it was worth about over a million
dollars when I was 23 and over ten
million dollars when I was 24 and over a
and it wasn’t that important because I
never did it for the money I I think
money is wonderful thing because it
enables you to do things it enables you
to invest in ideas that don’t have a
short-term payback and things like that
but especially at that point in my life
it was it was not the most important
thing the most important thing was the
company the people the products we were
making what we were gonna enable people
to do with these products so I didn’t
think about it a great deal you know I
never sold any stock and just really
believed that the company would would do
very well over the long term my best
business decisions really have to do
with picking people you know deciding to
go into partnership with Paul Allen is
is probably at the top of the list and
then subsequently hiring a friend Steve
Ballmer and having somebody who you
totally trust who’s totally committed
who shares your vision yet he has a
little bit different set of skills and
also acts as a check on you you know
some of the ideas you come up with you
run by them because you know they’re
gonna say hey wait a minute
yeah you know have you thought about
this and that and just you know the the
benefit of sparking off of somebody
who’s who’s got that kind of brilliance
it’s not only made it fun but it’s
really led to a lot of success so
picking picking a partners is crucial to
many of us for a long time
have confused our net worth and our
self-worth your net worth is going to
fluctuate it’s going to go up and down
that’s what money does but your
self-worth should not who you are what’s
important to you how you live your
values should never be negotiable
compromised and should never settle
again we have gotten to this point where
we’ve got to say to ourselves my net
worth is not my self-worth no matter how
much you feel like you’re prepared for
something it never happens on your time
like when you think you’re ready it
always happens when is supposed to
happen because the period did you feel
ready and people are not acknowledged in
the material the way you feel like they
should because it’s good is the time
that you actually develop skin thick
enough to survive when it does work
first got the job as CEO you got a call
from Steve Jobs and he offered you some
advice
well he didn’t call to offer me advice
but we had worked together on a Nike
Apple collaboration called Nike plus so
we took what Apple knows what Nike knows
and you know brought a new technology to
the market anyway long story short he
said hey congratulations it’s great
you’re gonna do a great job I said well
do you have any advice and he said no no
you’re great and then there was a pause
and it goes well I do have some advice
he goes Nike makes some of the best
product in the world
I mean product that you lust after
absolutely beautiful stunning product
but you also make a lot of crap he said
just get rid of the crappy stuff and
focus on the good stuff and then I
expected a little pause and a laugh but
there was there was a pause but no laugh
at the end
greatest people are self-managing they
don’t need to be managed you if they
know what if once they know what to do
they’ll go figure out how to do it they
don’t need to be managed at all what
they need is a common vision and that’s
what leadership is what leadership is is
having a vision being able to articulate
that so the people around you can
understand it and getting a consensus on
a common vision we wanted people that
were insanely great at what they did but
work we’re not necessarily those
seasoned professionals but who has on at
the tips of their fingers and in their
passion the latest understanding of
where technology was and what we could
do with that technology and who wanted
to bring that to lots of people so the
neatest thing that happens is when you
get a core group of you know 10 great
people that it becomes self-policing as
to who they let into that group so I
consider the most important job of
someone like myself is recruiting if
you’re in the business section of New
York Times they’re not going to cover
you for weeks later when your product is
better and you’re ready so make sure
that you pick your timing a few things
so there’s paid exposure and unpaid
exposure I like to focus on unpaid
because it makes you it forces you to
make better decisions in the beginning
so I would read as I always say the 22
immutable laws of marketing 1,000 true
fans written by Kevin Kelly I would also
read best-selling book PR and publicity
I think it is by Rick Frischmann Fri SH
ma n all the techniques apply to more
than books and learn to tell the story
what are you focusing on are you using
yourself to tell the story and then the
product is associated is it a trend
piece are you trying to tie what you’re
doing into a greater trend or just very
effective way of getting media in which
case you’re gonna need other examples
you need to get comfortable bringing in
sort of cooperative competitors to
create that trend piece learn the art of
the pitch and of messaging only once you
have figured that out what I say then
you go out and you pay to acquire people
because now if your messaging is off
it’s costing you money I’ve said for
years that that you have to celebrate
your victories and really celebrate your
mistakes and what I mean by that is that
you have to learn from the mistakes that
you make and you’ve got to create an
environment where people are not afraid
to take a risk and not afraid to do
things that are beyond what the
expectations are at the same time you
got to set up a framework for how those
things are managed and judged and
evaluated through that stage and Apple
where we went out and we thought oh
we’re gonna be a big company let’s hire
professional management we went out and
hired a bunch of professional management
it didn’t work at all most of them were
bozos they they knew how to manage but
they didn’t know how to do anything and
so well if you’re a great person why do
you want to work for something you can’t
learn anything from and you know what’s
interesting you know who the best
managers are there are the great
individual contributors who never ever
want to be a manager but decide they
have to be a manager because every no
one else is gonna be able to do as good
a job as them oh you ordered the key
employees I believe is number one you
gotta respect them and you gotta trust
them and you have to also show them the
opportunity to make more money than
they’ve ever made in their lives all
that combined that’s how you motivate
your key core employees the question of
whether you should take a skill learn it
yourself delegated someone else or hire
a new team member are determined by
having a very accurate self assessment
and assessment of your team’s skills not
only what you can do but what you should
be doing that’s very important so if
you’re a start-up CEO or founder and you
have a team of say two to ten people
as soon as you have funds to hire you
should not be focused on the things that
you are bad at sounds very very
intuitive but it’s not because you might
have enough time to do those things but
the question is do you have the
attention to dedicate to this thing so
they’re not an interruption
especially if you’re a venture-backed
startup and you’re competing against
other companies that also have a lot of
funding the game the game and the race
goes to the Swift so you have to have
you have to have a lot of velocity but I
believe very strongly that we could
build a different kind of company I
never believed never I think it would
have been arrogant to believe that we
could have a thousand 2,000 or 7,500
stores in the US and around the world
but something really magical started
happening and it started happening as a
result of not advertising or or
conventional consumer classical
marketing the fact is that Starbucks
spends very little on traditional
advertising it started happening because
we demonstrated to ourselves and now the
world that to build an enduring
sustainable long term business and
consumer brand it’s not about fancy
marketing it’s about establishing a very
powerful and unusual emotional
relationship with the customer need to
be able to sell whether it’s Kickstarter
whether it’s near times whether it’s
your local newspaper you need to be able
to communicate effectively and so which
is why when entrepreneur’s asked me for
books to read outside of business books
I say on writing well bird by bird all
books on writing improving communication
David Ogilvy Oba VLAN advertising study
print ads where you have very little
space I think those are all very very
effective the best entrepreneurs I’ve
ever met are all good communicators it’s
the one perhaps one of the very few
unifying factors they’re exceptional
communicators practice is the only way
to get better at communicating and
practicing speaking does not provide you
generally with something to review later
which is why the written word is so
powerful writing is thought crystallized
on a piece of paper that can then be
reviewed it’s very difficult to do that
with speech which is why I recommend
people focus on honing their skills in
writing take time to study good direct
response ads take time to for instance
maybe develop a swipe file so one of the
things that I did four years is any time
I bought something I would identify the
ad the phone call the print ad the the
offer whatever it was that made me
decide to buy it and I would either cut
it out or record it put it into Evernote
whatever it might be
and save it so I had a record of
everything that I bought and why I
bought it and then I could go back and
review it and I’d be like oh looks like
I fell for this this and this not a bad
way it looks like this tipped me from
yeah or not interested – yeah I’ll spend
five fifty five hundred five thousand
dollars on that yeah I save all that
everything that works in sales has been
done already you do not need to reinvent
the wheel so just keep track of the crap
that you buy or the awesome stuff that
you buy and decide what was the trigger
what push me over the edge and then just
sell the people like you that’s what I
do it’s really easy
people are like who’s your market I
might well you know I’m a 30-something
SF based tech savvy male so why don’t I
just solve those people it’s a lot
easier than trying to guess
but if we take the time with ourselves
and our staff to go in there and tell
them all the ways to use it and reassure
them not only a good product but here’s
how you use it to create a good salon
experience or the consumer when you take
it home to keep your hair the same in
between visits you fill a need in the
marketplace one there’s the need of
course to buy a product or another
product but the next one is you must
constantly remind them how to use it
properly which makes you a little
different now granted maybe there’s
another one used the same way but nobody
told them we’re amazing times when
people are using some of our finest
products and didn’t know there’s other
ways to use it also
it’s through education must constantly
reinforce the education of whites so
good fundamental connection to doing
business is basically relationships you
know people really if you really think
about it people want to do business with
people they like I mean every now and
then you’ll do a deal with the devil but
you don’t really like the devil but you
have do it sometimes but you really much
rather do business with somebody you
like somebody who shares your values
somebody who you know is committed to
the same objectives you are somebody’s
willing to work as hard as you are and
when you find those people those are the
people you want to bring under your tent
to be part of your business objective
and you’ve got to do that by you know
sort of presenting yourself in a way
that people clearly understand that you
are committed to creating value business
people want to create value it doesn’t
mean they don’t want to have fun doesn’t
mean that they don’t want to be involved
in other kinds of things but if you can
say go to someone and convince them that
I can help you create value and by your
ability to articulate that and to
communicate it and to give people the
impression that you will work as hard as
they will to create that value you’re
gonna find people wanting to come to you
and so from me it’s sort of been like
that throughout my whole career is being
able to to say to people and what talk
to people in a way that convinces the
that I am going to do everything I can
to help make what they want to achieve a
success and by extension I’m going to be
a success when I started a BT the guy
who invested in BET’s a guy named John
Maloney he was at that time the operator
the third largest cable company in
Denver Colorado and he kept investing
money and to be et without taking
additional equity and as BT became a big
success you know I ended up with about
75% of the company he ended up about 25%
of the company and one day I asked him I
said to John John you you put over a
half a million dollars in be ETA on the
startup you put it in his debt you
didn’t put it in his equity which would
have given him greater ownership I said
why’d you do it that way and he said Bob
I always knew you would work harder for
yourself than you would for me and it
was that kind of commitment so if you
can convey to people that you’re willing
to work hard for them and for yourself
you’ve got his business partner you’re
connecting the dots I decided to do this
I I first talked to my my wife who is
sitting here in the audience and she had
married a you know relatively stable
goofy but still relatively stable a
person working at a Wall Street firm I
worked at a quantitative hedge fund and
this was a hard decision and I was
looking for the right framework in which
to make that kind of important decision
and and and the right framework I found
is a regret minimization framework and
so that’s just a nerdy way of saying
that you want to project yourself to age
80 and then think back over your life
and and if you’re if you’re if you’re 81
or the thew want to minimize the number
of regrets you have throughout that
period of time I think this is something
a lot of people do maybe subconsciously
they probably very few people probably
name it regret minimization framework
because most people are healthier than
that but but it was a very clear way for
me to think about
making that kind of life decision and
the and in the way it helped was I
thought okay if I go do this thing and
participate in this thing called the
Internet that I genuinely believe is
gonna be a big deal and if I fail am I
going to regret having tried and failed
and I knew the answer that was no but I
also knew that if I didn’t try that I
would always regret that I would always
wonder and it would haunt me and until
that you know mythical day which I
actually hope will come and this goes
online or whatever it is it really
matters and it like really doesn’t
matter what matters is you know the
people who are sparked by it and the
people who are like offended by it it
doesn’t matter you you know like because
it’s about motivating the doers and
anyone that wants to sit around and talk
they’re doing too much time they’ve
taken too much time talking good about
it instead of getting up off their ass
and following their dreams because I’m
here to follow my dreams you know and
help other people follow their dreams
and inspire people who are dreamers it’s
crazy that we live in a world that if
you’re super positive and super creative
that it’s scary so what does that tell
you about the mentality of most people
if you’re scared of like positivity and
creativity 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 hard 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
scratching their own itch be liking what
you do whatever area that you get into
given that you know even if you if
you’re the best the best there’s always
a chance of failure so I think it’s
important that you really like whatever
you’re doing if you don’t like it life
is too short if you like what you’re
doing you think about it even when
you’re not working I mean it’ll just
it’s it’s something that your mind is
drawn to
and and if you don’t like it you just
really can’t make it work I think ideas
are worth nothing
I mean ideas are really they’re not a
dime a dozen they’re just nothing all
the good founders I know even the bad
founders can come up with ideas all day
long it doesn’t mean anything you have
to be able to execute and you know one
of the sort of Maxim’s that I was told
once was you know your success will be
measured and the number of uncomfortable
conversations you’re willing to have so
I haven’t get asked if an entrepreneur
should say start a business based on one
of their passions or if they should find
the most attractive market opportunity
and build a business out of that whether
they like it or not I don’t think it’s
either/or I think you need both I would
say look you’re in credit-card statement
identify where you spend an unusual
percentage of your income where you
price and sensitive then how old are you
what gender are you where do you live
and design a product that has all of
those things intersecting I’m also here
to tell you that I feel strongly that
long-term value for your shareholders
cannot be achieved in an enduring
sustainable way unless the management of
the company is completely
incomprehensible committed to creating
long-term value for the employees and
the two are directly linked together in
any company any management team that
turns its back on its people and doesn’t
share the success of the company with
the people who do the work are not going
to finish the race our goal is to make
the best personal computers in the world
and to make products we are proud to
sell and would recommend to our family
and friends and we want to do that at
the lowest price as we can but I have to
tell you there’s some stuff in our
industry that we wouldn’t be proud to
ship that we wouldn’t be proud to
recommend to our family and friends and
we can’t do it we just can’t ship junk
so there is there’s a there are
thresholds that we can’t cross because
of who we are but we want to make the
that wants that – and what you’ll find
is our products are usually not premium
priced you go you go and price out our
competitors products and you add the
features that you have to add to make
them useful and you’ll find in some
cases they are more expensive than our
products the difference is we don’t
offer stripped-down lousy products you
know we just don’t offer categories of
products like that but if you move those
aside and compare us with our
competitors I think we compare pretty
favorably and a lot of people have been
doing that and saying that now for the
last 18 months the key components of
growing a business is getting the
necessary capital to grow so if you
start off where you own a hundred
percent but you need more capital to
grow the business you may have to sell
off 20% 30% depending on how you look at
the business needs don’t fear that don’t
don’t be afraid about the notion that
you might fall below 51% and therefore
not be minority-owned because being
minority-owned is the culture you said
is the focus you said it’s the service
you make to serve the minority community
and it’s your commitment to do what you
can do best within the minority
community keep in mind if you go back to
a JPMorgan Chase
Jamie Dimon probably owns less than zero
zero five percent of change he’s the CEO
he just he yes but no one will ever
question whether or not he’s in charge
of chase but he’s brought in capital as
a publicly traded company to grow that
business so whether you get money from
outside investors or whether you get
money from friends or family don’t be
afraid to take on capital sell sell
shares or it’s restructure debt or treat
preferred or common whatever it is
because the notion is you want to be in
charge of a growth company if that’s
what you want to be a company that can
go to scale a company that compete and
you need capital to grow so don’t if you
want to stay above 51% by all means if
you can do it and don’t sell your equity
off do it but if you if you have to
because you’ve got a great strategic
partner that could bring something to
the table and they want to be an equity
player and you end up with 50 or less
than 50
you’re still the CEO you’re still
setting the vision for the company you
are achieving what you set out to do and
I think that’s very important to
understand because we can’t get the
scale without growth capital when
interview someone to work at the
companies would be to ask me tell me
about the problems that they worked on
and how they sold them and if someone
was really the person that solved it
they’ll be able to answer multiple
levels they’ll be able to go down to the
brass tacks and if they weren’t they’ll
get stuck and then you can say oh this
person was not really the Christmas
alter because anyone who struggled hard
with a problem against it things you go
to make you you are I don’t regret those
things
I don’t regret them because I don’t
think I’d be Who I am today
if I wasn’t exposed to those situations
if you ask me what those are unfortunate
situations that I’ve had to experience
if I had a choice I would have
definitely went in a different direction
I might want want to go to school for
business instead of having to go through
that this portion of my life but I just
so obvious they don’t even realize that
when they box me in or try to verbally
put me in some type of box or put Donda
in a box that they’re really showing
their level of ignorance they’re putting
themselves in a box and you know people
can write write write all they want but
what are people doing and if there’s
anybody that’s out there doing they know
how hard it is to actually do and I’m
like a motivation of the doers if if
everything I did failed which it doesn’t
it actually succeeds but if everything I
did failed just the fact that I’m
willing to fail is an inspiration people
are so scared to lose that they don’t
even try like one thing that people
can’t say is they can’t say
I’m not trying and I’m not trying my
hardest and I’m not trying to do it the
best way that I know how what little
information I get it used to be John
Stephens this was Kanye West who said
change to legend you know the first
person actually was a guy named Jake
Ivey who’s also from Chicago and his a
friend of mine and Kanye’s and he’s a
poet and we working on Kanye’s album and
Kanye was having me seeing all these
parts and jiv was just like man we’re
gonna have to call you the legend cuz
you know my voice is kind of old-school
I’ve always had an old soul kind of as I
mean you should just call yourself John
Legend and I was like no that’s
ridiculous big bold things and you know
maybe I’ll just roll with this whole
John Legend thing and my kind of
ultimate deciding factor was let’s not
not do it out of fear because because
you’re afraid to call yourself oh yeah
let’s not not doing because because I’m
afraid that it won’t work out cuz people
could laugh at you if you don’t have a
good career and you’re going around
blowing yourself Legend you think you
now live up to it I think I’m working on
it approaches premium products and non
premium prices so we saw the hardware at
breakeven so we don’t try to make any
money when we saw this hardware and we
hope to make money when people use the
devices not when they buy the devices
and so that’s a very different approach
from most companies most companies are
building quite a bit of profit into the
sale of these devices risk is a
necessary component of progress you can
make any pioneering movements in the
world of any kind whether they be the
geographical physical exploration that
I’ve just been talking about or whether
it be you know a more cerebral
exploration of a scientific field or I
bet you could ask that question of every
speaker here and I bet that every
speaker here has taken substantial risks
whether it be intellectual or otherwise
to achieve what they’re you know what
they’ve done hello I’m Bill Gates
chairman of Microsoft
in this video you’re going to see the
future Windows Microsoft first came up
with the Windows concept back in 1983
and today the leading software users
have switched into the Windows
environment it’s really incredible how
quickly our powerful applications like
Word and Excel and PowerPoint have been
adopted it’s not just Microsoft
applications even companies like
WordPerfect and Lotus have now come out
with Windows applications and every week
we see new innovative work it’s really
attracting all the innovation in the
industry we predicted this a long time
ago and now it’s the future what we have
always wanted to do is raise the
standard for what it means to be
customer centric to such a degree that
other organizations whether they be
other companies or whether they be
hospitals or government agencies
whatever the organization is they should
look at Amazon as a role model and say
how can we be as customer centric as
Amazon editor as I imagine right
hopefully competitors as well but if we
could make you know if that could be our
legacy that we kind of raised the
general idea of what it means to be
customer centric that would be a huge
accomplishment it would be accomplishing
a mission that’s much bigger than
ourselves
follow those rules that society is set
up and the way that they control people
with low self-esteem with improper
information with branding with marketing
I refuse to follow those rules it’s
about truth it’s about information
it’s about awesomeness and the only
luxury is time the time you spend with
your family that’s the only luxury so
this concept of luxury is improper to me
when I compare myself to Steve Jobs or
Walt Disney Howard Hughes David Stern
Michelangelo da Vinci Jesus or whatever
is I’m saying these are my heroes
these are
people that I look up to this is the
type of impact I want to make on the
earth if I could make this type of
impact up to this point what can I do if
if you call Bob Iger and say yo give him
a shot if you call Oprah and say yo back
this kid let’s just get this this kids a
kids were his parents were educators he
wants to educate he wants to look at
curriculums and say how do we simplify
that exactly what I did in music I want
to apply to product I want to apply to
education this is what my company donned
is about now is the time to take risk
you don’t have kids as you get older
your obligations increase so your and
once you have a family you start taking
risk not just before yourself but for
your family as well it gets much harder
to do things that might not work out so
now is the time to do that before you
before you have those obligations so I
would encourage you to take risks now do
something bold you won’t regret it
though many people try to talk me out of
starting a road company it was it was
crazy
one good friend of mine collected a
whole series of videos of rockets
blowing up and maybe watch those you
just didn’t want me to lose all my money
we’re doing these things that seem
unlikely to succeed and we’ve been
fortunate and at least thus far they
have succeeded everyone out there in TV
world real world whatever world you stay
in needs to know that I’ve never done a
publicity stunt of my life anytime I
went up and spoke my mind where they put
my career in jeopardy or whatever
someone so called said it was always
what I thought was the truth whether I’m
like reading through a teleprompter or
whatever or whatever I felt emotionally
I don’t follow like rules of like you
know normal celebrity or what their
publicist tells them to say or anything
but i say things the wrong way a lot of
times if my intention is always positive
and i want to bring more things to the
world i want to help the world i want to
make people’s lives easier if you guys
look at the same interview it’s really
something extremely fearless for someone
in my position to do because most people
just like you know bow tie on a TV or
whatever bow down to these cameras like
i could care less about any of these
cameras in all honesty all i care about
is my family i care about protecting my
girl for tara protecting my baby and
protecting my ideas in my dreams
i’m totally weird and i’m totally honest
and i’m totally inappropriate
times and the thing is you know for me
to say I wasn’t a genius I would just be
lying to you and to myself if you’re a
new company I mean this is like some new
industry or new market that if it’s an
untapped market or then then you have
more ability to give is this the
standard is lower for your product or
service but if you’re entering anything
where there’s an existing market place
against Lodge entrenched competitors
then your product or service needs to be
much better than theirs it can’t be a
little bit better because then you put
yourself in the shoes of the consumer
and they say why would you buy it as a
consumer you’re always gonna bribe 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 got to be a lot better
my Keller gets very full with those and
then at night after the kids have gone
to bed I’m on email a great deal I get
messages during the day that’s my chance
give long responses and then over the
weekend I send a lot of mail as well as
well I take two weeks a year to just go
off and read and think where I’m not
interrupted by work or anything else I’m
just solidly trying to think about the
future and people get to send me things
to read as part of that so-called think
week so it’s nice mix of things about
25% of the time that I’m out traveling
around meeting with customers Europe
Asia and that sort of helps me think
okay do we have the right priorities
what what are people responding well to
and what would they they like to see us
do better
anyone how well you want to do in
particularly if you’re starting a
company you need to work super hot so
what is super heart mean well when my
brother and I were studying our first
company instead of getting an apartment
we just rented us a small office and we
slept on the couch
and we showered at the YMCA and we’re so
hot up we had one computer so the the
website was up during the day and I was
coding at night seven days a week all
the time and I sort of briefly had a
gopher in that period and in order to be
with me she had to sleep in the office
so I work hard like it mean every waking
hour that’s that’s the the thing I would
I would say if your particular if you’re
starting a company and I mean if you do
simple math to say like okay if somebody
else is working 50 hours when you’re
working 100 you’ll get twice as done as
much done in the course of a year as the
other company do the things unsuccessful
people don’t want to do or have a very
difficult time doing guys very difficult
time and that is keeping yourself going
when nothing’s working when everyone
else is saying no no no no no if you
want to be in business for yourself and
free you must learn to dominate you
cannot compete okay how many were
trained this competition is a healthy
thing that message was not being
delivered to entrepreneurs that message
was being delivered to consumers
there was somebody saying look the more
more oil companies we have the better
because it’s good for the customer right
the more technology companies we have is
not just Microsoft the better for the
customer and in two billion inventions
and you know improvements and products
comes from competition but if you’re the
one playing the game you want to
dominate the field so look here’s the
deal I might be wrong and what I say
okay I might be wrong in the things I do
in my life and the business that I
started my families told me not to start
every business that I’ve been involved
in every one of them every one of them
was a risk everyone on my hand to take a
chance I remember my mom used to tell me
I wouldn’t do that if I were you I
wouldn’t do that if I were you I
wouldn’t do that if I were you I’m like
mommy you wouldn’t do anything well you
wouldn’t do anything except be the
mother a great mother to five children
my mother was an entrepreneur she didn’t
my dreams just because she’s my mom
doesn’t mean she dreams like me would
you agree okay
my mom was wrong about everything she
told me not to do love my mom to death
okay
unbelievable friend of mine she was
wrong I needed to do those things okay
Steve Jobs needed to build this phone
would you agree did he help a lot of
people did he make some money while he
was doing it 119 billion dollars in five
years in the bank cash I’m not talking
about profit I’m talking about in the in
done in the bank sitting there okay
brings a great product to the
marketplace domination or competition
total domination coca-cola competition
or domination total domination okay
Exxon total domination you see what I’m
saying you want to be in a dominating
point okay so what we got to do is we
got to get you thinking we got to get
you thinking like the dominators think
how did they act how does Warren Buffett
act what does Warren Buffett do with his
time all the time those are the people I
study today I don’t study the people
that I went to school with the teachers
I went to school with I don’t even study
my own family members okay I’m looking
for people that are way up here that I
could say hey what are they doing
because they’re doing it right well the
thing that you’re likely to be
world-class at is whatever you obsessed
over from say age 12 to 18 you know in
my case it was writing software where I
would think I was good and then I would
meet somebody who would tell me I wasn’t
and I would look at their code and I
went through four sort of comeuppance
ha’s of oh that’s what a really good
programmer looks like and part of the
reason I worship Digital Equipment was
eventually it was a couple of their very
best programmers who came and shared
with me how they thought about it how
they did thing and I had studied their
code and and that and there there were
several people who were so key am I
doing that so today I would go into you
know software which today that means
going into artificial intelligence you
know computers still can’t read they
they cannot take a book of information
and say pass an AP test on that book and
that’s a solvable problem
but it’s a knowledge representation
problem and you know I’ve always wanted
to solve that problem I’m jealous that
maybe one of you gets to work on that
you know unlikely to go back and be
hands-on in that in that way but it’s
the juiciest problem ever I’ve thought
about it for a long time so I would go
into AI I think Mark Zuckerberg said it
brilliantly at Harvard he was saying
that finding your purpose isn’t enough
you have to help other people find this
and I know you’re passionate about this
whatever that definition is but it has
to lead everyone so if I’m whether I
meet a celebrity and entrepreneur or
whether I meet somebody starting out I’m
always asking the question how can you
use what you have to make a difference
in the life of other people yeah because
if you start there everything else will
work out but if you’re starting from the
point of what am I gonna get then you’re
always gonna feel disconnected and I see
that I see people who live like that and
feel pain in their lives every day I see
that it’s not like some conceptual
philosophy we see it I see people who
are only in it for themselves and they
feel disconnected dissatisfied every
single day and then you see the other
extreme where people are just trying to
give too much more than they even have
themselves and they also feel
disconnected and again nothing at all
nothing at all right so we know it again
attachment and aversion two sides of the
same coin mm-hmm so we want to be in
that dynamic balance of growth but
always to give yeah so I always think
how can I go three steps deeper so that
I can move three steps forward so I can
give three times as much right so that’s
always my mentality how do I go deeper
to go more forward to give more yeah and
if I can get those three in action for
that reason see it’s what about the
reasoning you can do anything you like but it’s why are you doing it worse
dollars when I was 23 and over ten
million dollars when I was 24 and over a
and it wasn’t that important because I
never did it for the money I I think
money is wonderful thing because it
enables you to do things it enables you
to invest in ideas that don’t have a
short-term payback and things like that
but especially at that point in my life
it was it was not the most important
thing the most important thing was the
company the people the products we were
making what we were gonna enable people
to do with these products so I didn’t
think about it a great deal you know I
never sold any stock and just really
believed that the company would would do
very well over the long term my best
business decisions really have to do
with picking people you know deciding to
go into partnership with Paul Allen is
is probably at the top of the list and
then subsequently hiring a friend Steve
Ballmer and having somebody who you
totally trust who’s totally committed
who shares your vision yet he has a
little bit different set of skills and
also acts as a check on you you know
some of the ideas you come up with you
run by them because you know they’re
gonna say hey wait a minute
yeah you know have you thought about
this and that and just you know the the
benefit of sparking off of somebody
who’s who’s got that kind of brilliance
it’s not only made it fun but it’s
really led to a lot of success so
picking picking a partners is crucial to
many of us for a long time
have confused our net worth and our
self-worth your net worth is going to
fluctuate it’s going to go up and down
that’s what money does but your
self-worth should not who you are what’s
important to you how you live your
values should never be negotiable
compromised and should never settle
again we have gotten to this point where
we’ve got to say to ourselves my net
worth is not my self-worth no matter how
much you feel like you’re prepared for
something it never happens on your time
like when you think you’re ready it
always happens when is supposed to
happen because the period did you feel
ready and people are not acknowledged in
the material the way you feel like they
should because it’s good is the time
that you actually develop skin thick
enough to survive when it does work
first got the job as CEO you got a call
from Steve Jobs and he offered you some
advice
well he didn’t call to offer me advice
but we had worked together on a Nike
Apple collaboration called Nike plus so
we took what Apple knows what Nike knows
and you know brought a new technology to
the market anyway long story short he
said hey congratulations it’s great
you’re gonna do a great job I said well
do you have any advice and he said no no
you’re great and then there was a pause
and it goes well I do have some advice
he goes Nike makes some of the best
product in the world
I mean product that you lust after
absolutely beautiful stunning product
but you also make a lot of crap he said
just get rid of the crappy stuff and
focus on the good stuff and then I
expected a little pause and a laugh but
there was there was a pause but no laugh
at the end
greatest people are self-managing they
don’t need to be managed you if they
know what if once they know what to do
they’ll go figure out how to do it they
don’t need to be managed at all what
they need is a common vision and that’s
what leadership is what leadership is is
having a vision being able to articulate
that so the people around you can
understand it and getting a consensus on
a common vision we wanted people that
were insanely great at what they did but
work we’re not necessarily those
seasoned professionals but who has on at
the tips of their fingers and in their
passion the latest understanding of
where technology was and what we could
do with that technology and who wanted
to bring that to lots of people so the
neatest thing that happens is when you
get a core group of you know 10 great
people that it becomes self-policing as
to who they let into that group so I
consider the most important job of
someone like myself is recruiting if
you’re in the business section of New
York Times they’re not going to cover
you for weeks later when your product is
better and you’re ready so make sure
that you pick your timing a few things
so there’s paid exposure and unpaid
exposure I like to focus on unpaid
because it makes you it forces you to
make better decisions in the beginning
so I would read as I always say the 22
immutable laws of marketing 1,000 true
fans written by Kevin Kelly I would also
read best-selling book PR and publicity
I think it is by Rick Frischmann Fri SH
ma n all the techniques apply to more
than books and learn to tell the story
what are you focusing on are you using
yourself to tell the story and then the
product is associated is it a trend
piece are you trying to tie what you’re
doing into a greater trend or just very
effective way of getting media in which
case you’re gonna need other examples
you need to get comfortable bringing in
sort of cooperative competitors to
create that trend piece learn the art of
the pitch and of messaging only once you
have figured that out what I say then
you go out and you pay to acquire people
because now if your messaging is off
it’s costing you money I’ve said for
years that that you have to celebrate
your victories and really celebrate your
mistakes and what I mean by that is that
you have to learn from the mistakes that
you make and you’ve got to create an
environment where people are not afraid
to take a risk and not afraid to do
things that are beyond what the
expectations are at the same time you
got to set up a framework for how those
things are managed and judged and
evaluated through that stage and Apple
where we went out and we thought oh
we’re gonna be a big company let’s hire
professional management we went out and
hired a bunch of professional management
it didn’t work at all most of them were
bozos they they knew how to manage but
they didn’t know how to do anything and
so well if you’re a great person why do
you want to work for something you can’t
learn anything from and you know what’s
interesting you know who the best
managers are there are the great
individual contributors who never ever
want to be a manager but decide they
have to be a manager because every no
one else is gonna be able to do as good
a job as them oh you ordered the key
employees I believe is number one you
gotta respect them and you gotta trust
them and you have to also show them the
opportunity to make more money than
they’ve ever made in their lives all
that combined that’s how you motivate
your key core employees the question of
whether you should take a skill learn it
yourself delegated someone else or hire
a new team member are determined by
having a very accurate self assessment
and assessment of your team’s skills not
only what you can do but what you should
be doing that’s very important so if
you’re a start-up CEO or founder and you
have a team of say two to ten people
as soon as you have funds to hire you
should not be focused on the things that
you are bad at sounds very very
intuitive but it’s not because you might
have enough time to do those things but
the question is do you have the
attention to dedicate to this thing so
they’re not an interruption
especially if you’re a venture-backed
startup and you’re competing against
other companies that also have a lot of
funding the game the game and the race
goes to the Swift so you have to have
you have to have a lot of velocity but I
believe very strongly that we could
build a different kind of company I
never believed never I think it would
have been arrogant to believe that we
could have a thousand 2,000 or 7,500
stores in the US and around the world
but something really magical started
happening and it started happening as a
result of not advertising or or
conventional consumer classical
marketing the fact is that Starbucks
spends very little on traditional
advertising it started happening because
we demonstrated to ourselves and now the
world that to build an enduring
sustainable long term business and
consumer brand it’s not about fancy
marketing it’s about establishing a very
powerful and unusual emotional
relationship with the customer need to
be able to sell whether it’s Kickstarter
whether it’s near times whether it’s
your local newspaper you need to be able
to communicate effectively and so which
is why when entrepreneur’s asked me for
books to read outside of business books
I say on writing well bird by bird all
books on writing improving communication
David Ogilvy Oba VLAN advertising study
print ads where you have very little
space I think those are all very very
effective the best entrepreneurs I’ve
ever met are all good communicators it’s
the one perhaps one of the very few
unifying factors they’re exceptional
communicators practice is the only way
to get better at communicating and
practicing speaking does not provide you
generally with something to review later
which is why the written word is so
powerful writing is thought crystallized
on a piece of paper that can then be
reviewed it’s very difficult to do that
with speech which is why I recommend
people focus on honing their skills in
writing take time to study good direct
response ads take time to for instance
maybe develop a swipe file so one of the
things that I did four years is any time
I bought something I would identify the
ad the phone call the print ad the the
offer whatever it was that made me
decide to buy it and I would either cut
it out or record it put it into Evernote
whatever it might be
and save it so I had a record of
everything that I bought and why I
bought it and then I could go back and
review it and I’d be like oh looks like
I fell for this this and this not a bad
way it looks like this tipped me from
yeah or not interested – yeah I’ll spend
five fifty five hundred five thousand
dollars on that yeah I save all that
everything that works in sales has been
done already you do not need to reinvent
the wheel so just keep track of the crap
that you buy or the awesome stuff that
you buy and decide what was the trigger
what push me over the edge and then just
sell the people like you that’s what I
do it’s really easy
people are like who’s your market I
might well you know I’m a 30-something
SF based tech savvy male so why don’t I
just solve those people it’s a lot
easier than trying to guess
but if we take the time with ourselves
and our staff to go in there and tell
them all the ways to use it and reassure
them not only a good product but here’s
how you use it to create a good salon
experience or the consumer when you take
it home to keep your hair the same in
between visits you fill a need in the
marketplace one there’s the need of
course to buy a product or another
product but the next one is you must
constantly remind them how to use it
properly which makes you a little
different now granted maybe there’s
another one used the same way but nobody
told them we’re amazing times when
people are using some of our finest
products and didn’t know there’s other
ways to use it also
it’s through education must constantly
reinforce the education of whites so
good fundamental connection to doing
business is basically relationships you
know people really if you really think
about it people want to do business with
people they like I mean every now and
then you’ll do a deal with the devil but
you don’t really like the devil but you
have do it sometimes but you really much
rather do business with somebody you
like somebody who shares your values
somebody who you know is committed to
the same objectives you are somebody’s
willing to work as hard as you are and
when you find those people those are the
people you want to bring under your tent
to be part of your business objective
and you’ve got to do that by you know
sort of presenting yourself in a way
that people clearly understand that you
are committed to creating value business
people want to create value it doesn’t
mean they don’t want to have fun doesn’t
mean that they don’t want to be involved
in other kinds of things but if you can
say go to someone and convince them that
I can help you create value and by your
ability to articulate that and to
communicate it and to give people the
impression that you will work as hard as
they will to create that value you’re
gonna find people wanting to come to you
and so from me it’s sort of been like
that throughout my whole career is being
able to to say to people and what talk
to people in a way that convinces the
that I am going to do everything I can
to help make what they want to achieve a
success and by extension I’m going to be
a success when I started a BT the guy
who invested in BET’s a guy named John
Maloney he was at that time the operator
the third largest cable company in
Denver Colorado and he kept investing
money and to be et without taking
additional equity and as BT became a big
success you know I ended up with about
75% of the company he ended up about 25%
of the company and one day I asked him I
said to John John you you put over a
half a million dollars in be ETA on the
startup you put it in his debt you
didn’t put it in his equity which would
have given him greater ownership I said
why’d you do it that way and he said Bob
I always knew you would work harder for
yourself than you would for me and it
was that kind of commitment so if you
can convey to people that you’re willing
to work hard for them and for yourself
you’ve got his business partner you’re
connecting the dots I decided to do this
I I first talked to my my wife who is
sitting here in the audience and she had
married a you know relatively stable
goofy but still relatively stable a
person working at a Wall Street firm I
worked at a quantitative hedge fund and
this was a hard decision and I was
looking for the right framework in which
to make that kind of important decision
and and and the right framework I found
is a regret minimization framework and
so that’s just a nerdy way of saying
that you want to project yourself to age
80 and then think back over your life
and and if you’re if you’re if you’re 81
or the thew want to minimize the number
of regrets you have throughout that
period of time I think this is something
a lot of people do maybe subconsciously
they probably very few people probably
name it regret minimization framework
because most people are healthier than
that but but it was a very clear way for
me to think about
making that kind of life decision and
the and in the way it helped was I
thought okay if I go do this thing and
participate in this thing called the
Internet that I genuinely believe is
gonna be a big deal and if I fail am I
going to regret having tried and failed
and I knew the answer that was no but I
also knew that if I didn’t try that I
would always regret that I would always
wonder and it would haunt me and until
that you know mythical day which I
actually hope will come and this goes
online or whatever it is it really
matters and it like really doesn’t
matter what matters is you know the
people who are sparked by it and the
people who are like offended by it it
doesn’t matter you you know like because
it’s about motivating the doers and
anyone that wants to sit around and talk
they’re doing too much time they’ve
taken too much time talking good about
it instead of getting up off their ass
and following their dreams because I’m
here to follow my dreams you know and
help other people follow their dreams
and inspire people who are dreamers it’s
crazy that we live in a world that if
you’re super positive and super creative
that it’s scary so what does that tell
you about the mentality of most people
if you’re scared of like positivity and
creativity 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 hard 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
scratching their own itch be liking what
you do whatever area that you get into
given that you know even if you if
you’re the best the best there’s always
a chance of failure so I think it’s
important that you really like whatever
you’re doing if you don’t like it life
is too short if you like what you’re
doing you think about it even when
you’re not working I mean it’ll just
it’s it’s something that your mind is
drawn to
and and if you don’t like it you just
really can’t make it work I think ideas
are worth nothing
I mean ideas are really they’re not a
dime a dozen they’re just nothing all
the good founders I know even the bad
founders can come up with ideas all day
long it doesn’t mean anything you have
to be able to execute and you know one
of the sort of Maxim’s that I was told
once was you know your success will be
measured and the number of uncomfortable
conversations you’re willing to have so
I haven’t get asked if an entrepreneur
should say start a business based on one
of their passions or if they should find
the most attractive market opportunity
and build a business out of that whether
they like it or not I don’t think it’s
either/or I think you need both I would
say look you’re in credit-card statement
identify where you spend an unusual
percentage of your income where you
price and sensitive then how old are you
what gender are you where do you live
and design a product that has all of
those things intersecting I’m also here
to tell you that I feel strongly that
long-term value for your shareholders
cannot be achieved in an enduring
sustainable way unless the management of
the company is completely
incomprehensible committed to creating
long-term value for the employees and
the two are directly linked together in
any company any management team that
turns its back on its people and doesn’t
share the success of the company with
the people who do the work are not going
to finish the race our goal is to make
the best personal computers in the world
and to make products we are proud to
sell and would recommend to our family
and friends and we want to do that at
the lowest price as we can but I have to
tell you there’s some stuff in our
industry that we wouldn’t be proud to
ship that we wouldn’t be proud to
recommend to our family and friends and
we can’t do it we just can’t ship junk
so there is there’s a there are
thresholds that we can’t cross because
of who we are but we want to make the
that wants that – and what you’ll find
is our products are usually not premium
priced you go you go and price out our
competitors products and you add the
features that you have to add to make
them useful and you’ll find in some
cases they are more expensive than our
products the difference is we don’t
offer stripped-down lousy products you
know we just don’t offer categories of
products like that but if you move those
aside and compare us with our
competitors I think we compare pretty
favorably and a lot of people have been
doing that and saying that now for the
last 18 months the key components of
growing a business is getting the
necessary capital to grow so if you
start off where you own a hundred
percent but you need more capital to
grow the business you may have to sell
off 20% 30% depending on how you look at
the business needs don’t fear that don’t
don’t be afraid about the notion that
you might fall below 51% and therefore
not be minority-owned because being
minority-owned is the culture you said
is the focus you said it’s the service
you make to serve the minority community
and it’s your commitment to do what you
can do best within the minority
community keep in mind if you go back to
a JPMorgan Chase
Jamie Dimon probably owns less than zero
zero five percent of change he’s the CEO
he just he yes but no one will ever
question whether or not he’s in charge
of chase but he’s brought in capital as
a publicly traded company to grow that
business so whether you get money from
outside investors or whether you get
money from friends or family don’t be
afraid to take on capital sell sell
shares or it’s restructure debt or treat
preferred or common whatever it is
because the notion is you want to be in
charge of a growth company if that’s
what you want to be a company that can
go to scale a company that compete and
you need capital to grow so don’t if you
want to stay above 51% by all means if
you can do it and don’t sell your equity
off do it but if you if you have to
because you’ve got a great strategic
partner that could bring something to
the table and they want to be an equity
player and you end up with 50 or less
than 50
you’re still the CEO you’re still
setting the vision for the company you
are achieving what you set out to do and
I think that’s very important to
understand because we can’t get the
scale without growth capital when
interview someone to work at the
companies would be to ask me tell me
about the problems that they worked on
and how they sold them and if someone
was really the person that solved it
they’ll be able to answer multiple
levels they’ll be able to go down to the
brass tacks and if they weren’t they’ll
get stuck and then you can say oh this
person was not really the Christmas
alter because anyone who struggled hard
with a problem against it things you go
to make you you are I don’t regret those
things
I don’t regret them because I don’t
think I’d be Who I am today
if I wasn’t exposed to those situations
if you ask me what those are unfortunate
situations that I’ve had to experience
if I had a choice I would have
definitely went in a different direction
I might want want to go to school for
business instead of having to go through
that this portion of my life but I just
so obvious they don’t even realize that
when they box me in or try to verbally
put me in some type of box or put Donda
in a box that they’re really showing
their level of ignorance they’re putting
themselves in a box and you know people
can write write write all they want but
what are people doing and if there’s
anybody that’s out there doing they know
how hard it is to actually do and I’m
like a motivation of the doers if if
everything I did failed which it doesn’t
it actually succeeds but if everything I
did failed just the fact that I’m
willing to fail is an inspiration people
are so scared to lose that they don’t
even try like one thing that people
can’t say is they can’t say
I’m not trying and I’m not trying my
hardest and I’m not trying to do it the
best way that I know how what little
information I get it used to be John
Stephens this was Kanye West who said
change to legend you know the first
person actually was a guy named Jake
Ivey who’s also from Chicago and his a
friend of mine and Kanye’s and he’s a
poet and we working on Kanye’s album and
Kanye was having me seeing all these
parts and jiv was just like man we’re
gonna have to call you the legend cuz
you know my voice is kind of old-school
I’ve always had an old soul kind of as I
mean you should just call yourself John
Legend and I was like no that’s
ridiculous big bold things and you know
maybe I’ll just roll with this whole
John Legend thing and my kind of
ultimate deciding factor was let’s not
not do it out of fear because because
you’re afraid to call yourself oh yeah
let’s not not doing because because I’m
afraid that it won’t work out cuz people
could laugh at you if you don’t have a
good career and you’re going around
blowing yourself Legend you think you
now live up to it I think I’m working on
it approaches premium products and non
premium prices so we saw the hardware at
breakeven so we don’t try to make any
money when we saw this hardware and we
hope to make money when people use the
devices not when they buy the devices
and so that’s a very different approach
from most companies most companies are
building quite a bit of profit into the
sale of these devices risk is a
necessary component of progress you can
make any pioneering movements in the
world of any kind whether they be the
geographical physical exploration that
I’ve just been talking about or whether
it be you know a more cerebral
exploration of a scientific field or I
bet you could ask that question of every
speaker here and I bet that every
speaker here has taken substantial risks
whether it be intellectual or otherwise
to achieve what they’re you know what
they’ve done hello I’m Bill Gates
chairman of Microsoft
in this video you’re going to see the
future Windows Microsoft first came up
with the Windows concept back in 1983
and today the leading software users
have switched into the Windows
environment it’s really incredible how
quickly our powerful applications like
Word and Excel and PowerPoint have been
adopted it’s not just Microsoft
applications even companies like
WordPerfect and Lotus have now come out
with Windows applications and every week
we see new innovative work it’s really
attracting all the innovation in the
industry we predicted this a long time
ago and now it’s the future what we have
always wanted to do is raise the
standard for what it means to be
customer centric to such a degree that
other organizations whether they be
other companies or whether they be
hospitals or government agencies
whatever the organization is they should
look at Amazon as a role model and say
how can we be as customer centric as
Amazon editor as I imagine right
hopefully competitors as well but if we
could make you know if that could be our
legacy that we kind of raised the
general idea of what it means to be
customer centric that would be a huge
accomplishment it would be accomplishing
a mission that’s much bigger than
ourselves
follow those rules that society is set
up and the way that they control people
with low self-esteem with improper
information with branding with marketing
I refuse to follow those rules it’s
about truth it’s about information
it’s about awesomeness and the only
luxury is time the time you spend with
your family that’s the only luxury so
this concept of luxury is improper to me
when I compare myself to Steve Jobs or
Walt Disney Howard Hughes David Stern
Michelangelo da Vinci Jesus or whatever
is I’m saying these are my heroes
these are
people that I look up to this is the
type of impact I want to make on the
earth if I could make this type of
impact up to this point what can I do if
if you call Bob Iger and say yo give him
a shot if you call Oprah and say yo back
this kid let’s just get this this kids a
kids were his parents were educators he
wants to educate he wants to look at
curriculums and say how do we simplify
that exactly what I did in music I want
to apply to product I want to apply to
education this is what my company donned
is about now is the time to take risk
you don’t have kids as you get older
your obligations increase so your and
once you have a family you start taking
risk not just before yourself but for
your family as well it gets much harder
to do things that might not work out so
now is the time to do that before you
before you have those obligations so I
would encourage you to take risks now do
something bold you won’t regret it
though many people try to talk me out of
starting a road company it was it was
crazy
one good friend of mine collected a
whole series of videos of rockets
blowing up and maybe watch those you
just didn’t want me to lose all my money
we’re doing these things that seem
unlikely to succeed and we’ve been
fortunate and at least thus far they
have succeeded everyone out there in TV
world real world whatever world you stay
in needs to know that I’ve never done a
publicity stunt of my life anytime I
went up and spoke my mind where they put
my career in jeopardy or whatever
someone so called said it was always
what I thought was the truth whether I’m
like reading through a teleprompter or
whatever or whatever I felt emotionally
I don’t follow like rules of like you
know normal celebrity or what their
publicist tells them to say or anything
but i say things the wrong way a lot of
times if my intention is always positive
and i want to bring more things to the
world i want to help the world i want to
make people’s lives easier if you guys
look at the same interview it’s really
something extremely fearless for someone
in my position to do because most people
just like you know bow tie on a TV or
whatever bow down to these cameras like
i could care less about any of these
cameras in all honesty all i care about
is my family i care about protecting my
girl for tara protecting my baby and
protecting my ideas in my dreams
i’m totally weird and i’m totally honest
and i’m totally inappropriate
times and the thing is you know for me
to say I wasn’t a genius I would just be
lying to you and to myself if you’re a
new company I mean this is like some new
industry or new market that if it’s an
untapped market or then then you have
more ability to give is this the
standard is lower for your product or
service but if you’re entering anything
where there’s an existing market place
against Lodge entrenched competitors
then your product or service needs to be
much better than theirs it can’t be a
little bit better because then you put
yourself in the shoes of the consumer
and they say why would you buy it as a
consumer you’re always gonna bribe 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 got to be a lot better
my Keller gets very full with those and
then at night after the kids have gone
to bed I’m on email a great deal I get
messages during the day that’s my chance
give long responses and then over the
weekend I send a lot of mail as well as
well I take two weeks a year to just go
off and read and think where I’m not
interrupted by work or anything else I’m
just solidly trying to think about the
future and people get to send me things
to read as part of that so-called think
week so it’s nice mix of things about
25% of the time that I’m out traveling
around meeting with customers Europe
Asia and that sort of helps me think
okay do we have the right priorities
what what are people responding well to
and what would they they like to see us
do better
anyone how well you want to do in
particularly if you’re starting a
company you need to work super hot so
what is super heart mean well when my
brother and I were studying our first
company instead of getting an apartment
we just rented us a small office and we
slept on the couch
and we showered at the YMCA and we’re so
hot up we had one computer so the the
website was up during the day and I was
coding at night seven days a week all
the time and I sort of briefly had a
gopher in that period and in order to be
with me she had to sleep in the office
so I work hard like it mean every waking
hour that’s that’s the the thing I would
I would say if your particular if you’re
starting a company and I mean if you do
simple math to say like okay if somebody
else is working 50 hours when you’re
working 100 you’ll get twice as done as
much done in the course of a year as the
other company do the things unsuccessful
people don’t want to do or have a very
difficult time doing guys very difficult
time and that is keeping yourself going
when nothing’s working when everyone
else is saying no no no no no if you
want to be in business for yourself and
free you must learn to dominate you
cannot compete okay how many were
trained this competition is a healthy
thing that message was not being
delivered to entrepreneurs that message
was being delivered to consumers
there was somebody saying look the more
more oil companies we have the better
because it’s good for the customer right
the more technology companies we have is
not just Microsoft the better for the
customer and in two billion inventions
and you know improvements and products
comes from competition but if you’re the
one playing the game you want to
dominate the field so look here’s the
deal I might be wrong and what I say
okay I might be wrong in the things I do
in my life and the business that I
started my families told me not to start
every business that I’ve been involved
in every one of them every one of them
was a risk everyone on my hand to take a
chance I remember my mom used to tell me
I wouldn’t do that if I were you I
wouldn’t do that if I were you I
wouldn’t do that if I were you I’m like
mommy you wouldn’t do anything well you
wouldn’t do anything except be the
mother a great mother to five children
my mother was an entrepreneur she didn’t
my dreams just because she’s my mom
doesn’t mean she dreams like me would
you agree okay
my mom was wrong about everything she
told me not to do love my mom to death
okay
unbelievable friend of mine she was
wrong I needed to do those things okay
Steve Jobs needed to build this phone
would you agree did he help a lot of
people did he make some money while he
was doing it 119 billion dollars in five
years in the bank cash I’m not talking
about profit I’m talking about in the in
done in the bank sitting there okay
brings a great product to the
marketplace domination or competition
total domination coca-cola competition
or domination total domination okay
Exxon total domination you see what I’m
saying you want to be in a dominating
point okay so what we got to do is we
got to get you thinking we got to get
you thinking like the dominators think
how did they act how does Warren Buffett
act what does Warren Buffett do with his
time all the time those are the people I
study today I don’t study the people
that I went to school with the teachers
I went to school with I don’t even study
my own family members okay I’m looking
for people that are way up here that I
could say hey what are they doing
because they’re doing it right well the
thing that you’re likely to be
world-class at is whatever you obsessed
over from say age 12 to 18 you know in
my case it was writing software where I
would think I was good and then I would
meet somebody who would tell me I wasn’t
and I would look at their code and I
went through four sort of comeuppance
ha’s of oh that’s what a really good
programmer looks like and part of the
reason I worship Digital Equipment was
eventually it was a couple of their very
best programmers who came and shared
with me how they thought about it how
they did thing and I had studied their
code and and that and there there were
several people who were so key am I
doing that so today I would go into you
know software which today that means
going into artificial intelligence you
know computers still can’t read they
they cannot take a book of information
and say pass an AP test on that book and
that’s a solvable problem
but it’s a knowledge representation
problem and you know I’ve always wanted
to solve that problem I’m jealous that
maybe one of you gets to work on that
you know unlikely to go back and be
hands-on in that in that way but it’s
the juiciest problem ever I’ve thought
about it for a long time so I would go
into AI I think Mark Zuckerberg said it
brilliantly at Harvard he was saying
that finding your purpose isn’t enough
you have to help other people find this
and I know you’re passionate about this
whatever that definition is but it has
to lead everyone so if I’m whether I
meet a celebrity and entrepreneur or
whether I meet somebody starting out I’m
always asking the question how can you
use what you have to make a difference
in the life of other people yeah because
if you start there everything else will
work out but if you’re starting from the
point of what am I gonna get then you’re
always gonna feel disconnected and I see
that I see people who live like that and
feel pain in their lives every day I see
that it’s not like some conceptual
philosophy we see it I see people who
are only in it for themselves and they
feel disconnected dissatisfied every
single day and then you see the other
extreme where people are just trying to
give too much more than they even have
themselves and they also feel
disconnected and again nothing at all
nothing at all right so we know it again
attachment and aversion two sides of the
same coin mm-hmm so we want to be in
that dynamic balance of growth but
always to give yeah so I always think
how can I go three steps deeper so that
I can move three steps forward so I can
give three times as much right so that’s
always my mentality how do I go deeper
to go more forward to give more yeah and
if I can get those three in action for
that reason see it’s what about the
reasoning you can do anything you like but it’s why are you doing it worse
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