve built good businesses
off of it because they have managers and
people around them who helped them
through though their shortcomings and
telling them to be more like everybody
else or telling them to improve their
this area their life while stopping
doing other things it’s an opportunity
cost right like I can work on this we
means I’m not working on something else
but if I suck at this and I don’t want
to get better at it then
and how how much better match you’re
gonna get and how big a difference that
going to make vs I want to get better
with this thing and I’m all in on it I’m
okay with it I don’t know I’m okay with
it question 8 today is who is right Evan
or I know no okay now hahaha no but I’m
curious a note to hear your perspective
yeah leave that in the comments below
maybe we’ll get a good debate happening
so thank you guys so much for watching
have an amazing day continue to believe
and we’ll see you again tomorrow morning
for another shot of espresso
message is learn people skills over to
you Ben Horowitz you know in the world
of entrepreneurship the big skills are
kind of programming skills and people
skills like those are the big two and I
think people skills tend to be highly
underestimated in terms of kind of just
ability to run a company and so forth
and what I mean by people skills is the
ability to understand other people’s
motivation and other people’s motivation
so you’re talking to and then who you’re
also not talking to and how they’re
going to think about something and where
they’re coming from and relate to that
in a way that gets you to the right
conclusion about how you build an
organization or build a company or or
you know make a deal or any of these
kinds of things is incredibly valuable
and that’s what I would say most of the
kind of good entrepreneurs end up
lacking more than the technical skills
that we see now like being like a boss
level engineer like that’s extremely
valuable I’m not discounting that but
that that’s really the other big big
skill that you can learn so what do you
think I’m a strong believer in having
people skills when I was in university I
write an awesome book and I think this
is like a staple of anyone who wants to
learn to deal with people better
understand them it’s by Dale Carnegie
was written in the 30s how to win
friends and influence people what I
loved about it was it doesn’t really the
book doesn’t teach you how to manipulate
people or how to be rude or you know
conniving with people it’s it’s more of
like you said good expectations high
expectations for people even if they
don’t have those skill sets yet and they
start to live up to them I’ve learned a
lot of great people skills from Evan too
when someone’s doing something that is
uh you know you don’t agree with that’s
not quite it executed well it’s always
very easy to say know what you’re doing
it wrong that’s it stop it versus you
know taking a little bit of time and be
like why I understand you know where
you’re coming from here’s maybe a better
way to do it what can I do how can I
empower you to
to make this better and what happens at
the end of the day is that more people
respect you more people value you more
people support you if you pick up those
skill sets so read that book it’s super
awesome I’m going for a bit of a curve
ball on this one and I feel like another
way to do it is to hire the people
skills or to partner up with somebody
who has the people skills where if you
are the strong technician you are the
coder you are the programmer you the
greatest engineer of all time go all in
on that and partner up with somebody who
can do all the people skills stop so you
can be really good at it I look at this
business and trying to dance salsa and
alex is better at dealing with people
than I am he’s much more extroverted
he’s you know he’s cracking the jokes
and he’s the life of the party I’m good
with people with more in an introverted
way and I wanted him to be part of
trying to dance salsa and kind of lead
us forward because of that a bunch of
other stuff and and so it was actually
interesting we’re a couple weeks ago I
had somebody come over here and for the
first time I saw somebody who wasn’t
getting along with Alex and was really
weird this is weird dynamic between them
and I was like what’s happening here why
are they not getting along because Alex
just gets along with everybody doesn’t
matter what background you come from who
you are he just gets along with them
you’ll leave a conversation with him
feeling better that’s one of his great
skills you know if you want to focus on
bein engineering side of the product
side then another way to do it is
instead of you trying to work on your
own people skills to be that person find
that person partner with them or higher
would hire them to join your team it
might be the better way to go just a
little bit of a curveball answering them
a hundred percent i agree with you but
you have very good skill set that you’ve
had to learn and hone i hope that people
don’t think that ok so now i can just
hire people to solve sort of my
shortcomings it doesn’t mean that
there’s there’s not a room for
improvement right like maybe evan will
never be as extroverted as me but
there’s a huge amount of communication
skills on how to improve people how to
work with you that i picked up from you
that I never had even though I’m sort of
life of the party or I’m extroverted so
there’s always room for improvement yes
you should hire people that are like
sort of you know if you need someone
who’s loud and spontaneous extroverted
that’s sort of
front end of your business that’s
important but you should still continue
to work on yourself even if you’re like
them the most you know you’re a
programmer and you’re shutting
completely you never go outside never
see daylight you’re pale right like
almost translucent skin kind of thing
but you should be educating yourself you
should be improving because at the end
of the day you know people won’t want to
even work for you if you’re not able to
understand them a little bit or know how
to communicate them with them and so you
have that strike you have a shrink that
you know your analytical but you still
communicate with me you still sort of
bring give me confidence in you and you
you know mentor me and so that’s
important even though that’s not
necessarily but maybe it was your
initial skill when you started becoming
entrepreneur aight i’m really good at
communications and i’m really good at
dealing with people i’m just not
extroverted and so that’s what a part of
what you’re learning picking up but if
you are just a rock star programmer i’m
ok with you going all in on programming
just being the mad science genius and
not having to worry with building a team
in improving your communication
delegation skills if that’s what you’re
really good at but to build a company
you need to have somebody who can deal
with you right like I can deal with
crazy people you look at my team i have
i have people on my team or a team of
misfits some people on my team have a
really hard time fitting in with other
people at but i can deal with them maybe
because i have patients or whatever it
is so those people are really important
and if you’re that person then you just
need to find the person who can deal
with you and communicate your message
out to everybody else I think there’s a
lot of this a lot of artists who suck a
communication who suck a dealing with
people and they’ve built good businesses
off of it because they have managers and
people around them who helped them
through though their shortcomings and
telling them to be more like everybody
else or telling them to improve their
this area their life while stopping
doing other things it’s an opportunity
cost right like I can work on this we
means I’m not working on something else
but if I suck at this and I don’t want
to get better at it then
and how how much better match you’re
gonna get and how big a difference that
going to make vs I want to get better
with this thing and I’m all in on it I’m
okay with it I don’t know I’m okay with
it question 8 today is who is right Evan
or I know no okay now hahaha no but I’m
curious a note to hear your perspective
yeah leave that in the comments below
maybe we’ll get a good debate happening
so thank you guys so much for watching
have an amazing day continue to believe
and we’ll see you again tomorrow morning
for another shot of espresso
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