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
cuz you 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 say 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 it’s gonna
make a big difference 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 didn’t
take 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 a rip
in your car seat 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 for 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 businessperson 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 a hair and makeup classes and just
everything I just couldn’t get enough as
soon as I got off the phone call with
him and then I also when he said it’s
not in the picture now but we think I
think it’d be great if 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 there you do and I just meant of
course I think it’s yes cuz I
immediately notice if you don’t you’re
Wilson out dude are you kidding me you
will forever regret you have to so soon
as that got over that I was like well
that’s inevitable I’m doing it mmm now I
gotta bust my ass too
go do it the best I can and a lot of
fear that mmm I mean that was yeah those
are those that was some majorly 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
about you have to go no don’t go all
like go meet midnight yes can y’all meet
him for another Korey choreograph
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 here and I’m gonna practice
as a move 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 aim bunch of cameras and
don’t come up short go all the way well
for me visualize where you want to be
what you want to accomplish 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 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 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 learnt 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
Tristar got better
absolutely a trust you Oh what about you
said earlier don’t be emotional and
sometimes the gun 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 it’s 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 and 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 in the world needs hope than 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 soon 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 in 70 years make it
through you know I said to myself what
if I can be the 36
– 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 haven’t 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 you know I
went when they see me they know that
every day when I’m breathing it’s for us
to go farther you know every time I
speak I want the truth to come out you
know say every time I speak I want to
shiver you know I don’t want them to be
like they know what I’m gonna say
because it’s polite they know what I’m
gonna say and even if I get in trouble
you know I’m saying that ain’t that what
we’re supposed to do it’s I’m not saying
I’m gonna rule the world or I’m gonna
change the world but I guarantee that I
will spark the the brain that will
change the world and that’s our job is
to spark somebody else watching us we
might not be the ones but let’s not be
selfish and because we’re not gonna
change the world let’s not talk about
how we should change it I don’t know how
to change but I know if I keep talking
about dirty it is out here somebody
gonna clean it up 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 and 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 is 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 I’m
thinking 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 page every single day and
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 and you can draw things
from that to help you be better at what
you do by looking for those common
denominators I don’t even know how do I
prepare ever 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 no
device
it’s no different than building my
basketball you start with where 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 counter
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 tell 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 advantages 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 me
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 y’all 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 made that choice I don’t have any
regrets whatsoever but I mean in terms
of sustaining a 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 n you yeah what 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 making it even but that I have
to want this to exist in the world I
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 with
you call it your 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 and to work on the
alignment of your 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 friend like whether they’re you
know a blue collar worker waiting for
the bus or they’re you know helping you
at your they’re the server a bartender
at the restaurant or they’re a
lower-ranking employee I mean the
smartest leaders I’ve ever seen have
always gone around the room and asked
for everybody’s opinion the hard
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 figure out how to scale
something great instead of scales I mean
not so great and then trying to improve
it that’s really hard 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 kid says how I mean acting
we did it night 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
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 stir 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 that 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 know cuz it’s not lis
dissatisfied in other words and so I
think when you are starting a new
business you uh you don’t want to go
after giant 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
Sarah found us 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 you’re gonna
do that 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 salish what you’re doing
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 you know I
looked at lots of companies and why I
thought they don’t succeed over time
we’ve had a more rapid turnover of coke
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 it 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 I
blind them they don’t see it falling
over the following takes place low 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
the learnings from all the companies 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 or where do you get the
internal strength to do that
well first of all I’d say I actually
think I feel feel fair quite strongly so
it’s not as though I just have the
absence of fear I’ve I feel it quite
strongly but there were times when if
something is important enough you
believe in it enough that you do it in
spite of the fear
so speaking of important things like
people shouldn’t think III I 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 fear
so you just feel it and let the
importance of it yeah you know actually
we’re something that can be helpful as
fatalism some degree if you just think
it’s just accept the probabilities then
that diminishes fear so my 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 and keep moving it
forward so that were still do some good
yeah same with Tesla I thought Gill 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 the
practicing what you preach I’m not a God
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 it was today 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 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 were you able to 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 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
be spending your money on on on teaching
and sharing and so that might mean
hiring a writer or two 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 it doesn’t
necessarily have to be a 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 you 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 it or the worst case
is you end up with a smart hard-working
crook who ends up working against your
interests and integrity is 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 Ossie Terry 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 it
like determine the success of your idea
whether you know the market timings
right for this new kind of service or
whether people you know whether a
customer like the economy’s could write
for for for your kind of service right
whether you meet the right people who
will find answer a company of many many
external circumstances are like outside
of your control and like but will affect
you how come it you have to like be okay
with that it 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
blackboard I wrote Virgin Airlines
one-way $29 to the VV I went around all
the people have been bumped and I filmed
my first plane and and that got me
thinking you know the airlines do bump
people they don’t care about you or me
particularly in the air and so we saw
them rang up Boeing and said you have
any second and 747 okay I mean it was
literally that you just sat in the
airport and said I’m starting an airline
right now we could not frustrated
exactly and I think most most of the
best entrepreneurial ideas come out of
frustration I think you know if you if
you’re frustrated about something and
the best way of sorting it out is get
out and do it and you’ve got yourself a
business the
mission of values is there the behaviors
or principles that you religiously
adhere to within your company
and when I say religious I mean that no
amount of data will sway you and from
from those principles and the degree to
which that you have the courage to
maintain your conviction around those
ideas is the degree to which you’re
going to be successful over the long
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 every day or you
can want to build a huge company 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 six now I know
there’s some out there that say overall
I need eight
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 you Brooke
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 or 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 12 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 because hours were too
precious and so they’ll just want to
tell people don’t give me this thing I
have a difficult time of it 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 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 love you know cuz 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
could 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 beast it’s a long road I think my
biggest tip is just get started I meet a
lot of young entrepreneurs who have good
ideas or bad ideas or some ideas and you
don’t want to be a person who just
talked
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 anytime
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 till 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
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
you know an 18 hour a 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 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 nineteen early 80s with IBM
taking over the world with the PC with
Doss out there it was it was far worse
than the Apple two they tried to copy
the Apple two and they’d 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 the 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 than its 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
when we’re trying to walk we figure it
out
entrepreneurs always figure out you’re
born thinking like an entrepreneur that
you know what I’m gonna figure this out
regardless and I’m gonna
keep going now often the challenges
families and friends convince you not to
be an entrepreneur because when you say
I’m gonna change the world I’m moving
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
happen you’re gonna you’re gonna you’re
gonna fail you’re gonna embarrass us I
put the limiters on it they put the
limiters they put the blinders on you
boy 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 will last
years I think that’s what people always
have to ask themselves do you believe in
the concept of what you’re doing do you
believe that there’s really they’re
there I can figure out the right you
know product package or the white way to
reach users and 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
it’s a combination of tenacious and
dedicated and passionate and committed
something like that hardcore I learned
about being hardcore from math
concentrators at Harvard
[Music]
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 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 of 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 an identity with
their progress and fundraising and
comparing themselves against how their
peers are doing I think that’s really
the wrong way to look at things and it
leads to if not optimal outcomes for
instance I don’t know if the valuations
and companies are getting today there’s
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 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 10,000 5,000
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 out of love and
concern a lot of people will express
some concerns and it can stop a lot of
multi-million dollar ideas right in
their tracks in the beginning 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 big 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
like it’s a speed bump I know I’m gonna
fail but it’s not failure if you learned
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 mess 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
forgot to relate to people as well and
also it’s be total bullsh
and everyone know it’s both and also
you’d be bored silly I mean think about
it if you just said I want this and
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 kidding
going value just give it to me but it’s
true you know about things we’ve 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 it’s 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 then many things poorly
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’t 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 golda to try and achieve and
a lot of that is based on actual
behaviors and not just what they say but
what they do
we 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
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 over build and then you have to
unbuild and D 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’t
stay right it’s beautiful and so I just
would encourage everyone that as we all
contemplate life to try to question the
assumptions that we live by and the
default options that are given to us and
expand our thinking to wonder what we
really can 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 and 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 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 did believe as
I believed anymore
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
but ultimately the biggest thing and I
spill still spend 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 which you think is sufficiently
epic if you make something that you love
there’s probably another billion people
in the world that love it as well and so
some of the best advice I got was from
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 strata size but when I
started is just starting out it really
helps you have an advantage as a small
and nimble 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
become really excited about that as a
dude we should start a company around
that that’s when you actually go to the
other side where you talk to over you
you know find out what someone actually
a problem a problem that they haven’t
solved that is is when you know real
value comes out I’m in meetings a lot my
Keller gets very full with those and
then at night after the kids have gone
to bed I’m on email a great deal I get
messages during the day that’s my chance
to 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’d 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 a
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’d only 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 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 are
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 intervene 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 they 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 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 absolutely 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
worry 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 a hundred 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 and 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
cuz you 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 say 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 it’s gonna
make a big difference 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 didn’t
take 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 a rip
in your car seat 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 for 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 businessperson 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 a hair and makeup classes and just
everything I just couldn’t get enough as
soon as I got off the phone call with
him and then I also when he said it’s
not in the picture now but we think I
think it’d be great if 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 there you do and I just meant of
course I think it’s yes cuz I
immediately notice if you don’t you’re
Wilson out dude are you kidding me you
will forever regret you have to so soon
as that got over that I was like well
that’s inevitable I’m doing it mmm now I
gotta bust my ass too
go do it the best I can and a lot of
fear that mmm I mean that was yeah those
are those that was some majorly 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
about you have to go no don’t go all
like go meet midnight yes can y’all meet
him for another Korey choreograph
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 here and I’m gonna practice
as a move 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 aim bunch of cameras and
don’t come up short go all the way well
for me visualize where you want to be
what you want to accomplish 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 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 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 learnt 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
Tristar got better
absolutely a trust you Oh what about you
said earlier don’t be emotional and
sometimes the gun 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 it’s 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 and 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 in the world needs hope than 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 soon 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 in 70 years make it
through you know I said to myself what
if I can be the 36
– 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 haven’t 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 you know I
went when they see me they know that
every day when I’m breathing it’s for us
to go farther you know every time I
speak I want the truth to come out you
know say every time I speak I want to
shiver you know I don’t want them to be
like they know what I’m gonna say
because it’s polite they know what I’m
gonna say and even if I get in trouble
you know I’m saying that ain’t that what
we’re supposed to do it’s I’m not saying
I’m gonna rule the world or I’m gonna
change the world but I guarantee that I
will spark the the brain that will
change the world and that’s our job is
to spark somebody else watching us we
might not be the ones but let’s not be
selfish and because we’re not gonna
change the world let’s not talk about
how we should change it I don’t know how
to change but I know if I keep talking
about dirty it is out here somebody
gonna clean it up 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 and 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 is 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 I’m
thinking 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 page every single day and
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 and you can draw things
from that to help you be better at what
you do by looking for those common
denominators I don’t even know how do I
prepare ever 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 no
device
it’s no different than building my
basketball you start with where 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 counter
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 tell 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 advantages 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 me
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 y’all 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 made that choice I don’t have any
regrets whatsoever but I mean in terms
of sustaining a 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 n you yeah what 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 making it even but that I have
to want this to exist in the world I
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 with
you call it your 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 and to work on the
alignment of your 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 friend like whether they’re you
know a blue collar worker waiting for
the bus or they’re you know helping you
at your they’re the server a bartender
at the restaurant or they’re a
lower-ranking employee I mean the
smartest leaders I’ve ever seen have
always gone around the room and asked
for everybody’s opinion the hard
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 figure out how to scale
something great instead of scales I mean
not so great and then trying to improve
it that’s really hard 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 kid says how I mean acting
we did it night 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
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 stir 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 that 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 know cuz it’s not lis
dissatisfied in other words and so I
think when you are starting a new
business you uh you don’t want to go
after giant 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
Sarah found us 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 you’re gonna
do that 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 salish what you’re doing
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 you know I
looked at lots of companies and why I
thought they don’t succeed over time
we’ve had a more rapid turnover of coke
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 it 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 I
blind them they don’t see it falling
over the following takes place low 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
the learnings from all the companies 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 or where do you get the
internal strength to do that
well first of all I’d say I actually
think I feel feel fair quite strongly so
it’s not as though I just have the
absence of fear I’ve I feel it quite
strongly but there were times when if
something is important enough you
believe in it enough that you do it in
spite of the fear
so speaking of important things like
people shouldn’t think III I 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 fear
so you just feel it and let the
importance of it yeah you know actually
we’re something that can be helpful as
fatalism some degree if you just think
it’s just accept the probabilities then
that diminishes fear so my 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 and keep moving it
forward so that were still do some good
yeah same with Tesla I thought Gill 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 the
practicing what you preach I’m not a God
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 it was today 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 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 were you able to 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 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
be spending your money on on on teaching
and sharing and so that might mean
hiring a writer or two 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 it doesn’t
necessarily have to be a 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 you 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 it or the worst case
is you end up with a smart hard-working
crook who ends up working against your
interests and integrity is 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 Ossie Terry 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 it
like determine the success of your idea
whether you know the market timings
right for this new kind of service or
whether people you know whether a
customer like the economy’s could write
for for for your kind of service right
whether you meet the right people who
will find answer a company of many many
external circumstances are like outside
of your control and like but will affect
you how come it you have to like be okay
with that it 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
blackboard I wrote Virgin Airlines
one-way $29 to the VV I went around all
the people have been bumped and I filmed
my first plane and and that got me
thinking you know the airlines do bump
people they don’t care about you or me
particularly in the air and so we saw
them rang up Boeing and said you have
any second and 747 okay I mean it was
literally that you just sat in the
airport and said I’m starting an airline
right now we could not frustrated
exactly and I think most most of the
best entrepreneurial ideas come out of
frustration I think you know if you if
you’re frustrated about something and
the best way of sorting it out is get
out and do it and you’ve got yourself a
business the
mission of values is there the behaviors
or principles that you religiously
adhere to within your company
and when I say religious I mean that no
amount of data will sway you and from
from those principles and the degree to
which that you have the courage to
maintain your conviction around those
ideas is the degree to which you’re
going to be successful over the long
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 every day or you
can want to build a huge company 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 six now I know
there’s some out there that say overall
I need eight
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 you Brooke
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 or 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 12 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 because hours were too
precious and so they’ll just want to
tell people don’t give me this thing I
have a difficult time of it 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 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 love you know cuz 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
could 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 beast it’s a long road I think my
biggest tip is just get started I meet a
lot of young entrepreneurs who have good
ideas or bad ideas or some ideas and you
don’t want to be a person who just
talked
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 anytime
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 till 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
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
you know an 18 hour a 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 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 nineteen early 80s with IBM
taking over the world with the PC with
Doss out there it was it was far worse
than the Apple two they tried to copy
the Apple two and they’d 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 the 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 than its 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
when we’re trying to walk we figure it
out
entrepreneurs always figure out you’re
born thinking like an entrepreneur that
you know what I’m gonna figure this out
regardless and I’m gonna
keep going now often the challenges
families and friends convince you not to
be an entrepreneur because when you say
I’m gonna change the world I’m moving
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
happen you’re gonna you’re gonna you’re
gonna fail you’re gonna embarrass us I
put the limiters on it they put the
limiters they put the blinders on you
boy 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 will last
years I think that’s what people always
have to ask themselves do you believe in
the concept of what you’re doing do you
believe that there’s really they’re
there I can figure out the right you
know product package or the white way to
reach users and 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
it’s a combination of tenacious and
dedicated and passionate and committed
something like that hardcore I learned
about being hardcore from math
concentrators at Harvard
[Music]
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 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 of 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 an identity with
their progress and fundraising and
comparing themselves against how their
peers are doing I think that’s really
the wrong way to look at things and it
leads to if not optimal outcomes for
instance I don’t know if the valuations
and companies are getting today there’s
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 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 10,000 5,000
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 out of love and
concern a lot of people will express
some concerns and it can stop a lot of
multi-million dollar ideas right in
their tracks in the beginning 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 big 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
like it’s a speed bump I know I’m gonna
fail but it’s not failure if you learned
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 mess 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
forgot to relate to people as well and
also it’s be total bullsh
and everyone know it’s both and also
you’d be bored silly I mean think about
it if you just said I want this and
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 kidding
going value just give it to me but it’s
true you know about things we’ve 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 it’s 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 then many things poorly
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’t 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 golda to try and achieve and
a lot of that is based on actual
behaviors and not just what they say but
what they do
we 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
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 over build and then you have to
unbuild and D 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’t
stay right it’s beautiful and so I just
would encourage everyone that as we all
contemplate life to try to question the
assumptions that we live by and the
default options that are given to us and
expand our thinking to wonder what we
really can 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 and 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 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 did believe as
I believed anymore
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
but ultimately the biggest thing and I
spill still spend 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 which you think is sufficiently
epic if you make something that you love
there’s probably another billion people
in the world that love it as well and so
some of the best advice I got was from
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 strata size but when I
started is just starting out it really
helps you have an advantage as a small
and nimble 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
become really excited about that as a
dude we should start a company around
that that’s when you actually go to the
other side where you talk to over you
you know find out what someone actually
a problem a problem that they haven’t
solved that is is when you know real
value comes out I’m in meetings a lot my
Keller gets very full with those and
then at night after the kids have gone
to bed I’m on email a great deal I get
messages during the day that’s my chance
to 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’d 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 a
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’d only 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 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 are
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 intervene 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 they 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 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 absolutely 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
worry 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 a hundred 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 and 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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