so just go and do it
try learn from it you know you’ll fail
at some things that’s a learning
experience that you need so that you can
take that on to the next experience and
don’t let people who you may respect and
who you believe know what they’re
talking about don’t let them tell you it
can’t be done because often they will
tell you it can’t be done and it’s just
because they don’t have the courage to
try it Ben Graham and his low and his
level of teens looked around and he
looked at the people he admired and he
said you know I want to be at Mars so
why don’t I just behave like them and he
found there was nothing impossible about
behaving like them and similarly he did
the same thing on the reverse side in
terms of getting rid of those qualities
baby steps count too as long as you’re
going forward and one day you had all
those baby steps up in you might be
surprised at where you can get to but
more importantly I remember something my
mom used to see to me every day she
would say son the cavalry ain’t coming
you got to do this yourself
ain’t no backup okay and when you put
those two things together man it wasn’t
as hard to keep going forward as you
might think so to really take a
longer-term view not just you know to
look three months from now but look
three years now and but the future is
gonna come whether you like it or not so
you want to kind of be one step ahead
it’s a mind game then it’s why I think
it’s psychology and everything again
life most of life comes down to
psychology doesn’t it it starts here in
the internal world before you can master
the external world you have to master
your own internal world that’s the true
secret to success people that look for
great ideas to make money you know
aren’t nearly as successful as those who
say okay what do I really love to do
what am i excited about what I knew
something about you know what’s kind of
interesting and compelling it’s very
rewarding when you work on something you
think is gonna make it
fritzsche and yeah it’s a little bit
harder but I think I think the passion
that one might bring with it brings so
much more energy to that that you’re
more likely to succeed you need to care
about everything and it starts with
yourself look yourself in the mirror and
ask yourself what do I want to do every
day for the rest of my life do that I
promise you can monetize that if you
love Alf doing Alf blog you collect
Smurfs Smurfs it up whatever you need to
do do it so many people are talking
about I can’t monetize I can’t monetize
there’s a billion seven-year-old
douchebags that are in control right now
but the number two person that 34 year
old lady she’s gonna buy your she’s
gonna put the advertising on your stuff
it’s coming stop crying and just keep
hustling I had no idea I grew up in
Pittsburgh
my dad did upholstery on cars so if you
got to rip in your car see you took it
to him my mom had odd jobs from selling
real estate to making baskets and you
know I was just a normal kid but I was
always into business from as long as I
could remember I was selling something
or working on something trying to make
money and I just it just got me excited
to be a business person and it just took
off from there we all need a mission
that’s what life should be is a mission
that’s what gives your life purpose and
focus and drive and ultimately
satisfaction now that mission can be the
job you work at it can be providing for
your family or it can be getting better
at jiu-jitsu or stronger at Olympic
lifting or starting a business that you
want to grow and build and take over the
world and sometimes people ask me what
to do if they don’t know what their
mission is or what their mission should
be and I tell them if they’re in that
situation to go help someone gonna help
someone else make that your mission
because that will make you better
and it’ll make the world better and
eventually from that you’ll see what
your mission is from the time I was
seven years old
every Saturday I would go for four hours
of acting class every Saturday whoa and
I loved it I just left it till the point
with all the kids graduated and went on
to the other stuff and I started doing
adult acting classes and then I was in
the commercial classes and then I loved
like the hair and makeup classes and
just everything I just couldn’t get
enough soon as I got off the phone call
with him and then also when he said it’s
not in the picture now but we think I
think it’d be great at Dallas dance at
the end and my heartbeat went up on the
phone and I started breaking the cold
sweat like oh no I thought that’s not
and as soon as I would all no that’s not
that the other other devil in my ear
said dare you do and I just mean of
course I think it’s yes because I
immediately notice if you don’t your
listen out dude are you kidding me you
will forever regret you have to so soon
as I got over that I was like well
that’s inevitable I’m doing it mmm now I
got to bust my ass too
go do it the best I can and a lot of
fear that I mean that was yeah those are
those that was some major really good
anxiety and fear and then now we’re
saying now I’m saying by that time now
everything my choice is from that phone
call long work anything I was nervous
but you have to go now do go all the way
go meet midnight yes can y’all meet him
for another Corey choreographed session
8:00 a.m. Sunday morning do you got an
hour
I’m gonna go send them here my wife’s
over there watching reading something
I’m standing the mirror I’m gonna
practice as I moved this is really
embarrassing well too bad man do it in
the mirror right now because the less
embarrassing that gets hopefully the
more comfortable you’ll be when you’re
out there in front of 80 people and
bunch of cameras and one thing you do
when you go out there don’t come up
short yo go all the way will prevent me
to visualize where you want to be what
you want to accomplish you you kind of
get lost in the process of day-to-day
you know grinding it out working pulling
on eyes if you have to you know that
this is just about not losing vision and
not losing sight of what you’re what
you’re trying to accomplish no matter
what hurdles you have to go through so I
think that kind of relates to whatever
you’re doing whatever you know major
you’ve chosen or what you’re interested
in so for me and basketball and it’s
about you know visualizing whether you
write it down and put it on the wall do
something with what your goals are and
get lost in the process of the
day-to-day grind day-to-day getting
better every single day asking questions
aligning yourself with people that have
been through it before they’re that are
experienced and leaning on that advice
and just trying to outwork the next
person and that’s the biggest thing try
and be decisive I try and even if I
don’t know what the hell I’m doing I try
to be decisive because I think it’s very
comforting and reassuring and important
to the people that work with you to feel
that whoever is in charge knows what
they’re doing and knows what they’re
thinking and that if it’s a yes it’s a
yes and it’s a no it’s a no I mean I
don’t think of myself as a boss I mean I
I think of myself as someone who’s
giving direction and guidance and
vice-versa compassion for yourself
of course it’s as important as
compassion for others when often I get
asked questions like people who did
something that they now realize realized
was deeply wrong in the past sometimes
people ask questions about they brought
up their children in a way that they now
realize was not very conscious and so
that they may have caused suffering to
their children or others people find
they have caused suffering to loved ones
and they now realize that what they did
was wrong and again I say this is an
example where you need to be
compassionate with yourself because no
Bowman being can act beyond their level
of consciousness so that was your level
of consciousness at the time and you
could not go beyond that and again here
to make demands upon yourself up to a
point it might be a good thing to if you
as long as you enjoy it it’s a wonderful
thing when the enjoyment of what you’re
doing is lost then you have to be
careful because there you have to come
to a stop and say okay this there’s
something here that’s not right because
I’m no longer enjoying what I’m doing
I’ve learned an experience is that you
know if you don’t open up and you don’t
delegate
then you’ll kill yourself and if there’s
one thing I’ve managed to understand is
the art of delegation because if I can
pass on you know to Claire Smith to
Arian my palate my understanding my
knowledge then grab it run it and then
pass on to your team don’t hold that
inside I was with a bunch of other
investors who I respect and they brought
me a deal and I wanted to be part of it
but it didn’t feel right and I wrote
millions of dollars on that one and it
just didn’t feel right and I lost it all
within two years associate investors
trust their gut then absolutely and
trust you
oh what about you said earlier don’t be
emotional and sometimes the gut no this
is this is a barometer of risk it’s
something an internalized for an
investor that says I don’t feel
comfortable it’s not about emotion just
don’t write that check that was recently
the first time I didn’t listen to that
and I lost everything
so now my radar is up I listen to my gut
it’s not an emotion it’s an index of
risk and you get it as you age you
become a better investor every year if
only I could live to 200 I’d be really
good many many kids and many grown-ups
do figure out over time what their
passions are and sometimes we let our I
don’t think it’s that hard I think what
happens though sometimes is that we let
our intellectual selves overrule those
passions and so that’s what needs to be
guarded against you will 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 glory I don’t
pay no attention to what they say about
me all I do is just do what I have to do
and get paid that’s it but I don’t
really pay no attention to the rules of
boxing I don’t pay no attention i define
rules i define I’ve added pages to the
book of boxing the world is a hurting
place and the world needs hope and the
world needs love without hope feel like
why are we here
well brokenness here’s mine
today I still have no arms or legs but
everything’s changed everything for me I
was looking for hope and happiness and I
couldn’t see it for many years in fact
if this side of the table represents my
hope truth encourages me to become all
that I can be but then we have lies
every day coming in our mind
people who discourage us you know the
people that you have in your life who no
matter how good of a day you’re having
they’ll bring you down or and no matter
how bad of a day you’re having they’ll
bring you even lower you know what I’m
talking about
think of the three biggest discourages
in your life they’re not your biggest
discourages you are you are it only
takes three seconds for me to tell you
something discouraging but then you may
never forget my words a lot of times
I’ll be the tours at Mile Run or
something like that and I’m all jacked
up body’s broken mines broken spirits
broken I started to say what if I can
pull this off when I first walked into
the Navy SEAL recruiters office he
looked at me and said only been 35
african-americans and 70 years make it
through you know I said to myself what
if I can be the 36 it’s the what if I
can pull off a miracle
what if I can become someone that no one
thinks I can be and just that just means
talking about that I have the hair
growing up on my arms because it makes
me just like what if
I can be that guy that people who called
nigger and this and that and now I’m
speaking at Tom fairy events well you
have to treat yourself like you matter
because if you don’t then you don’t take
care of yourself and you become vengeful
and and and cruel and you you take you
take it out on people around you and
you’re not a positive force none of
that’s good
so you suffer more and so does everyone
around you and there’s a malevolence
that enters into it none of that’s good
so that’s what happens if you don’t
treat yourself like you matter and then
what happens if you don’t treat other
people like they matter
well you lie to them you cheat them you
steal you you you enter into impulsive
relationships with them they can’t trust
you
that doesn’t go anywhere they don’t like
you you you end up alone at best and
maybe like incarcerated at worst like
that doesn’t work and so you watch the
people around you who thrive regardless
of what they say they act out the
proposition that everyone matters and
then you have a functional society and I
think ok well if if if when you act out
the proposition that everyone matters
you have a functional society maybe
that’s evidence that that proposition is
true it’s like I think it’s I think it’s
true it’s so hard I thought doing this
research I thought going into it there
are authentic people and inauthentic
people who I had I did not find any
evidence of that at all what I found is
authenticity to practice and you choose
it every day sometimes every hour of
every day and it’s a practice it’s not I
just wake up in ham authentic you have
to have an emotional investment in what
you’re doing if you don’t love what
you’re doing
failure is pretty much guaranteed
success is not guaranteed by any means
but failure is much more likely if you
don’t love what you’re doing you know
one of the things that I do is I
question a lot of things and you can do
that in a good way in a bad way but
hopefully if you try to get people to
motivate why they’re doing something and
their way of thinking you know the worst
thing you can end up with it’s a
situation where you get told well this
is the way it’s always been
that’s the worst ever that’s a
non-answer instead ask yourself you know
given everything you have today it’s
their way we can make this better when
it comes to changing the world what I
learned from Steve Jobs is if you
believe in a Macintosh if you believe in
iPhone iPod iPad if you believe enough
then you will see it because other
people will believe in it other people
will create software other people will
create products so you need to foster
the belief in what you are dreaming so
that it becomes a reality which is very
different than saying I don’t expect
anybody to believe it until I see it you
need people to believe it before they
can see it and so when we’re coming up
with ideas you know we always ask
ourselves what kind of new market is
this creating and then also what what
part of my day and and what problem is
it solving and so I’ve gone as far as
taking an entire catalogue of my day
from the moment I like open my eyes and
writing down every single thing I do and
then asking myself like is there
something here don’t necessarily think
that you have to have the homerun in the
huge Apple Computer on your first start
I spent a long time in my life with
skills just building little devices for
fun for fun is one of the key things
does that drives you to think and think
and think and make it better and better
and better than you ever would if you’re
doing it for a company build things at
first for yourself that you would want
if you’re not coming up with 10 ideas a
day that’s I’m not coming up I’m filling
up this page every single day then my
idea muscle will atrophy and I started
this in 2001 and I still do it every
single day like you have to come up with
ideas every single day or the idea
muscle atrophies the good news is after
about six months of doing that you’re
like a machine like people get surprised
at how many ideas you could just have
any 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 tell you
if it’s really working or not if you’re
not utilizing an online community then
you’re at a disadvantage to those who
are you can be asking online communities
what they think about your ideas or if
they have any advice with what you’re
working on not only will you hear from
people who are passionate about the
subject but you’ll be hearing from
people all around the world each with
their own experiences and stories that
can help you once you have the
passionate thing that you’re passionate
about now you can look at other people
or other entities or other things or
works of art you can draw things from
that to help you be better at what you
do by looking for those common
denominators as I wanted to know how do
I prepare her how do I prepare how do I
study how do I view the game how do you
build your game and my response is much
like the way he builds products and you
think sequentially oh yeah you look at
this the end result of what you want to
create but in order to create that
there’s so many other little things that
go into this massive entity that your
device it’s no different than building
my basketball game you start with what
do you want your game to be will we make
your game most unstoppable or hard to
deal with and now you work backwards
from there and you start building in one
piece at a time one move at a time one
count there’s a lot of similarities
there you want an idea about what you
can say I know it sounds like a bad idea
but here’s specifically why it’s
actually a great one you want to sound
crazy but you want to actually be right
because when you’re trying to
differentiate when you’re trying to do
something different there’s going to be
that gut moment that gut sense is this
right is this not right if you’re not if
you’re not having doubt you’re not
pushing the boundaries far enough one of
the things I advise entrepreneurs to do
is when you have an idea a classic
entrepreneurial impulse is to hold the
idea close to you and not go to help you
because all the ideas so special
right that’s almost always a mistake go
talk to why is that a mistake it’s a
mistake because your actual real
competitive advantage is not that you
have this idea that you have locked away
in your closet which may or may not be
accurate and you have no idea which it
is your actual competitive and
if you’re assembling the intelligence
around does this idea work what is the
right team what is the right learnings
and we’re essentially in most like we
have to do everything three times before
we get it right
thankfully I know that so I know that I
have to get up early and and try it five
times because the eight-year-old will be
able to get past it in two times so I
have to be on my feet longer but at
least I know it and so I just go at
stuff and it served me very well and
that my resume is pretty varied and I
have a pretty interesting life you know
get to do different stuff and have a bit
of access because I just said yeah I’ll
try that I mean why would I hold back I
think success first of all is knowing my
purpose in life as I have watched and
observed successful people what I have
discovered about them is they really
have figured out why they’re here they
really do have their act together and
and and knowing their purpose in life is
a stability for them so that when
everyone else is rocking and rolling and
and and and things are a little unsteady
and people are kind of leaving the ship
and people are kind of abandoning their
causes with these people they hold
steady right throughout the storm
because they they have a true North Star
they truly are focused it becomes an it
comes an anchor in their life that just
holds them steady and the anchor is a
confidence based upon a knowledge of
purpose
there were the things that I probably
should have done not from my perspective
I mean from my point of view I did the
right things every every film that I’ve
done I’m happy that I that I made that
choice I don’t have any regrets
whatsoever but I mean in terms of
sustaining box-office
you know bankability I should have done
a few of the things that I didn’t do but
I’m glad I didn’t do them me no because
it wouldn’t have been you yeah well I
would it would have been for the wrong
reasons
I did everything that I’ve been lucky
enough to do I did for the right reasons
don’t think about how do I get really
how do I get big fast that will happen
if you actually build something super
meaningful and super important so don’t
think about you know what is the
quickest way to success think about what
is the best way to building something
important that the world really needs
and so when we see a kid with a lemonade
stand it’s different than when we see a
vending machine selling lemonade even if
it’s exactly the same product because
the story around it is what people are
paying for so when I meet small business
people all I ask them is not what’s
their balance sheet but what’s their
story why should I pick you why do I
care about what you’re doing and if you
start giving me all this inside baseball
statistics about why you’re 2 percent
better than some other competitor
I’m already glazed over because that’s
not part of the way I see the world you
don’t have to be the best but you have
to be dangerous right you have to learn
just enough to be dangerous to build an
idea concept it and show it to the world
and then it turns out there are lots of
other people including all 170 employees
that work at Instagram who are much
better at doing all that stuff than I am
but you’d need to find people who can
you know be drawn to the idea that you
build and and then they end up taking it
and
and make an even bet that I have to want
this to exist in the world like it have
to not so it’s a similar rule just say
if this was successful and I had nothing
and I got no and I was not involved and
I got no money off it or wasn’t what I
wanted to do well and that’s a great
check I think to know if you really feel
good about the idea and can be
passionate about it this little idea
explains why some organizations and some
leaders are able to inspire where others
aren’t let me define the terms really
quickly every single person every single
organization on the planet knows what
they do 100 percent some know how they
do it when you call it you’re
differentiating value proposition or
your proprietary process or your USP but
very very few people or organizations
know why they do what they do and by why
I don’t mean to make a profit that’s a
result it’s always a result by why I
mean what’s your purpose what’s your
cause what’s your belief why does your
organization exist I say to the my girls
all of the time that your real work is
to figure out where your power base is
personality your gifts that you have to
give with the real reason why you’re
here that’s that’s the number one thing
you have to do is to work on yourself
and to fill your self up and keep your
cup full keep yourself full now I used
to be afraid of that I used to be afraid
particularly from people who say oh she
said she’s so full of herself she’s so
close or so and now I embrace it I I
considered a compliment that I am full
of myself because you only when you’re
full I’m full I’m overflowing my cup
runneth over
I have so much I have so much to offer
and so much to give and I am not afraid
of honoring myself you know it’s
miraculous when you think about 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 fright like whether they’re you
know a blue collar worker waiting for
the bus or they’re you know helping you
at you’re there 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 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 I
think great entrepreneurs must have the
curiosity to to kind of metaphorically
see around the corner what’s coming what
can I anticipate that other people don’t
see and then you must have the courage
of your convictions to execute the
strategy you know one way to
conceptualize what makes a good product
is you know good engineering is part of
it good design is part of it but really
it’s one way I think about it at least
is maximizing the probability that
someone shows up at the front door of
you know your store or your website or
or whatever it is and ends up with a
solved problem and oftentimes the best
methodology is to start with the perfect
experience 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 to do
as acting turned out to be all that you
wanted it to be it’s incredible it’s
incredible you know I I never knew that
I could do it as a career I never knew
it was the first memory that I had it’s
the first thing I can think of as saying
I want to be an actor to my parents and
if I hadn’t lived in Los Angeles and
been in such close proximity to sort of
the mecca of moviemaking
if I didn’t have parents that said okay
we’ll drive you to auditions we didn’t
have the economic
means to you know move camp from Idaho
to Los Angeles because some snotty
ten-year-old kids as a latina we did it
after school I got to go on auditions
but it was always and I’ve said this
before it felt like an elite group of
people and it felt like I would never
belong to them so once I got the
opportunity to to for example get the
movie this boy’s life with Robert De
Niro I said wow now I’m able to not be
able to steer the course of my career I
might be able to have a career similar
to these guys that I’m you know I so
admire and that I knew what 15 years old
was the biggest gift in the world and
that that’s that’s never left me you
know I’ve never I’ve never met that
thirst or that hunger for wanting to
give one great performance that I’m
truly satisfied with or being one movie
that I said I love this film is
something that I don’t know will ever be
quenched I don’t know and that’s I think
that that’s a good thing because it
keeps making it keeps pushing you you
markets you want to go after small
markets and you want to take over those
markets quickly go talk to people who
failed at what you’re doing and who are
no longer doing it
there always are those people so you
started to start up you know you look at
the history of your space I’m so
surprised how many people I talk to is
found ours who have no idea the history
of their own space and there’s some
night there’s some nice naivete to that
in the sense that like oh you’re gonna
do it differently and and there’s some
truth to that but like when you get down
to to making it work and now you’re into
it already you’ve kind of stylist what
you’re doing and you have some problems
then I’d go talk to all these people who
failed because you’ll uncover all sorts
of interesting things that you could try
it looks and lots of companies and why I
thought they
don’t succeed over time we’ve had a more
rapid turnover of companies I said what
did they fundamentally do wrong and one
of those companies all do wrong and they
usually it’s just they missed the future
and so I think for me I just tried to
focus on that and say what does that
future really gonna be and how do we
create it I do believe that
organizations human organizations are
inherently unstable they will fall over
and you have to work to keep them
upright but they fall slowly most people
don’t notice it they let their success
they blind them they don’t see it
falling over the following takes place
but the collapse is quick you have to do
constant assessments you have to look
for the hard truths that whatever you do
somebody can do it better you have to
bring your a-game in every single day
there’s nothing unique about any one
individual what’s unique is their
passion their ability to execute to meet
targets and exceed them the minute you
lose that ability in capitalism you’re
gone it’s a fair trade the engine that
makes you rich can take it all away from
you there are no guarantees I think
that’s incredibly important there’s a
lot of conventional wisdom out there
built up over time and built through all
and this may be fully applicable to most
of the companies out there but before
it’s applied to your organization I
highly recommend that you question it
because it could be absolutely fatal for
your success how do you think about
making a decision when everyone tells
you this is a crazy idea where do you
get the internal strength to do that
well first well I’d say I actually think
I think I feel fear quite strongly so
it’s not as though I just have the
absence of fear I’ve I feel it quite
strongly but there are times when
something is important enough you
believe it enough that you do you do it
in spite of the fear
so speaking of important things like
people shouldn’t think III should think
well I feel fear about this and
therefore I shouldn’t do it it’s normal
to be to feel fear like you’d have to
definitely something mentally wrong you
shouldn’t feel fair
so you just feel it and let the
importance of it anyway yeah you know
actually we’re something that can be
helpful as fatalism some degree if you
just think if just accept the
probabilities then that diminishes fear
so we’re starting SpaceX I thought the
odds of success were less than 10% and I
just accepted that actually probably I
would just lose lose everything but that
maybe would make some progress if we
could just move the ball forward even if
we died maybe some other company could
pick up the baton and move keep moving
it forward
so that we still do some good
yeah same with Tesla I thought your odds
of a car company succeeding were
extremely low 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 more
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
marketing process even as we scale up
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 as a start-up
is that we can actually get away with
doing this we can make this the core
part of why we’re doing business would
have come through on your word it allows
the guys that you’re leading male or
female to be able to say okay we can
follow this person because he won’t let
us down
you know for me as the leader of our
franchise and the leader of my household
and a leader of so many you know
different different things I think it’s
the confidence but it’s also in
practicing what you preach I’m not a guy
who just talks about I actually go out
and do it as well from a basketball
perspective or from from a leadership
perspective or my kids in my foundation
you know we have a promise initiative
where they promised me that they will go
to school there with city teachers
they’d be great to their classmates and
I promised them that I will continue to
be a great role model a father figure
for them and not let those guys down so
I take that responsibility and I don’t
just talk about I actually do it as well
so when you’re able to come through on
your word it allows the guys that you’re
leading male or female to be able to say
we can follow this person because he
won’t let us down no matter if it’s no
matter if it’s going good or bad you
know every day is not a bed of roses we
understand that and you have to be able
to handle adversity as well I do think
that one thing that’s important is
especially if you’re a founder or a
technical founder is to realize that you
can’t do everything and even if you can
you shouldn’t I think you should be
spending your money on on on teaching
and sharing and so that might mean
hiring a writer too perhaps instead of a
marketing person you know and start
writing and start getting people to
listen to what you’re saying you can’t
talk about yourself all the time because
no one’s going to come back for that but
to talk about things that are relevant
to your industry or ideas that you have
and start to build that audience up try
to do something that you would want to
do anyway whether it’s doesn’t
necessarily have to be very successful
business because when you do decide to
become an entrepreneur and start a
business chances are it’s not gonna do
it’s not gonna become like a
multi-million dollar business so at
least do something that you love in the
beginning so that even if it fails you’d
still enjoy it I’m not saying you
shouldn’t have a you know vision for
your idea or your product but you need
to be open to change it you should find
a great partner no matter what it is
that you’re doing and you should look
for someone who is very high
intelligence very high energy and very
high integrity and you need all three of
those they can’t compromise if any one
of them otherwise you’ll end up with
either someone was not smart which is
you know good or someone’s not
hard-working which also doesn’t have
good or the worst case is you end up
with the smart hard-working crook who
ends up working against your interests
and integrity something that takes a lot
of time spent with someone to figure out
we know from our past experiences that
big things start small you know the
biggest oak starts from an acorn and
you’ve got to recognize you want to do
anything new you’ve got to be willing to
let that acorn grow into a little
sapling and then finally into a small
tree and maybe one day it’ll be
a big business on its own and in fact
that’s one of the mottos for one of your
initiatives and forgive my pronunciation
of the Latin but Greta team for Oct what
does that mean to you well it means step
by step ferociously and it’s the motto
for Blue Origin and basically you can’t
skip steps you have to put one foot in
front of the other things take time you
there are no shortcuts and but but you
want to do those steps with you know
passion and ferocity or a lot of things
that are outside of your control a lot
of external circumstances will depend
like determine the success of your idea
whether you know the market timing is
right for this new kind of service or
whether people you know whether a
customer like the economy’s could right
for for for your kind of service right
well there you meet the right people who
will find answer a company many many
external circumstances are like outside
of your control and like but will affect
the outcome you have to like be ok with
that
looks like you always go out of your
comfort zone right coming on to an
island that was completely deserted no
fresh water you don’t even have the
money to buy it and and now you’re
sleeping on a tent on the beach trying
to figure out how to get fresh water
here you do that often you did it with
the airline I mean I was just somebody
that experienced the bad experience of
traveling on Airlines I was actually
trying to get to the BVI the British
Virgin Islands one day from Puerto Rico
and the same lovely lady was waiting for
me and I’ve been away for three weeks
and American Airlines bumped the flight
and and I went to the back of the
airport I had a plane I had a black
board I wrote Virgin Airlines one-way
twenty nine dollars to the BVI I went
around all the people have been bumped
and I filled my first plane and and that
got me thinking you know the airline’s
do bump people they don’t care about
your me particularly in the air and so
we sigh then rang up Boeing and said you
have any secondhand 747 okay I mean it
was literally that you just sat in the
airport and so I’m starting an airline
right now because I’m frustrated exactly
and I think most most of
best entrepreneurial ideas come out of
frustration I think you know if you if
you’re frustrated about something the
best way of sorting it out is get out
and do it and you’ve got yourself a
business 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 in it
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 term the most important thing
when you’re working with people early is
that you guys line up on on what your
goals are that’s that’s really that
sounds really basic but you can totally
it can be fine you can want to build a
small business that makes money and you
don’t have to go to an office or you can
want to build a huge company if you want
to build Google but I think you have to
be really really aligned on them so the
most important part of getting to a goal
is to start feeling it now is to start
acting as if right if you want to be
that leader if you want to be that
author if you want to be that painter
all it takes is one action and you truly
are in the process of becoming it so
it’s funny that I am literally basically
done with the book and I’m like can I
call myself an author yet I’ve written a
book of course because you have taken
the action you’re doing the actions
there is no final anointing of anyone
there’s no ceremony there’s no fireworks
you just start acting as if and feeling
it and envisioning it and picturing it
and soon enough you become it right so
everybody starts somewhere so whether
you are a famous ballerina or an Olympic
swimmer they all started somewhere they
all had to take that first class they
all had to take that first leap into the
water right and at what point can you
start calling yourself a swimmer a
dancer an author it’s the second that
you start taking action and you start
thinking it and you’re feeling it right
it’s about embodying it so my biggest
tip for you is to start seeing yourself
as that person and start taking the
small actions of being that person that
you want to be that’s the only thing
that is separating you from actually
being it so you have to act as if in
order to really start getting that ball
rolling and all of a sudden you are when
you know a lot of corporations have they
might call them core values or guiding
principles or so on but the problem is
usually they’re very lofty sounding they
kind of read like a press release the
marketing department put out they sound
just like their competitors and maybe
you learn about it on day one of your
job but then it becomes this meaningless
plaque on the lobby wall well we wanted
to come up with committable core values
and by committable meaning we’re willing
to hire or fire people based on those
values completely independent of their
actual job performance everyone has a
problem with time but the day is 24
hours and we sleep 6 now I know there’s
some out there that say I need 8 but I
say just sleep a little faster because
the bottom line is we have six hours of
sleep 24 hours are available so if 18
hours now available to your work your
family your hobbies and also to learn
something new or to do something new
which could easily be that you want to
learn a new language or that you want to
read and as a New Year’s resolution I
have to read a book every week where you
say I’m gonna go and reshape my party so
you’re gonna go and take this hour out
of your schedule and say I’m gonna train
an hour every day so this is for most
people a huge challenge but it is
totally doable I can tell them because
the kind of things that I did when I
came to this country I mean I went to
school almost working on construction I
was working out my five hours a day I
was taking acting classes from 8 o’clock
at night at
from midnight I was doing all of those
things I wanted to make sure that out of
the 24 hours of the day that I don’t
waste one single hour those hours were
too precious and so they I just want to
tell people don’t give me this thing I
have a difficult time at the time and I
don’t have time for this neither of that
you have time you make the time so I
kind of like half jokingly with with a
lot of people say that you know my job
is basically like to be to be the
assistant for the rest of the company
like my job is to make sure that like
you have what you need that it’s and
basically you have everything you need
to kick ass like that’s my job if you
don’t have that then let me know because
I’m not doing my job 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 gonna make tons of
mistakes right 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 kind of bounce back and you learn
and nothing is impossible you just have
to kind of keep running through the
walls the two things we really zero in
on a people are you know two things they
sound simple they end up being very
difficult courage and genius courage is
the one we talk about a lot because it’s
the one that people can learn you know
courage courage which is to say not
giving up in the face of adversity
you know just being absolutely
determined to succeed you know is
something that you can you can like
force yourself to do it can be very
painful you can force yourself to do it
the genius part is a little bit hard to
force yourself to do you know courage
without genius might not get you where
you need to go but genius without
courage almost certainly won’t if you
don’t love it you won’t make it through
the long period of pain that is
inevitable so make sure that you take
care of yourself during the process make
sure that you take care of your mental
health your physical health while you’re
doing it because it’s a long road I
think my biggest tip is just get started
I meet a lot of young entrepreneur
to have good ideas or bad ideas or some
ideas and you don’t want to be a person
who just talks and talks and talks you
have to actually go and do something and
don’t worry about if it’s the perfect
thing or not there is this myth of
entrepreneurship that you’ll have the
one genius idea and suddenly everything
falls into place
it doesn’t work like that it’s a hard
slog there’s a lot of things to do wrong
a lot of things you’ll do right the
sooner you get started the sooner you’ll
get somewhere you know one of the things
that I tell people when they asked me
for advice about what they should do
when they’re wanting to start their own
business or take a next step in their
career is to actually start small I
think a lot of people try to they kind
of psyched themselves out or they get
too overwhelmed with how big something
can get but the truth is you really just
gotta start small and you got to prove
it before you skate make sure you choose
you know when you’re trying to decide
whether or not an idea is good enough to
pursue or a particular business is
something you want to want to go forward
with make sure that it’s the type of
business that when you’re standing in
the shower it’s the thing you want to
think about for the next 10 or 20 years
people really love simplicity so if you
look at the problems with large software
like Microsoft Office every feature in
Microsoft Office somebody wanted at some
time but what happens is over 10 or 20
years the thing gets so huge it’s
overwhelming so the discipline of great
product design is to figure out what are
the important cases for the long term
and to have the discipline to say no to
some things that are good it’s easy to
say no to things that are bad but great
product design is saying no to some
things that are good you have to decide
if you’re gonna be a slow-growth company
or get big Fast Company because any time
you try to straddle those two lines
painful things happen to you a lot of
people come to me they say well I want
to be an entrepreneur and I go that’s
great what’s your idea and they go well
I don’t have one yet and I say well I
think you should go get a job as a
busboy or something so you find
something you’re really passionate about
because it’s a lot of work and I’m
convinced that about half of what
separates the successful entrepreneurs
from the non successful ones is pure
perseverance it is so hard
you pour so much your life into this
thing there are such rough moments in
time that most people give up I don’t
blame them it’s really tough and it
consumes your life I mean if you’re if
you’ve got a family and you’re in the
early days of a company it’s I can’t
imagine how one could do it
I’m sure it’s it’s been done but it’s
rough for me because it’s a pretty much
a you know a 18 hour day job seven days
a week for a while so unless you have a
lot of passion about this you’re gonna
not survive you’re gonna give it up so
you’ve got to have an idea of an ax or a
problem or a wrong that you want to
write that you’re passionate about
otherwise you’re not going to have the
perseverance to stick it through and I
think that’s half the battle right there
it’s hard to remember how bad it was you
know in 1980s with IBM taking over the
world with the PC with Doss out there it
was it was far worse than the Apple –
and they tried to copy the Apple – and
they’ve done a pretty bad job and if you
needed to know a lot and so things were
kind of slipping backwards and Macintosh
was you saw the 1984 commercial put that
I hope you have that in your archives
you know Macintosh was basically this
this relatively small company you know
in Cupertino California taking on the
Goliath IBM and saying wait a minute
your way is wrong this is not the way we
want computers to go this is not the
legacy we want to leave this is not what
we want our kids to be learning this is
wrong and we are going to show you the
right way to do it and here it is it’s
called Macintosh and this is so much
better that it’s gonna beat you and we
are gonna do it and that’s what Apple
stood for so you know the most important
thing you can actually advise yourself
or anyone else
ignore your mistakes what is your
problem you’re good at some things just
go do that the number one thing you
should worry about is am i doing the
things that I’m good at 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 your boy
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 convinced you not to be an
entrepreneur because when you say I’m
gonna change the world maybe the most
famous person I’m gonna save the seals
they say don’t do that you it didn’t
happen before yeah it’s never have
you’re gonna you’re gonna you’re gonna
fail you can embarrass us put the
limiters on it they put the limit is
they put the blinders on you but true
entrepreneurs will just keep figuring it
out and I can’t stress this enough
choosing your partner’s has got to be
maybe the most important decision you’ll
ever make whether you know personally
and in love or otherwise in business you
can change your idea you can pivot your
company you can’t change your partners
without starting over and so I see so
many people rushing into these
relationships I mean you should really
give that a lot of thought this is
something that hopefully you’ll last
years I think that’s what people always
have to ask themselves do you believe in
the concept of what you’re doing you
believe that there’s really there there
you can figure out the right you know
product package or the white way to
reach users if you believe that then you
know keep keep scrapping because usually
there’s a way there is an advantage to
being what I like to call now hardcore
hardcore I don’t know quite how to
describe it’s a combination of tenacious
and dedicated and passionate and
committed something like that hardcore I
learned about being hardcore from math
I’m not gonna ask whether we have any
math concentrators here but I would say
that’s where I got kind of my lesson
I mean people could just go crazy
focused no it wasn’t just the people
were genius but working and working and
working and working
you know I’d sit in my room working on a
problem set after three hours I’m a
little ad D I just couldn’t take it the
most hardcore people could just power
through anything and the advantage of
being that tenacious and dedicated and
committed I claim it helped us at
Microsoft it’s fundamental of Microsoft
but I learned it here and at HAARP so
it’s about this movement forward now
what you own not your education or your
pedigree not pile of resources you might
have at hand not your network just going
after this thing and knowing that as you
do that you’ll find what you need you’ll
make your way over around and through
and I think the best entrepreneurs that
I’ve met are able to do that because
they have this strong vision and they
know that it’s worth it to keep moving
forward larger more established entities
can’t move as quickly as you can and
success and scale and size all fight
against this and I would encourage you
for the longest possible time as you
sort of start your own companies to look
for ways to stay agile 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 that they can go through
what I see right now is people wrap up
their sense of success and identity with
their prowess in fundraising and
comparing themselves against how their
peers are doing I think that’s really
the wrong way to look at things in it
and it leads to kind of non optimal
outcomes for instance I don’t know if
the valuations that companies are
getting today is necessarily healthy for
the company themselves and for us again
you know our inability to raise capital
actually forced us to be very
disciplined in how we think about the
operational metrics of the company and
that’s allowed us to you know be pretty
successful
I find that levels of success in almost
any industry or area correlate to a
person asking great questions in some
cases they seem absurd in fact the
hallmarking way of great questions is
that sound completely ridiculous so
someone might ask like Peter Thiel why
can’t you achieve your ten-year goals in
the next six months it’s a thought
exercise that’s like–that’s that’s a
good question to answer for yourself and
these types of questions come up
surprisingly often with with very very
impressive folks whether it’s in
business military entertainment or
otherwise and the way you can get better
at questions is by studying interviews
in part so I studied Larry King I
studied Charlie Rose I studied Terry
Gross I studied that go down the list
I studied Tony Robbins who does
in-person one-on-one interventions at
his events in front of ten thousand five
thousand people and he’s just genius
with how he uses questions to like
pattern interrupt and grab someone’s
attention and divert them in a more
productive productive direction now why
is that relevant relevant because
thinking is the process of asking
questions you’re asking yourself
questions and then you’re answering them
in your own head so if you get better at
asking other people questions you get
better at asking yourself questions
which means you are a you’re improving
your thought performance
and level of thinking and you know what
everybody wants to hear what they
already believe to be true and so the
last thing that we 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 yourself don’t solicit
feedback on your product your idea or
your 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
coworker husband wife for validation
be careful because a lot 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 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 going to be that big of a drag
and it’s not gonna be that bit 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 today you
should think okay my co-founders do we
do we cover a lot of surface area do we
have different skill sets and is it
somebody that that I trust fundamentally
and that’s those are really really
really important questions to ask
yourself because if so they give a
really strong foundation to go forward
failure is part of life I mean the
difference for me though is I’m like a
failure as a stepping stone to success
it’s a speed bump I know I’m gonna fail
but it’s not failure if you learn
something and so gosh I’ve made so many
mistakes I’ve screwed so many things up
but every time I do it just becomes it
becomes a way for me to explain to
someone else what it takes you know it’s
like here’s what I’ve done I think I
have the ability influence people
because I talk about my failures I talk
about
all the things that messed me up but I
show people that didn’t let it stop me
and you don’t need to stop you and I
think I think that’s really the secret
letter and if everything you touch was
successful first got a relate to people
as well and also it’s B total bullsh and
everyone know it’s bull and also you’d
be bored silly I mean think about it if
you just said I want this to happen I
want this to happen you know people
don’t value it they don’t fight for you
know it’s like you see kids sometimes in
it you know your parents will say you’re
not gonna value this if you don’t work
for it and you’re keeping on value just
give it to me but it’s true you know
about things we worked the hardest for
we value the most so I think you know
the purpose of the goal is not getting
it anyway the purpose of goal you know
is what who you become well you becomes
gonna make you happier it’s gonna make
you sad so I’m not looking for an
effortless approach everybody thought we
were crazy we probably were crazy but
having a dream like that that resonates
with people changing the world achieving
something big it turns out that’s what
pulls you through the hard times every
company has a heart as hard times every
company has setbacks and it’s having
that that that mountain in the distance
that you’re trying to scale that is what
gets everybody through 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 as failures when they
don’t work but they’re learning
experiments where you try things see
what works try the next thing if you’re
gonna start your own thing you know
maybe you have a grand grand vision of
like all the different features it’s
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 than many things
so there are a number of decisions that
we make every day and on a product side
there are billion different features
that we could make so the hard part is
really choosing which ones to focus on
which ones to build and you only have a
finite number that you can actually
execute on so for us a lot of it is just
listening to the community and more
importantly understanding you know what
features they’re asking for but why are
they asking for these specific things
what’s the root problem they’re trying
to solve or goal that you’re trying to
achieve and a lot of that is based on
actual behaviors so not just what they
say but what they do went to Harvard and
you’re dropped out have you ever thought
how your life could be better off if you
had gotten your Harvard degree well I
I’m a weird dropout because I take
college courses all the time I love
learning company courses and things so I
love being a student and there were
smart people around and you know they
fed you and they gave you these nice
grades that made you feel smart so I I
feel it was unfortunate that I didn’t
get to stay there but I don’t think I
missed any knowledge because you know
whatever I needed to learn I would I was
still in a learning mode you can’t ever
sort of balance two completely
contradictory things as a means of
hedging you have to decide what are you
going to believe in and put all of your
energy behind that and that’s that’s the
those are the kinds of strategic
decisions and trade-offs that you make
every day as an entrepreneur and it’s
important that you create the level of
clarity and conviction to go after an
opportunity that isn’t hedging you know
lots of different ideas or lots of
different approaches because that’s the
surest way that you’ll never be good at
sort of anything and I find even with
myself that it’s really hard to do a
Minimum Viable Product this minimum that
you’re constantly thinking no no it
really has to have this other partner
really has to have this and then you
overbilled and then you have to unbilled
andy build which is very disappointing
so doing a Minimum Viable Product is
really important and it’s even more
minimum than you think it 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 stay right it’s
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 that are given to us
expand our thinking to wonder what we
really can’t do with our lives be lucky
I think when I give that advice be lucky
it’s a little bit glib but I think
there’s also looking out for those
opportunities and being conscious and
being aware and looking for
opportunities to be lucky because you
can definitely put yourself in a
position where luck isn’t gonna make any
difference 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
impossible in doing it anyway building
really great companies just takes a
while and it’s good to not try to do it
too fast it’s really really really good
to be ambitious obviously but it’s not
that great to be too hasty it’s not
necessarily about the the exit or the
outcome it’s it’s about the journey so
it’s for me it’s just I think you just
you just need to enjoy that aspect of it
it’s you know because it’s not an always
an easy ride it’s a lot of ups and downs
along the way but as long as you’re
personally fulfilled by that experience
and genuinely enjoy what you do then it
makes it worthwhile somebody said to you
you’ll have or you’ll be as successful
as you are now
what have you had said back then
I believe you
that’s what I would have said because I
believe I believed any more I had very
few people who told me that I had a
small small small group of people that
would tell me something like that order
than that it was just me telling myself
yeah so if someone came up to me and
told me that all the way back then I’d
say you’re a dime right but ultimately
the biggest thing and I spill still
spend and from a third to a majority of
my time on is hiring nothing has the
impact of getting the right people
around the table and you can’t manage
your way out of a bad team because if
you build something for yourself if you
build something that you love that you
think is sufficiently epic if you make
something that you love there’s probably
not a billion people in the world that
love it as well
and so some of the best Tiger advice I
got was from a Paul Graham one of the
investors in stripe who talks a lot
about unscalable strategies for user
acquisition say for example you helping
each user personally sure that won’t
scale as you grew to a very large font
size but when I start up is just
starting out it really helps you have an
advantage as a small animal company
you need to focus on solutions not ideas
all of us here are really creative and
we come up with loads of ideas
throughout the day and we can we become
really excited about that as a dude we
should start a company around that but
that’s when you actually go to the other
side where you talked over you you know
find out what someone actually a problem
a problem that they have installed that
is is when you know real value comes out
I’m in meetings a lot my calendar 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 I
think you know if you know why you’re
doing something and what it is that
you’re trying to get then it’s a
question of being very very open to
failure and I’m and just you know trying
again and again and again until you get
it and what our leaders look like first
and foremost leaders always have a heard
people always like following leaders
maybe it’s their charisma maybe it’s
their personality maybe it’s because
they’re so in belief of what they say
that you have the ability to convince
people to buy into your vision not just
for a paycheck it’s something more than
that because great leaders they don’t we
have a herd they fight for their herd
and the herd knows that that’s your job
as entrepreneurs these are not employees
that do your bidding
these are partners that you should bring
into your space and you should be
treated like that and they should be
treated like that with respect and with
dignity values are you know who you are
right you don’t have personal values
professional values it’s really what you
stand for and again there’s no black and
white answer here there’s no right or
wrong value but if you’re building a
team or building an organization you
want to understand your identity and
then it mostly impacts hiring it impacts
the way that you decide to add people to
your team otherwise you can become very
very split in terms of what your mission
is if you’re gonna have a breakout
startup you’ve really got to think about
how you’re gonna innovate on
distribution not just fondant right and
the biggest mistake I see these days
that I see brilliant startup founders
who are brilliant product people and
they’ve really thought about their
product but haven’t really thought about
how they’re gonna make it grow and then
they launch their product and it’s like
crickets chirping no one no one’s using
it and they’re kind of flummoxed as to
what to do because they’ve never really
spent time thinking about it and they
just kind of assume that if you build a
good product everyone’s gonna find it
and the reality is it’s a big web out
there and that’s not really true the
beauty of failing is if you’re open to
admitting the failure and learning from
it you probably won’t fail again in that
one department and you’ll know what to
expect next time and that just makes you
stronger and and more accurate with the
risks that you take a rule of thumb is
to only worry about the next order of
magnitude so when you have 100 users
worried about what the company looks
like can it survive to a thousand a
thousand ten thousand and so on and so
forth if you’re worrying about the
millionth user and their experience and
how your technology is going to scale
when you have 100 users you’re you’re
pointed in the wrong direction but we
realized it pays to be a cockroach and
by that I mean
it pays just to not stop and just to not
die like we thought you know everything
along the way it tried to kill us right
like all of our friends were like
startups are dumb you’re dumb your ideas
are dumb and we kind of just looked at
all of them and said whatever and built Codecademy so it pays not to quit
try learn from it you know you’ll fail
at some things that’s a learning
experience that you need so that you can
take that on to the next experience and
don’t let people who you may respect and
who you believe know what they’re
talking about don’t let them tell you it
can’t be done because often they will
tell you it can’t be done and it’s just
because they don’t have the courage to
try it Ben Graham and his low and his
level of teens looked around and he
looked at the people he admired and he
said you know I want to be at Mars so
why don’t I just behave like them and he
found there was nothing impossible about
behaving like them and similarly he did
the same thing on the reverse side in
terms of getting rid of those qualities
baby steps count too as long as you’re
going forward and one day you had all
those baby steps up in you might be
surprised at where you can get to but
more importantly I remember something my
mom used to see to me every day she
would say son the cavalry ain’t coming
you got to do this yourself
ain’t no backup okay and when you put
those two things together man it wasn’t
as hard to keep going forward as you
might think so to really take a
longer-term view not just you know to
look three months from now but look
three years now and but the future is
gonna come whether you like it or not so
you want to kind of be one step ahead
it’s a mind game then it’s why I think
it’s psychology and everything again
life most of life comes down to
psychology doesn’t it it starts here in
the internal world before you can master
the external world you have to master
your own internal world that’s the true
secret to success people that look for
great ideas to make money you know
aren’t nearly as successful as those who
say okay what do I really love to do
what am i excited about what I knew
something about you know what’s kind of
interesting and compelling it’s very
rewarding when you work on something you
think is gonna make it
fritzsche and yeah it’s a little bit
harder but I think I think the passion
that one might bring with it brings so
much more energy to that that you’re
more likely to succeed you need to care
about everything and it starts with
yourself look yourself in the mirror and
ask yourself what do I want to do every
day for the rest of my life do that I
promise you can monetize that if you
love Alf doing Alf blog you collect
Smurfs Smurfs it up whatever you need to
do do it so many people are talking
about I can’t monetize I can’t monetize
there’s a billion seven-year-old
douchebags that are in control right now
but the number two person that 34 year
old lady she’s gonna buy your she’s
gonna put the advertising on your stuff
it’s coming stop crying and just keep
hustling I had no idea I grew up in
Pittsburgh
my dad did upholstery on cars so if you
got to rip in your car see you took it
to him my mom had odd jobs from selling
real estate to making baskets and you
know I was just a normal kid but I was
always into business from as long as I
could remember I was selling something
or working on something trying to make
money and I just it just got me excited
to be a business person and it just took
off from there we all need a mission
that’s what life should be is a mission
that’s what gives your life purpose and
focus and drive and ultimately
satisfaction now that mission can be the
job you work at it can be providing for
your family or it can be getting better
at jiu-jitsu or stronger at Olympic
lifting or starting a business that you
want to grow and build and take over the
world and sometimes people ask me what
to do if they don’t know what their
mission is or what their mission should
be and I tell them if they’re in that
situation to go help someone gonna help
someone else make that your mission
because that will make you better
and it’ll make the world better and
eventually from that you’ll see what
your mission is from the time I was
seven years old
every Saturday I would go for four hours
of acting class every Saturday whoa and
I loved it I just left it till the point
with all the kids graduated and went on
to the other stuff and I started doing
adult acting classes and then I was in
the commercial classes and then I loved
like the hair and makeup classes and
just everything I just couldn’t get
enough soon as I got off the phone call
with him and then also when he said it’s
not in the picture now but we think I
think it’d be great at Dallas dance at
the end and my heartbeat went up on the
phone and I started breaking the cold
sweat like oh no I thought that’s not
and as soon as I would all no that’s not
that the other other devil in my ear
said dare you do and I just mean of
course I think it’s yes because I
immediately notice if you don’t your
listen out dude are you kidding me you
will forever regret you have to so soon
as I got over that I was like well
that’s inevitable I’m doing it mmm now I
got to bust my ass too
go do it the best I can and a lot of
fear that I mean that was yeah those are
those that was some major really good
anxiety and fear and then now we’re
saying now I’m saying by that time now
everything my choice is from that phone
call long work anything I was nervous
but you have to go now do go all the way
go meet midnight yes can y’all meet him
for another Corey choreographed session
8:00 a.m. Sunday morning do you got an
hour
I’m gonna go send them here my wife’s
over there watching reading something
I’m standing the mirror I’m gonna
practice as I moved this is really
embarrassing well too bad man do it in
the mirror right now because the less
embarrassing that gets hopefully the
more comfortable you’ll be when you’re
out there in front of 80 people and
bunch of cameras and one thing you do
when you go out there don’t come up
short yo go all the way will prevent me
to visualize where you want to be what
you want to accomplish you you kind of
get lost in the process of day-to-day
you know grinding it out working pulling
on eyes if you have to you know that
this is just about not losing vision and
not losing sight of what you’re what
you’re trying to accomplish no matter
what hurdles you have to go through so I
think that kind of relates to whatever
you’re doing whatever you know major
you’ve chosen or what you’re interested
in so for me and basketball and it’s
about you know visualizing whether you
write it down and put it on the wall do
something with what your goals are and
get lost in the process of the
day-to-day grind day-to-day getting
better every single day asking questions
aligning yourself with people that have
been through it before they’re that are
experienced and leaning on that advice
and just trying to outwork the next
person and that’s the biggest thing try
and be decisive I try and even if I
don’t know what the hell I’m doing I try
to be decisive because I think it’s very
comforting and reassuring and important
to the people that work with you to feel
that whoever is in charge knows what
they’re doing and knows what they’re
thinking and that if it’s a yes it’s a
yes and it’s a no it’s a no I mean I
don’t think of myself as a boss I mean I
I think of myself as someone who’s
giving direction and guidance and
vice-versa compassion for yourself
of course it’s as important as
compassion for others when often I get
asked questions like people who did
something that they now realize realized
was deeply wrong in the past sometimes
people ask questions about they brought
up their children in a way that they now
realize was not very conscious and so
that they may have caused suffering to
their children or others people find
they have caused suffering to loved ones
and they now realize that what they did
was wrong and again I say this is an
example where you need to be
compassionate with yourself because no
Bowman being can act beyond their level
of consciousness so that was your level
of consciousness at the time and you
could not go beyond that and again here
to make demands upon yourself up to a
point it might be a good thing to if you
as long as you enjoy it it’s a wonderful
thing when the enjoyment of what you’re
doing is lost then you have to be
careful because there you have to come
to a stop and say okay this there’s
something here that’s not right because
I’m no longer enjoying what I’m doing
I’ve learned an experience is that you
know if you don’t open up and you don’t
delegate
then you’ll kill yourself and if there’s
one thing I’ve managed to understand is
the art of delegation because if I can
pass on you know to Claire Smith to
Arian my palate my understanding my
knowledge then grab it run it and then
pass on to your team don’t hold that
inside I was with a bunch of other
investors who I respect and they brought
me a deal and I wanted to be part of it
but it didn’t feel right and I wrote
millions of dollars on that one and it
just didn’t feel right and I lost it all
within two years associate investors
trust their gut then absolutely and
trust you
oh what about you said earlier don’t be
emotional and sometimes the gut no this
is this is a barometer of risk it’s
something an internalized for an
investor that says I don’t feel
comfortable it’s not about emotion just
don’t write that check that was recently
the first time I didn’t listen to that
and I lost everything
so now my radar is up I listen to my gut
it’s not an emotion it’s an index of
risk and you get it as you age you
become a better investor every year if
only I could live to 200 I’d be really
good many many kids and many grown-ups
do figure out over time what their
passions are and sometimes we let our I
don’t think it’s that hard I think what
happens though sometimes is that we let
our intellectual selves overrule those
passions and so that’s what needs to be
guarded against you will 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 glory I don’t
pay no attention to what they say about
me all I do is just do what I have to do
and get paid that’s it but I don’t
really pay no attention to the rules of
boxing I don’t pay no attention i define
rules i define I’ve added pages to the
book of boxing the world is a hurting
place and the world needs hope and the
world needs love without hope feel like
why are we here
well brokenness here’s mine
today I still have no arms or legs but
everything’s changed everything for me I
was looking for hope and happiness and I
couldn’t see it for many years in fact
if this side of the table represents my
hope truth encourages me to become all
that I can be but then we have lies
every day coming in our mind
people who discourage us you know the
people that you have in your life who no
matter how good of a day you’re having
they’ll bring you down or and no matter
how bad of a day you’re having they’ll
bring you even lower you know what I’m
talking about
think of the three biggest discourages
in your life they’re not your biggest
discourages you are you are it only
takes three seconds for me to tell you
something discouraging but then you may
never forget my words a lot of times
I’ll be the tours at Mile Run or
something like that and I’m all jacked
up body’s broken mines broken spirits
broken I started to say what if I can
pull this off when I first walked into
the Navy SEAL recruiters office he
looked at me and said only been 35
african-americans and 70 years make it
through you know I said to myself what
if I can be the 36 it’s the what if I
can pull off a miracle
what if I can become someone that no one
thinks I can be and just that just means
talking about that I have the hair
growing up on my arms because it makes
me just like what if
I can be that guy that people who called
nigger and this and that and now I’m
speaking at Tom fairy events well you
have to treat yourself like you matter
because if you don’t then you don’t take
care of yourself and you become vengeful
and and and cruel and you you take you
take it out on people around you and
you’re not a positive force none of
that’s good
so you suffer more and so does everyone
around you and there’s a malevolence
that enters into it none of that’s good
so that’s what happens if you don’t
treat yourself like you matter and then
what happens if you don’t treat other
people like they matter
well you lie to them you cheat them you
steal you you you enter into impulsive
relationships with them they can’t trust
you
that doesn’t go anywhere they don’t like
you you you end up alone at best and
maybe like incarcerated at worst like
that doesn’t work and so you watch the
people around you who thrive regardless
of what they say they act out the
proposition that everyone matters and
then you have a functional society and I
think ok well if if if when you act out
the proposition that everyone matters
you have a functional society maybe
that’s evidence that that proposition is
true it’s like I think it’s I think it’s
true it’s so hard I thought doing this
research I thought going into it there
are authentic people and inauthentic
people who I had I did not find any
evidence of that at all what I found is
authenticity to practice and you choose
it every day sometimes every hour of
every day and it’s a practice it’s not I
just wake up in ham authentic you have
to have an emotional investment in what
you’re doing if you don’t love what
you’re doing
failure is pretty much guaranteed
success is not guaranteed by any means
but failure is much more likely if you
don’t love what you’re doing you know
one of the things that I do is I
question a lot of things and you can do
that in a good way in a bad way but
hopefully if you try to get people to
motivate why they’re doing something and
their way of thinking you know the worst
thing you can end up with it’s a
situation where you get told well this
is the way it’s always been
that’s the worst ever that’s a
non-answer instead ask yourself you know
given everything you have today it’s
their way we can make this better when
it comes to changing the world what I
learned from Steve Jobs is if you
believe in a Macintosh if you believe in
iPhone iPod iPad if you believe enough
then you will see it because other
people will believe in it other people
will create software other people will
create products so you need to foster
the belief in what you are dreaming so
that it becomes a reality which is very
different than saying I don’t expect
anybody to believe it until I see it you
need people to believe it before they
can see it and so when we’re coming up
with ideas you know we always ask
ourselves what kind of new market is
this creating and then also what what
part of my day and and what problem is
it solving and so I’ve gone as far as
taking an entire catalogue of my day
from the moment I like open my eyes and
writing down every single thing I do and
then asking myself like is there
something here don’t necessarily think
that you have to have the homerun in the
huge Apple Computer on your first start
I spent a long time in my life with
skills just building little devices for
fun for fun is one of the key things
does that drives you to think and think
and think and make it better and better
and better than you ever would if you’re
doing it for a company build things at
first for yourself that you would want
if you’re not coming up with 10 ideas a
day that’s I’m not coming up I’m filling
up this page every single day then my
idea muscle will atrophy and I started
this in 2001 and I still do it every
single day like you have to come up with
ideas every single day or the idea
muscle atrophies the good news is after
about six months of doing that you’re
like a machine like people get surprised
at how many ideas you could just have
any 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 tell you
if it’s really working or not if you’re
not utilizing an online community then
you’re at a disadvantage to those who
are you can be asking online communities
what they think about your ideas or if
they have any advice with what you’re
working on not only will you hear from
people who are passionate about the
subject but you’ll be hearing from
people all around the world each with
their own experiences and stories that
can help you once you have the
passionate thing that you’re passionate
about now you can look at other people
or other entities or other things or
works of art you can draw things from
that to help you be better at what you
do by looking for those common
denominators as I wanted to know how do
I prepare her how do I prepare how do I
study how do I view the game how do you
build your game and my response is much
like the way he builds products and you
think sequentially oh yeah you look at
this the end result of what you want to
create but in order to create that
there’s so many other little things that
go into this massive entity that your
device it’s no different than building
my basketball game you start with what
do you want your game to be will we make
your game most unstoppable or hard to
deal with and now you work backwards
from there and you start building in one
piece at a time one move at a time one
count there’s a lot of similarities
there you want an idea about what you
can say I know it sounds like a bad idea
but here’s specifically why it’s
actually a great one you want to sound
crazy but you want to actually be right
because when you’re trying to
differentiate when you’re trying to do
something different there’s going to be
that gut moment that gut sense is this
right is this not right if you’re not if
you’re not having doubt you’re not
pushing the boundaries far enough one of
the things I advise entrepreneurs to do
is when you have an idea a classic
entrepreneurial impulse is to hold the
idea close to you and not go to help you
because all the ideas so special
right that’s almost always a mistake go
talk to why is that a mistake it’s a
mistake because your actual real
competitive advantage is not that you
have this idea that you have locked away
in your closet which may or may not be
accurate and you have no idea which it
is your actual competitive and
if you’re assembling the intelligence
around does this idea work what is the
right team what is the right learnings
and we’re essentially in most like we
have to do everything three times before
we get it right
thankfully I know that so I know that I
have to get up early and and try it five
times because the eight-year-old will be
able to get past it in two times so I
have to be on my feet longer but at
least I know it and so I just go at
stuff and it served me very well and
that my resume is pretty varied and I
have a pretty interesting life you know
get to do different stuff and have a bit
of access because I just said yeah I’ll
try that I mean why would I hold back I
think success first of all is knowing my
purpose in life as I have watched and
observed successful people what I have
discovered about them is they really
have figured out why they’re here they
really do have their act together and
and and knowing their purpose in life is
a stability for them so that when
everyone else is rocking and rolling and
and and and things are a little unsteady
and people are kind of leaving the ship
and people are kind of abandoning their
causes with these people they hold
steady right throughout the storm
because they they have a true North Star
they truly are focused it becomes an it
comes an anchor in their life that just
holds them steady and the anchor is a
confidence based upon a knowledge of
purpose
there were the things that I probably
should have done not from my perspective
I mean from my point of view I did the
right things every every film that I’ve
done I’m happy that I that I made that
choice I don’t have any regrets
whatsoever but I mean in terms of
sustaining box-office
you know bankability I should have done
a few of the things that I didn’t do but
I’m glad I didn’t do them me no because
it wouldn’t have been you yeah well I
would it would have been for the wrong
reasons
I did everything that I’ve been lucky
enough to do I did for the right reasons
don’t think about how do I get really
how do I get big fast that will happen
if you actually build something super
meaningful and super important so don’t
think about you know what is the
quickest way to success think about what
is the best way to building something
important that the world really needs
and so when we see a kid with a lemonade
stand it’s different than when we see a
vending machine selling lemonade even if
it’s exactly the same product because
the story around it is what people are
paying for so when I meet small business
people all I ask them is not what’s
their balance sheet but what’s their
story why should I pick you why do I
care about what you’re doing and if you
start giving me all this inside baseball
statistics about why you’re 2 percent
better than some other competitor
I’m already glazed over because that’s
not part of the way I see the world you
don’t have to be the best but you have
to be dangerous right you have to learn
just enough to be dangerous to build an
idea concept it and show it to the world
and then it turns out there are lots of
other people including all 170 employees
that work at Instagram who are much
better at doing all that stuff than I am
but you’d need to find people who can
you know be drawn to the idea that you
build and and then they end up taking it
and
and make an even bet that I have to want
this to exist in the world like it have
to not so it’s a similar rule just say
if this was successful and I had nothing
and I got no and I was not involved and
I got no money off it or wasn’t what I
wanted to do well and that’s a great
check I think to know if you really feel
good about the idea and can be
passionate about it this little idea
explains why some organizations and some
leaders are able to inspire where others
aren’t let me define the terms really
quickly every single person every single
organization on the planet knows what
they do 100 percent some know how they
do it when you call it you’re
differentiating value proposition or
your proprietary process or your USP but
very very few people or organizations
know why they do what they do and by why
I don’t mean to make a profit that’s a
result it’s always a result by why I
mean what’s your purpose what’s your
cause what’s your belief why does your
organization exist I say to the my girls
all of the time that your real work is
to figure out where your power base is
personality your gifts that you have to
give with the real reason why you’re
here that’s that’s the number one thing
you have to do is to work on yourself
and to fill your self up and keep your
cup full keep yourself full now I used
to be afraid of that I used to be afraid
particularly from people who say oh she
said she’s so full of herself she’s so
close or so and now I embrace it I I
considered a compliment that I am full
of myself because you only when you’re
full I’m full I’m overflowing my cup
runneth over
I have so much I have so much to offer
and so much to give and I am not afraid
of honoring myself you know it’s
miraculous when you think about 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 fright like whether they’re you
know a blue collar worker waiting for
the bus or they’re you know helping you
at you’re there 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 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 I
think great entrepreneurs must have the
curiosity to to kind of metaphorically
see around the corner what’s coming what
can I anticipate that other people don’t
see and then you must have the courage
of your convictions to execute the
strategy you know one way to
conceptualize what makes a good product
is you know good engineering is part of
it good design is part of it but really
it’s one way I think about it at least
is maximizing the probability that
someone shows up at the front door of
you know your store or your website or
or whatever it is and ends up with a
solved problem and oftentimes the best
methodology is to start with the perfect
experience 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 to do
as acting turned out to be all that you
wanted it to be it’s incredible it’s
incredible you know I I never knew that
I could do it as a career I never knew
it was the first memory that I had it’s
the first thing I can think of as saying
I want to be an actor to my parents and
if I hadn’t lived in Los Angeles and
been in such close proximity to sort of
the mecca of moviemaking
if I didn’t have parents that said okay
we’ll drive you to auditions we didn’t
have the economic
means to you know move camp from Idaho
to Los Angeles because some snotty
ten-year-old kids as a latina we did it
after school I got to go on auditions
but it was always and I’ve said this
before it felt like an elite group of
people and it felt like I would never
belong to them so once I got the
opportunity to to for example get the
movie this boy’s life with Robert De
Niro I said wow now I’m able to not be
able to steer the course of my career I
might be able to have a career similar
to these guys that I’m you know I so
admire and that I knew what 15 years old
was the biggest gift in the world and
that that’s that’s never left me you
know I’ve never I’ve never met that
thirst or that hunger for wanting to
give one great performance that I’m
truly satisfied with or being one movie
that I said I love this film is
something that I don’t know will ever be
quenched I don’t know and that’s I think
that that’s a good thing because it
keeps making it keeps pushing you you
markets you want to go after small
markets and you want to take over those
markets quickly go talk to people who
failed at what you’re doing and who are
no longer doing it
there always are those people so you
started to start up you know you look at
the history of your space I’m so
surprised how many people I talk to is
found ours who have no idea the history
of their own space and there’s some
night there’s some nice naivete to that
in the sense that like oh you’re gonna
do it differently and and there’s some
truth to that but like when you get down
to to making it work and now you’re into
it already you’ve kind of stylist what
you’re doing and you have some problems
then I’d go talk to all these people who
failed because you’ll uncover all sorts
of interesting things that you could try
it looks and lots of companies and why I
thought they
don’t succeed over time we’ve had a more
rapid turnover of companies I said what
did they fundamentally do wrong and one
of those companies all do wrong and they
usually it’s just they missed the future
and so I think for me I just tried to
focus on that and say what does that
future really gonna be and how do we
create it I do believe that
organizations human organizations are
inherently unstable they will fall over
and you have to work to keep them
upright but they fall slowly most people
don’t notice it they let their success
they blind them they don’t see it
falling over the following takes place
but the collapse is quick you have to do
constant assessments you have to look
for the hard truths that whatever you do
somebody can do it better you have to
bring your a-game in every single day
there’s nothing unique about any one
individual what’s unique is their
passion their ability to execute to meet
targets and exceed them the minute you
lose that ability in capitalism you’re
gone it’s a fair trade the engine that
makes you rich can take it all away from
you there are no guarantees I think
that’s incredibly important there’s a
lot of conventional wisdom out there
built up over time and built through all
and this may be fully applicable to most
of the companies out there but before
it’s applied to your organization I
highly recommend that you question it
because it could be absolutely fatal for
your success how do you think about
making a decision when everyone tells
you this is a crazy idea where do you
get the internal strength to do that
well first well I’d say I actually think
I think I feel fear quite strongly so
it’s not as though I just have the
absence of fear I’ve I feel it quite
strongly but there are times when
something is important enough you
believe it enough that you do you do it
in spite of the fear
so speaking of important things like
people shouldn’t think III should think
well I feel fear about this and
therefore I shouldn’t do it it’s normal
to be to feel fear like you’d have to
definitely something mentally wrong you
shouldn’t feel fair
so you just feel it and let the
importance of it anyway yeah you know
actually we’re something that can be
helpful as fatalism some degree if you
just think if just accept the
probabilities then that diminishes fear
so we’re starting SpaceX I thought the
odds of success were less than 10% and I
just accepted that actually probably I
would just lose lose everything but that
maybe would make some progress if we
could just move the ball forward even if
we died maybe some other company could
pick up the baton and move keep moving
it forward
so that we still do some good
yeah same with Tesla I thought your odds
of a car company succeeding were
extremely low 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 more
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
marketing process even as we scale up
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 as a start-up
is that we can actually get away with
doing this we can make this the core
part of why we’re doing business would
have come through on your word it allows
the guys that you’re leading male or
female to be able to say okay we can
follow this person because he won’t let
us down
you know for me as the leader of our
franchise and the leader of my household
and a leader of so many you know
different different things I think it’s
the confidence but it’s also in
practicing what you preach I’m not a guy
who just talks about I actually go out
and do it as well from a basketball
perspective or from from a leadership
perspective or my kids in my foundation
you know we have a promise initiative
where they promised me that they will go
to school there with city teachers
they’d be great to their classmates and
I promised them that I will continue to
be a great role model a father figure
for them and not let those guys down so
I take that responsibility and I don’t
just talk about I actually do it as well
so when you’re able to come through on
your word it allows the guys that you’re
leading male or female to be able to say
we can follow this person because he
won’t let us down no matter if it’s no
matter if it’s going good or bad you
know every day is not a bed of roses we
understand that and you have to be able
to handle adversity as well I do think
that one thing that’s important is
especially if you’re a founder or a
technical founder is to realize that you
can’t do everything and even if you can
you shouldn’t I think you should be
spending your money on on on teaching
and sharing and so that might mean
hiring a writer too perhaps instead of a
marketing person you know and start
writing and start getting people to
listen to what you’re saying you can’t
talk about yourself all the time because
no one’s going to come back for that but
to talk about things that are relevant
to your industry or ideas that you have
and start to build that audience up try
to do something that you would want to
do anyway whether it’s doesn’t
necessarily have to be very successful
business because when you do decide to
become an entrepreneur and start a
business chances are it’s not gonna do
it’s not gonna become like a
multi-million dollar business so at
least do something that you love in the
beginning so that even if it fails you’d
still enjoy it I’m not saying you
shouldn’t have a you know vision for
your idea or your product but you need
to be open to change it you should find
a great partner no matter what it is
that you’re doing and you should look
for someone who is very high
intelligence very high energy and very
high integrity and you need all three of
those they can’t compromise if any one
of them otherwise you’ll end up with
either someone was not smart which is
you know good or someone’s not
hard-working which also doesn’t have
good or the worst case is you end up
with the smart hard-working crook who
ends up working against your interests
and integrity something that takes a lot
of time spent with someone to figure out
we know from our past experiences that
big things start small you know the
biggest oak starts from an acorn and
you’ve got to recognize you want to do
anything new you’ve got to be willing to
let that acorn grow into a little
sapling and then finally into a small
tree and maybe one day it’ll be
a big business on its own and in fact
that’s one of the mottos for one of your
initiatives and forgive my pronunciation
of the Latin but Greta team for Oct what
does that mean to you well it means step
by step ferociously and it’s the motto
for Blue Origin and basically you can’t
skip steps you have to put one foot in
front of the other things take time you
there are no shortcuts and but but you
want to do those steps with you know
passion and ferocity or a lot of things
that are outside of your control a lot
of external circumstances will depend
like determine the success of your idea
whether you know the market timing is
right for this new kind of service or
whether people you know whether a
customer like the economy’s could right
for for for your kind of service right
well there you meet the right people who
will find answer a company many many
external circumstances are like outside
of your control and like but will affect
the outcome you have to like be ok with
that
looks like you always go out of your
comfort zone right coming on to an
island that was completely deserted no
fresh water you don’t even have the
money to buy it and and now you’re
sleeping on a tent on the beach trying
to figure out how to get fresh water
here you do that often you did it with
the airline I mean I was just somebody
that experienced the bad experience of
traveling on Airlines I was actually
trying to get to the BVI the British
Virgin Islands one day from Puerto Rico
and the same lovely lady was waiting for
me and I’ve been away for three weeks
and American Airlines bumped the flight
and and I went to the back of the
airport I had a plane I had a black
board I wrote Virgin Airlines one-way
twenty nine dollars to the BVI I went
around all the people have been bumped
and I filled my first plane and and that
got me thinking you know the airline’s
do bump people they don’t care about
your me particularly in the air and so
we sigh then rang up Boeing and said you
have any secondhand 747 okay I mean it
was literally that you just sat in the
airport and so I’m starting an airline
right now because I’m frustrated exactly
and I think most most of
best entrepreneurial ideas come out of
frustration I think you know if you if
you’re frustrated about something the
best way of sorting it out is get out
and do it and you’ve got yourself a
business 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 in it
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 term the most important thing
when you’re working with people early is
that you guys line up on on what your
goals are that’s that’s really that
sounds really basic but you can totally
it can be fine you can want to build a
small business that makes money and you
don’t have to go to an office or you can
want to build a huge company if you want
to build Google but I think you have to
be really really aligned on them so the
most important part of getting to a goal
is to start feeling it now is to start
acting as if right if you want to be
that leader if you want to be that
author if you want to be that painter
all it takes is one action and you truly
are in the process of becoming it so
it’s funny that I am literally basically
done with the book and I’m like can I
call myself an author yet I’ve written a
book of course because you have taken
the action you’re doing the actions
there is no final anointing of anyone
there’s no ceremony there’s no fireworks
you just start acting as if and feeling
it and envisioning it and picturing it
and soon enough you become it right so
everybody starts somewhere so whether
you are a famous ballerina or an Olympic
swimmer they all started somewhere they
all had to take that first class they
all had to take that first leap into the
water right and at what point can you
start calling yourself a swimmer a
dancer an author it’s the second that
you start taking action and you start
thinking it and you’re feeling it right
it’s about embodying it so my biggest
tip for you is to start seeing yourself
as that person and start taking the
small actions of being that person that
you want to be that’s the only thing
that is separating you from actually
being it so you have to act as if in
order to really start getting that ball
rolling and all of a sudden you are when
you know a lot of corporations have they
might call them core values or guiding
principles or so on but the problem is
usually they’re very lofty sounding they
kind of read like a press release the
marketing department put out they sound
just like their competitors and maybe
you learn about it on day one of your
job but then it becomes this meaningless
plaque on the lobby wall well we wanted
to come up with committable core values
and by committable meaning we’re willing
to hire or fire people based on those
values completely independent of their
actual job performance everyone has a
problem with time but the day is 24
hours and we sleep 6 now I know there’s
some out there that say I need 8 but I
say just sleep a little faster because
the bottom line is we have six hours of
sleep 24 hours are available so if 18
hours now available to your work your
family your hobbies and also to learn
something new or to do something new
which could easily be that you want to
learn a new language or that you want to
read and as a New Year’s resolution I
have to read a book every week where you
say I’m gonna go and reshape my party so
you’re gonna go and take this hour out
of your schedule and say I’m gonna train
an hour every day so this is for most
people a huge challenge but it is
totally doable I can tell them because
the kind of things that I did when I
came to this country I mean I went to
school almost working on construction I
was working out my five hours a day I
was taking acting classes from 8 o’clock
at night at
from midnight I was doing all of those
things I wanted to make sure that out of
the 24 hours of the day that I don’t
waste one single hour those hours were
too precious and so they I just want to
tell people don’t give me this thing I
have a difficult time at the time and I
don’t have time for this neither of that
you have time you make the time so I
kind of like half jokingly with with a
lot of people say that you know my job
is basically like to be to be the
assistant for the rest of the company
like my job is to make sure that like
you have what you need that it’s and
basically you have everything you need
to kick ass like that’s my job if you
don’t have that then let me know because
I’m not doing my job 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 gonna make tons of
mistakes right 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 kind of bounce back and you learn
and nothing is impossible you just have
to kind of keep running through the
walls the two things we really zero in
on a people are you know two things they
sound simple they end up being very
difficult courage and genius courage is
the one we talk about a lot because it’s
the one that people can learn you know
courage courage which is to say not
giving up in the face of adversity
you know just being absolutely
determined to succeed you know is
something that you can you can like
force yourself to do it can be very
painful you can force yourself to do it
the genius part is a little bit hard to
force yourself to do you know courage
without genius might not get you where
you need to go but genius without
courage almost certainly won’t if you
don’t love it you won’t make it through
the long period of pain that is
inevitable so make sure that you take
care of yourself during the process make
sure that you take care of your mental
health your physical health while you’re
doing it because it’s a long road I
think my biggest tip is just get started
I meet a lot of young entrepreneur
to have good ideas or bad ideas or some
ideas and you don’t want to be a person
who just talks and talks and talks you
have to actually go and do something and
don’t worry about if it’s the perfect
thing or not there is this myth of
entrepreneurship that you’ll have the
one genius idea and suddenly everything
falls into place
it doesn’t work like that it’s a hard
slog there’s a lot of things to do wrong
a lot of things you’ll do right the
sooner you get started the sooner you’ll
get somewhere you know one of the things
that I tell people when they asked me
for advice about what they should do
when they’re wanting to start their own
business or take a next step in their
career is to actually start small I
think a lot of people try to they kind
of psyched themselves out or they get
too overwhelmed with how big something
can get but the truth is you really just
gotta start small and you got to prove
it before you skate make sure you choose
you know when you’re trying to decide
whether or not an idea is good enough to
pursue or a particular business is
something you want to want to go forward
with make sure that it’s the type of
business that when you’re standing in
the shower it’s the thing you want to
think about for the next 10 or 20 years
people really love simplicity so if you
look at the problems with large software
like Microsoft Office every feature in
Microsoft Office somebody wanted at some
time but what happens is over 10 or 20
years the thing gets so huge it’s
overwhelming so the discipline of great
product design is to figure out what are
the important cases for the long term
and to have the discipline to say no to
some things that are good it’s easy to
say no to things that are bad but great
product design is saying no to some
things that are good you have to decide
if you’re gonna be a slow-growth company
or get big Fast Company because any time
you try to straddle those two lines
painful things happen to you a lot of
people come to me they say well I want
to be an entrepreneur and I go that’s
great what’s your idea and they go well
I don’t have one yet and I say well I
think you should go get a job as a
busboy or something so you find
something you’re really passionate about
because it’s a lot of work and I’m
convinced that about half of what
separates the successful entrepreneurs
from the non successful ones is pure
perseverance it is so hard
you pour so much your life into this
thing there are such rough moments in
time that most people give up I don’t
blame them it’s really tough and it
consumes your life I mean if you’re if
you’ve got a family and you’re in the
early days of a company it’s I can’t
imagine how one could do it
I’m sure it’s it’s been done but it’s
rough for me because it’s a pretty much
a you know a 18 hour day job seven days
a week for a while so unless you have a
lot of passion about this you’re gonna
not survive you’re gonna give it up so
you’ve got to have an idea of an ax or a
problem or a wrong that you want to
write that you’re passionate about
otherwise you’re not going to have the
perseverance to stick it through and I
think that’s half the battle right there
it’s hard to remember how bad it was you
know in 1980s with IBM taking over the
world with the PC with Doss out there it
was it was far worse than the Apple –
and they tried to copy the Apple – and
they’ve done a pretty bad job and if you
needed to know a lot and so things were
kind of slipping backwards and Macintosh
was you saw the 1984 commercial put that
I hope you have that in your archives
you know Macintosh was basically this
this relatively small company you know
in Cupertino California taking on the
Goliath IBM and saying wait a minute
your way is wrong this is not the way we
want computers to go this is not the
legacy we want to leave this is not what
we want our kids to be learning this is
wrong and we are going to show you the
right way to do it and here it is it’s
called Macintosh and this is so much
better that it’s gonna beat you and we
are gonna do it and that’s what Apple
stood for so you know the most important
thing you can actually advise yourself
or anyone else
ignore your mistakes what is your
problem you’re good at some things just
go do that the number one thing you
should worry about is am i doing the
things that I’m good at 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 your boy
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 convinced you not to be an
entrepreneur because when you say I’m
gonna change the world maybe the most
famous person I’m gonna save the seals
they say don’t do that you it didn’t
happen before yeah it’s never have
you’re gonna you’re gonna you’re gonna
fail you can embarrass us put the
limiters on it they put the limit is
they put the blinders on you but true
entrepreneurs will just keep figuring it
out and I can’t stress this enough
choosing your partner’s has got to be
maybe the most important decision you’ll
ever make whether you know personally
and in love or otherwise in business you
can change your idea you can pivot your
company you can’t change your partners
without starting over and so I see so
many people rushing into these
relationships I mean you should really
give that a lot of thought this is
something that hopefully you’ll last
years I think that’s what people always
have to ask themselves do you believe in
the concept of what you’re doing you
believe that there’s really there there
you can figure out the right you know
product package or the white way to
reach users if you believe that then you
know keep keep scrapping because usually
there’s a way there is an advantage to
being what I like to call now hardcore
hardcore I don’t know quite how to
describe it’s a combination of tenacious
and dedicated and passionate and
committed something like that hardcore I
learned about being hardcore from math
I’m not gonna ask whether we have any
math concentrators here but I would say
that’s where I got kind of my lesson
I mean people could just go crazy
focused no it wasn’t just the people
were genius but working and working and
working and working
you know I’d sit in my room working on a
problem set after three hours I’m a
little ad D I just couldn’t take it the
most hardcore people could just power
through anything and the advantage of
being that tenacious and dedicated and
committed I claim it helped us at
Microsoft it’s fundamental of Microsoft
but I learned it here and at HAARP so
it’s about this movement forward now
what you own not your education or your
pedigree not pile of resources you might
have at hand not your network just going
after this thing and knowing that as you
do that you’ll find what you need you’ll
make your way over around and through
and I think the best entrepreneurs that
I’ve met are able to do that because
they have this strong vision and they
know that it’s worth it to keep moving
forward larger more established entities
can’t move as quickly as you can and
success and scale and size all fight
against this and I would encourage you
for the longest possible time as you
sort of start your own companies to look
for ways to stay agile 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 that they can go through
what I see right now is people wrap up
their sense of success and identity with
their prowess in fundraising and
comparing themselves against how their
peers are doing I think that’s really
the wrong way to look at things in it
and it leads to kind of non optimal
outcomes for instance I don’t know if
the valuations that companies are
getting today is necessarily healthy for
the company themselves and for us again
you know our inability to raise capital
actually forced us to be very
disciplined in how we think about the
operational metrics of the company and
that’s allowed us to you know be pretty
successful
I find that levels of success in almost
any industry or area correlate to a
person asking great questions in some
cases they seem absurd in fact the
hallmarking way of great questions is
that sound completely ridiculous so
someone might ask like Peter Thiel why
can’t you achieve your ten-year goals in
the next six months it’s a thought
exercise that’s like–that’s that’s a
good question to answer for yourself and
these types of questions come up
surprisingly often with with very very
impressive folks whether it’s in
business military entertainment or
otherwise and the way you can get better
at questions is by studying interviews
in part so I studied Larry King I
studied Charlie Rose I studied Terry
Gross I studied that go down the list
I studied Tony Robbins who does
in-person one-on-one interventions at
his events in front of ten thousand five
thousand people and he’s just genius
with how he uses questions to like
pattern interrupt and grab someone’s
attention and divert them in a more
productive productive direction now why
is that relevant relevant because
thinking is the process of asking
questions you’re asking yourself
questions and then you’re answering them
in your own head so if you get better at
asking other people questions you get
better at asking yourself questions
which means you are a you’re improving
your thought performance
and level of thinking and you know what
everybody wants to hear what they
already believe to be true and so the
last thing that we 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 yourself don’t solicit
feedback on your product your idea or
your 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
coworker husband wife for validation
be careful because a lot 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 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 going to be that big of a drag
and it’s not gonna be that bit 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 today you
should think okay my co-founders do we
do we cover a lot of surface area do we
have different skill sets and is it
somebody that that I trust fundamentally
and that’s those are really really
really important questions to ask
yourself because if so they give a
really strong foundation to go forward
failure is part of life I mean the
difference for me though is I’m like a
failure as a stepping stone to success
it’s a speed bump I know I’m gonna fail
but it’s not failure if you learn
something and so gosh I’ve made so many
mistakes I’ve screwed so many things up
but every time I do it just becomes it
becomes a way for me to explain to
someone else what it takes you know it’s
like here’s what I’ve done I think I
have the ability influence people
because I talk about my failures I talk
about
all the things that messed me up but I
show people that didn’t let it stop me
and you don’t need to stop you and I
think I think that’s really the secret
letter and if everything you touch was
successful first got a relate to people
as well and also it’s B total bullsh and
everyone know it’s bull and also you’d
be bored silly I mean think about it if
you just said I want this to happen I
want this to happen you know people
don’t value it they don’t fight for you
know it’s like you see kids sometimes in
it you know your parents will say you’re
not gonna value this if you don’t work
for it and you’re keeping on value just
give it to me but it’s true you know
about things we worked the hardest for
we value the most so I think you know
the purpose of the goal is not getting
it anyway the purpose of goal you know
is what who you become well you becomes
gonna make you happier it’s gonna make
you sad so I’m not looking for an
effortless approach everybody thought we
were crazy we probably were crazy but
having a dream like that that resonates
with people changing the world achieving
something big it turns out that’s what
pulls you through the hard times every
company has a heart as hard times every
company has setbacks and it’s having
that that that mountain in the distance
that you’re trying to scale that is what
gets everybody through 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 as failures when they
don’t work but they’re learning
experiments where you try things see
what works try the next thing if you’re
gonna start your own thing you know
maybe you have a grand grand vision of
like all the different features it’s
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 than many things
so there are a number of decisions that
we make every day and on a product side
there are billion different features
that we could make so the hard part is
really choosing which ones to focus on
which ones to build and you only have a
finite number that you can actually
execute on so for us a lot of it is just
listening to the community and more
importantly understanding you know what
features they’re asking for but why are
they asking for these specific things
what’s the root problem they’re trying
to solve or goal that you’re trying to
achieve and a lot of that is based on
actual behaviors so not just what they
say but what they do went to Harvard and
you’re dropped out have you ever thought
how your life could be better off if you
had gotten your Harvard degree well I
I’m a weird dropout because I take
college courses all the time I love
learning company courses and things so I
love being a student and there were
smart people around and you know they
fed you and they gave you these nice
grades that made you feel smart so I I
feel it was unfortunate that I didn’t
get to stay there but I don’t think I
missed any knowledge because you know
whatever I needed to learn I would I was
still in a learning mode you can’t ever
sort of balance two completely
contradictory things as a means of
hedging you have to decide what are you
going to believe in and put all of your
energy behind that and that’s that’s the
those are the kinds of strategic
decisions and trade-offs that you make
every day as an entrepreneur and it’s
important that you create the level of
clarity and conviction to go after an
opportunity that isn’t hedging you know
lots of different ideas or lots of
different approaches because that’s the
surest way that you’ll never be good at
sort of anything and I find even with
myself that it’s really hard to do a
Minimum Viable Product this minimum that
you’re constantly thinking no no it
really has to have this other partner
really has to have this and then you
overbilled and then you have to unbilled
andy build which is very disappointing
so doing a Minimum Viable Product is
really important and it’s even more
minimum than you think it 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 stay right it’s
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 that are given to us
expand our thinking to wonder what we
really can’t do with our lives be lucky
I think when I give that advice be lucky
it’s a little bit glib but I think
there’s also looking out for those
opportunities and being conscious and
being aware and looking for
opportunities to be lucky because you
can definitely put yourself in a
position where luck isn’t gonna make any
difference 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
impossible in doing it anyway building
really great companies just takes a
while and it’s good to not try to do it
too fast it’s really really really good
to be ambitious obviously but it’s not
that great to be too hasty it’s not
necessarily about the the exit or the
outcome it’s it’s about the journey so
it’s for me it’s just I think you just
you just need to enjoy that aspect of it
it’s you know because it’s not an always
an easy ride it’s a lot of ups and downs
along the way but as long as you’re
personally fulfilled by that experience
and genuinely enjoy what you do then it
makes it worthwhile somebody said to you
you’ll have or you’ll be as successful
as you are now
what have you had said back then
I believe you
that’s what I would have said because I
believe I believed any more I had very
few people who told me that I had a
small small small group of people that
would tell me something like that order
than that it was just me telling myself
yeah so if someone came up to me and
told me that all the way back then I’d
say you’re a dime right but ultimately
the biggest thing and I spill still
spend and from a third to a majority of
my time on is hiring nothing has the
impact of getting the right people
around the table and you can’t manage
your way out of a bad team because if
you build something for yourself if you
build something that you love that you
think is sufficiently epic if you make
something that you love there’s probably
not a billion people in the world that
love it as well
and so some of the best Tiger advice I
got was from a Paul Graham one of the
investors in stripe who talks a lot
about unscalable strategies for user
acquisition say for example you helping
each user personally sure that won’t
scale as you grew to a very large font
size but when I start up is just
starting out it really helps you have an
advantage as a small animal company
you need to focus on solutions not ideas
all of us here are really creative and
we come up with loads of ideas
throughout the day and we can we become
really excited about that as a dude we
should start a company around that but
that’s when you actually go to the other
side where you talked over you you know
find out what someone actually a problem
a problem that they have installed that
is is when you know real value comes out
I’m in meetings a lot my calendar 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 I
think you know if you know why you’re
doing something and what it is that
you’re trying to get then it’s a
question of being very very open to
failure and I’m and just you know trying
again and again and again until you get
it and what our leaders look like first
and foremost leaders always have a heard
people always like following leaders
maybe it’s their charisma maybe it’s
their personality maybe it’s because
they’re so in belief of what they say
that you have the ability to convince
people to buy into your vision not just
for a paycheck it’s something more than
that because great leaders they don’t we
have a herd they fight for their herd
and the herd knows that that’s your job
as entrepreneurs these are not employees
that do your bidding
these are partners that you should bring
into your space and you should be
treated like that and they should be
treated like that with respect and with
dignity values are you know who you are
right you don’t have personal values
professional values it’s really what you
stand for and again there’s no black and
white answer here there’s no right or
wrong value but if you’re building a
team or building an organization you
want to understand your identity and
then it mostly impacts hiring it impacts
the way that you decide to add people to
your team otherwise you can become very
very split in terms of what your mission
is if you’re gonna have a breakout
startup you’ve really got to think about
how you’re gonna innovate on
distribution not just fondant right and
the biggest mistake I see these days
that I see brilliant startup founders
who are brilliant product people and
they’ve really thought about their
product but haven’t really thought about
how they’re gonna make it grow and then
they launch their product and it’s like
crickets chirping no one no one’s using
it and they’re kind of flummoxed as to
what to do because they’ve never really
spent time thinking about it and they
just kind of assume that if you build a
good product everyone’s gonna find it
and the reality is it’s a big web out
there and that’s not really true the
beauty of failing is if you’re open to
admitting the failure and learning from
it you probably won’t fail again in that
one department and you’ll know what to
expect next time and that just makes you
stronger and and more accurate with the
risks that you take a rule of thumb is
to only worry about the next order of
magnitude so when you have 100 users
worried about what the company looks
like can it survive to a thousand a
thousand ten thousand and so on and so
forth if you’re worrying about the
millionth user and their experience and
how your technology is going to scale
when you have 100 users you’re you’re
pointed in the wrong direction but we
realized it pays to be a cockroach and
by that I mean
it pays just to not stop and just to not
die like we thought you know everything
along the way it tried to kill us right
like all of our friends were like
startups are dumb you’re dumb your ideas
are dumb and we kind of just looked at
all of them and said whatever and built Codecademy so it pays not to quit
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