I believe faith no matter what your
religion is faith in the idea that it’s
going to work out in the end isn’t
useful it’s necessary because if you
move forward on a journey without some
faith whether it’s in the universe
orphans and God it’s a very lonely and
scary journey and who knows what happens
up above but it feels a lot better
believing that someone has your back and
you can’t be a cockeyed optimist oh can
you uh you know it helped me but it also
got me in a lot of trouble there’s only
a handful of primary emotions and
unfortunately we’re not we haven’t done
a great job in Western culture of
teaching how to feel emotions label them
and then how to work with them you know
we don’t have I didn’t have that course
I don’t know if you did and I didn’t
have a course on how you know the basic
mental skills work how to label them and
how to train them so we haven’t done a
great job of doing this in the education
platform and if there’s only three
things we can train craft body in mind
like why are we not training the mind
like why are we because the way that
thoughts and emotions work it’s like a
bang bang experience they happen like
right next to each other and there’s
some conversation about what comes first
is it a thought then emotion or is it
emotion than a thought most people in
the field would say of psychology would
say it’s thought than emotion the way
that I think about this is that’s like a
rider in the in an elephant so the rider
is the thought and then as soon as the
emotion wants to run because the thought
that maybe the rider scared he’s having
scary thoughts or sad because he’s
having a lot of sad base thoughts that
it’s when the elephant wants to go when
the emotions run you’re not controlling
that thing your job my job is to be the
rider a thoughtful aware rider of
thoughts and when we’re able to be aware
of our thoughts then we can guide and
negotiate our thoughts so they don’t run
while ultimately there’s a meta
awareness that takes place where when
you train awareness and we I’d like to
get into that conversation with you when
you train awareness of your thoughts
emotions body sensations
in your environment awareness of your
environment those four things we become
more finely tuned so that we can choose
great thoughts we can harness our
emotions we can feel our body sensations
and use them to facilitate clear
thinking creative thinking or great
output and when we’ll more aware of the
unfolding unpredictable environment
around us we can course correct and
adjust and pivot and that makes all the
difference in the most intense
environments in the world whether that’s
an emotional intensity vulnerability or
that is you know center court whatever
sporting environment that we’re talking
about I really do have when you believe
taking me on the road I remember I would
work with certain people but I would
never ask them to take me on the road
there were a few people who did take me
on the road with them like Todd Jordan
and Rick turns but I always knew that I
didn’t want to be that guy I knew that I
wanted to always be able to do my own
thing not just to sit at home and wait
for that beck and call deal I’m saying
like that’s the type of person that I
wanted to be like I was still at the
Comedy Store every night I was still I
did all those Mexican roads in South LA
every single one of them every night a
week that’s what pays of my addiction
but at the same time that knowing I was
also becoming a better comedian because
I would go into deep terrain four nights
a week and then go to the comedy store
everything is hunky-dory you follow me
you know this there’s places will keep
people come prepared to left and their
places but it’s a bar and you gotta go
up there and blow your toe off to get
their attention you’ve got this
I really like the titles I really want
to go after it I’m way intense I want to
win I’m all-in
getting in that kind of shape is
brutally difficult but then at the same
time you can balance it with the
playfulness and it’s not all about that
how have you learned to strike that
balance and and maybe more importantly
how do you teach other people to do that
mmm I’ve learned if I don’t learn to
strike that balance that when I go to
extreme in either one I’m not I’m not
happy I feel very scattered I feel
frantic I feel crazy so I think that for
me when I start feeling a little bit
chaotic so for me it shows up in a very
like grasping for straws things aren’t
happening like I’m running into a wall
like the feeling of banging your head
against a wall that’s what it feels like
for me and I know a lot of people can
relate to that and I think especially a
lot of people and fitness might get into
it too kind of like maybe they’re
anxious or it calms their nerves because
I think I run really on the anxious side
so for me if I don’t learn how to
control that I’ll go to the extreme of
something so it’s a must for me I
actually think it’s a must for everyone
to kind of find how to dance in the
different categories of your life
because we’re not just one thing and
when we go all in on one thing were
severely neglecting the other parts of
us which makes for an empty human you
know which makes for someone who doesn’t
feel who never feels full so I have to
remember that there’s so many parts of
me that I need to make sure that I’m
fulfilling I think I think it was
Stanley Kubrick who said the best way to
learn how to make a film is to make a
film and I certainly found that to be
the case I didn’t go to film school and
I just have always made my own films I
started at a young age and when you’re
doing films just with friends with no
money you don’t want a shoestring you
have to be able to do all the jobs
because when we made following for
example we were just shooting on
Saturdays we all had jobs in the week
and so not everybody would turn up and
sometimes you’d be recording sound and
sometimes you’d be shooting the film and
you know you really had to know a bit of
everything because you didn’t quite know
you know who your crew was going to be
on the day and and it’s a wonderful way
to learn everything and and the larger
the films have become I think the more
I’ve been able to appreciate the
learning that I did by doing
and I know enough about every job on set
to sort of be a pain in the ass to
everybody you know just enough to not
say I can do your job but just to give
them an idea that I’m paying attention
to what they’re doing and that I’m
asking for a particular approach and it
gives you confidence as a filmmaker I
recommend it to any young filmmaker
starting out it’s just try everything
try recording sound try shooting try
lighting you know try a bit of
everything except maybe acting but but
if you can get your head around all
those different disciplines you don’t
feel quite so at the mercy of your crew
and there’s an interesting relationship
as a director between yourself and the
people who work for you on set which is
they’re looking to you for leadership
and guidance and and I think they also
want to feel like you care about their
job and I think one of the ways of
showing somebody that you care about
their job you know is to know about it
and be able to engage in a conversation
with the sound Department about
microphones and which microphones are
using and things like that if you don’t
know this quote live by it one can have
no smaller or greater mastery the
mastery over oneself that’s DaVinci da
Vinci did amazing things with his life I
wanted to do equally amazing things with
mine and if that’s the game that we’re
playing if I can construct my belief
system if I can choose at any moment to
believe something that’s more empowering
than I was believing the moment before
and that that will actually find its way
into my actions allow me to do things
that I couldn’t do the moment before
then it’s like that moment in the matrix
where neo realizes he knows kung-fu and
that’s like as funny as that is that’s
how I think about life to me the very
fundamental purpose of life is to find
out how many skills I can acquire that
have utility and then put that utility
to the test in service of something
greater than myself
how many skills can i acquire that have
utility put that utility to the test
in service of something greater than
myself that is for me the purpose of
life now I don’t actually want to know
kung-fu that is not the mission that I’m
here to live but I knew that I had to
identify my mission so what was going to
be my mission mother Teresa is an
amazing quote nobody will act for the
many but people will act for the one and
that really struck me because I realized
they were right I was looking at this
global pandemic of ill health and I
wasn’t moving into action but thinking
about my mom and my sister or the uncle
I had who ate himself to death when I
was 12 years old that made me want to
act
everything you learn is just raw
information what you should start doing
is seeing yourself as a separate being
from anyone else in this room you each
and every one of you now I want to go
home and put it incorporate it after
your name in your head you are now a
being and incorporate you are
incorporated you are now going to take
information and go oh I could use that
for this and that and that don’t show
your cards to anybody else some guy
comes along these sounds like thinks he
sounds better than maybe you do maybe
you don’t but work on your thing and
then you can figure out what makes you
you artistically and then you can access
information when I go into the studio
when I sit in with an artist I’m
accessing information I’m not access
it’s like a library I go I’m going to
take this out and there’s sort of like
being a DJ
this this will work this will work but
not by way of just playing everything
and that’s what I wish people could do
more I don’t know if you can do a
real-time I don’t know maybe this is
just the time you get everything and you
worry about sort of figuring it out
later but I think it’d be an interesting
idea to look at the information learn it
and then immediately start figuring out
how you use it or how you don’t use it
you know a drummer is over play guitar
players over claims singers what we’re
saying and songwriters over right so
it’s a matter of how you begin to shape
anybody have a jam and they Jam too much
and they run out of ideas and they get
that itchy feeling on the way home like
they just gave up too much like they
just somehow sort of MDI played
everything and I saw the end of my only
musical existence but my whole entire
life I want to be a superhero I want to
be stronger than average man have abs
like an action figure and save people’s
lives all over the world I’ve maintained
that all the way through high school
when people started giving up and
started oh I’m gonna go do what my dad
is doing I’m gonna go do with what my
mom is doing when it was time to
graduate and all this all the stuff that
you do to graduate
they’re like so what are you gonna be
when you get in the real world tell me
you still don’t want to be a superhero I
want to be stronger than the average man
I want to I want to have abs like an
action figure and I want to save
people’s lives all over the world now it
was so serious when I left that that’s
when I was stuck that’s when I was lost
when I left everything that I loved to
do as a child that’s when I said I felt
like something is missing the most I
like to say that anything that you love
as a child is connected to your inner
child which is directly connected to
source as soon as I started doing
everything that I loved
there was a surge of power a surge of
confidence I wasn’t insecure anymore
because the emotion that had the most uh
dominance in my thought process and in
my heart process
was actually being paid attention to
make that are or live or have the life
or have the happiness that you also want
mm-hmm and then just worry about what
they think or you know look to them for
opinions that’s one thing that I’ve
learned – about people that say
something that’s pretty awful or you
know have just outsider’s opinions is do
they look at them do they have the life
that you want do they have the job that
you’re working towards do they have the
happiness that you want if they don’t
then ignore them because they’re not
even on the same plane as you they’re
here and your trajectory is here so you
know be true to yourself and surround
yourself with like-minded people know
that make you better
a monk Patel’s he’s never questioned the
path I never thought of leaving is lying
to you even though I wanted to be
amongst in sauce for I thought many
times of leaving and not wanting to do
it but use a stick to it because that’s
what you love it’s I’m sure when you’re
running the race at that point or you
wanna quit every race I do all right
it’s crazy yeah we got everything I get
it
yeah so it’s the same way as well this
just the thought comes up and you just
go like but this is what this is you
right you’re the racing you see being
being monkish me there’s little crickets
that get in your head
and those crickets are telling you right
you’re on the wrong path and you’ve
gotta get rid of oh yeah and it’s I
think it’s just being crystal clear of
what you want in life right from the
start
yeah and then just having that willpower
and the perseverance to to follow it
through and be unwavering in that in
your commitment and your TrueNorth and
yeah where you want to go well you know
I think they yeah I think most people
get swayed is because they don’t really
know what they want in life and if you
ask most people what they want in life
to say I want to be happy and happiness
is not a goal a presidency motto yeah
it’s a byproduct of something right if
if I eat ice cream or drink here I may
feel happy but it’s not a goal to be
pursued and I think that’s why people
get off the pass
often is because they don’t know where
they going a lot of times I’ll be the
tours of my run or something like that
and I’m all jacked up body’s broken
mines broken spirits broken I started to
say what if I can pull this off when I
first walked into the Navy SEAL
recruiters office he looked at me and
said only been 35 african-americans and
70 years make it through you know I said
to myself what if I can be the 36 it’s
the what if I can pull off a miracle
what if I can become someone that no one
thinks I can be and just that just means
talking about that I have 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 Toms
favorite event
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 unless you have a
passionate thing that you’re passionate
about now you can look at other people
or other entities or other things or
works of art you can draw things from
that to help you be better at what you
looking for those common denominators I
don’t even know how do I prepare her how
do I prepare how do I study how do I
view the game how do you build your game
and my response is much like the way he
builds products and you think
sequentially oh yeah you look at this
the end result of what you want to
create but in order to create that
there’s so many other little things that
go into this massive entity that device
it’s no different than building my
basketball game you start with what do
you want your game to be what would make
your game most unstoppable or hard to
deal with and now you work backwards
from there you start building it one
piece at a time one move at a time one
counter there’s a lot of similarities
there a rule of thumb is to only worry
about the next order of magnitude so
when you have 100 users worried about
what the company looks like can it
survive to a thousand a thousand ten
thousand and so on and so forth if
you’re worrying about the millionth user
and their experience and how your
technology is gonna scale when you have
100 users you’re you’re pointed in the
wrong direction but we realized it pays
to be a cockroach
and by that I mean it pays just to not
stop and just to not die like we thought
you know everything along the way it
tried to kill us right like all of our
friends were like startups are dumb
you’re dumb your ideas are dumb and we
kind of just looked at all of them and
said whatever and builds codecademy so
it pays not to quit 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 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 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 game we become
really excited about that as a dude we
should start a company around that but
that’s when you actually go to the other
side where you talked over you you know
find out what someone actually a problem
a problem that they have and solve that
is is when you know real value comes out
well 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 that because
your customers are gonna be the ones to
tell you if it’s really working or not
the definition of values is there the
behaviors or principles that you
religiously adhere to within your
company annoy say religious I mean that
no amount of data will sway you in it
from from those principles and the
degree to which that you have the
courage to maintain your conviction
around those ideas is the degree to
which you’re going to be successful over
the long term what I see right now is
people wrap up their sense of success
and identity with their prowess and
fundraising and comparing themselves
against how their peers are doing I
think that’s really the wrong way to
look at things in it and it leads to
kind of non optimal outcomes for
instance I don’t know if the valuations
that companies are getting today is
necessarily healthy for the company
themselves and for us again you know our
inability to raise capital actually
forced us to be very disciplined in how
we think about the operational metrics
of the company and that’s allowed us to
you know be pretty successful I’m in
meetings a lot my calendar gets very
full with those and then at night after
the kids have gone to bed I’m on email a
great deal I get messages during the day
that’s my chance to give long responses
and then over the weekend I send a lot
of mails 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 then I’m out traveling
around meeting with customers Europe
Asia and that sort of helps me think
okay do we have the right priorities
what what are people responding well to
and what would they they like to see us
do better 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 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 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 not to be involved with
it’s it’s not going to be that big of a
drag and it’s not gonna be that bit much
work it’s gonna be incredibly exciting
and rewarding because to your point
you’ll feel like you’re living your the
life that you’re meant to live 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 it really has to have this and
then you over build and then you have to
unbuild and rebuild which is very
disappointing so doing a Minimum Viable
Product is really important and it’s
even more minimum than you think it is I
was with a bunch of other investors who
I respect and they brought me a deal and
I wanted to be part of it but it didn’t
feel right
and I wrote millions of dollars on that
one and it just didn’t feel right and I
lost it all within two years associate
investors trust they’re good men
absolutely and trust you what about you
said earlier don’t be emotional and
sometimes the gut know this this is a
barometer of risk it’s something and
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 if you’re gonna start your own
thing you know maybe you have a grand
grand vision of like all the different
features that’s gonna have and all the
different you know revenue lines you’re
gonna do and you know keep keep that
vision but do one piece of that first
and do it really really really well it’s
so much better to do a few things well
than many things poorly if you’re not
utilizing an online community then
you’re at a disadvantage to those who
are you can be asking online community
that’s 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 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 realize 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 other 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 nobody woman 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 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
Sounders 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 well you’re gonna do it
differently and and there’s some truth
to that but like when you get down to to
making it work and now you’re into it
already you’ve kind of salus what you’re
doing and you have some problems then
I’d go talk to all these people who
failed because you’ll uncover all sorts
of interesting things you can try
because if you build something for
yourself if you build something that you
love which i think is sufficiently epic
if you make something that you love
there’s probably another billion people
in the world I’d love as well
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 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 it’s so hard I thought doing
this research I thought going into it
they’re 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 wanna cup and ham authentic it’s
not necessarily about the the exit or
the outcome it’s it’s about the journey
so it’s for me it’s just I think you
just you just need to enjoy that aspect
of it it’s you know because it’s not an
always an easy ride it’s a lot of ups
and downs along the way but as long as
you’re personally fulfilled by that
experience and genuinely enjoy what you
do then it makes it worthwhile 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 I
do believe that organisations human
organizations are inherently unstable
they will fall over and you have to work
to keep them upright but they fall
slowly most people don’t notice it they
let their success they blind them they
don’t see it falling over the following
takes place law but the collapse is
quick you have to do constant assessment
you have to look for the hard truths try
to do something that you would want to
do anyway whether it’s it doesn’t
necessarily have to be
very successful business because when
you do decide to become an entrepreneur
and start a business chances are it’s
not gonna do it’s not gonna become like
a multi-million dollar business so at
least do something that you love in the
beginning so that even if it fails you’d
still enjoy it 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
but ultimately the biggest thing and why
Spill still spends 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 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 grow to a
very large strata size but when I start
up is just starting out it really helps
you have an advantage as a small and
nimble company and you know what
everybody wants to hear what they
already believe to be true and so the
last thing they want to hear is an
original idea that contradicts their
belief system so it’s very hard to even
bring that kind of stuff up but those
are the things those are the only things
things that you believe that everybody
around you doesn’t believe when you’re
right that create real value in the
world everything else people already
know there’s no value created it’s just
business as usual so it’s so important
to think for yourself 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 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 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
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 start-up is
not realizing that something is
impossible and doing it anyway
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 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 res
it’s pretty varied and I have a pretty
interesting life you’ll 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
people think happiness is all about
money happiness is never ever about
money happiness is about being able to
control your own life that’s all you
want
uh-huh it don’t matter what you got in
your bank but if you can control your
own life you happy that’s the beauty and
that’s where everybody’s mixed up yeah
because you got all this money but if
somebody else is controlling you
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 if you’re gonna
have a breakout start up you really got
to think about how you can innovate on
distribution not just fallout 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 because they’ve never
really spent time thinking about it and
they just kind of assume that it a if
you build a good product everyone’s
gonna find it
and the reality is it’s a big web out
there and that’s not really true if
you’re not coming up with ten ideas a
day that’s why I have this thing I’m not
coming up when I’m filling up this page
every single day then my idea muscle
will atrophy and I started this in 2001
and I still do it every single day like
you have to come up with ideas every
single day or the idea muscle atrophies
the good news is after about six months
of doing that you’re like a machine like
people get surprised at how many ideas
you could just have any don’t
necessarily think that you have to have
the homerun and the huge Apple Computer
on your first start I spent a long time
in my life with skills just building
little devices for fun for fun is one of
the key things does that drives you to
think and think and think and make it
better and better and better than you
ever would if you’re doing it for a
company build things at first for
yourself that you
would want and oftentimes the best
methodology is to start with the perfect
experience just one person get that
right and then forget how to scale
something great instead of scales I mean
not so great and then trying to improve
it that’s really hard to do 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 until the
point with all the kids graduated and
went on to the other stuff and I started
doing adult acting classes and then I
was in the commercial classes and then I
loved like the hair and makeup classes
and just everything I just couldn’t get
enough as soon as we I got off the phone
call with him and then also when he said
it’s not in the picture now but we think
I think it’d be great if Dallas danced
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 ensues I would all know that’s not
that the other other devil in my ear
said dare you do and I just meant of
course I think it’s yes cuz I
immediately knows if you don’t you’re
Wilson out dude are you kidding me you
will forever regret you have to so as
soon as that got over that I was like
well that’s inevitable I’m doing it mmm
now I gotta bust my ass to go do it the
best I can and a lot of fear that I mean
that was yeah those are those that was
some major really good anxiety and fear
and then now we’re saying now I’m saying
by that time now everything my choice is
from that phone call long work anything
I was never sorry you have to go no do
we go all I 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 I’m gonna practice 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 n bunch of cameras and one thing
don’t come up short yo go all the way
lots of companies and why I thought they
don’t succeed over time we’ve had a more
rapid turnover of companies I said what
did they fundamentally do wrong like why
are those companies all do wrong and
they usually it’s just they missed the
future and so I think for me I just
tried to focus on that and say what does
that future really gonna be and how do
we create it I’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 that
I’ve managed to understand is the art of
delegation because if I can pass on you
know to Claire Smith to areum my palette
my understanding my knowledge then grab
it run it and then pass on to your team
don’t hold that inside 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
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 so
when we see a kid with a lemonade stand
it’s different then 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 Ben
Graham and his low in his low teens
looked around and he looked at the
people he admired and he said you know I
want to be admired 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 quality how do you think
about making a decision when everyone
tells you this is a crazy idea where do
you get the internal strength to do that
all of us well I’d say I actually think
I think I 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 are times when if
something is important enough you
believe in it enough that you do it in
spite of fear so speaking of important
things like people shouldn’t think I I
should think well I feel fear about this
and therefore I shouldn’t do it
it’s normal to feel fair like you’d have
to definitely something mentally wrong
you shouldn’t feel fair so you just feel
it and let the importance of it anyway
yeah you know actually we’re something
that can be helpful as fatalism some
degree if you just think it’s just
accept the probabilities then that
diminishes fair 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 your odds of a car
company succeeding were extremely low
and so when we’re coming up with ideas
you know we always ask ourselves what
kind of new market is this creating and
then also what what part of my day and
and what problem is it solving and so
I’ve gone as far as taking an entire
catalogue of my day from the moment I
like open my eyes and writing down every
single thing I do and then asking myself
like is there something here 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 so just go
and do it
try learn from it you you know you’ll
fail at some things that’s a learning
experience that you need so that you can
take that on to the next experience and
don’t let people who you may respect and
who you believe know what they’re
talking about don’t let them tell you it
can’t be done
because often they will tell you it
can’t be done and it’s just because you
don’t have the courage to try it
failure is part of life I mean the
difference for me though is I’m like a
failure as a stepping stone to success
it’s a speed bump I know I’m gonna fail
but it’s not failure if you learn
something and so gosh I’ve made so many
mistakes I’ve screwed so many things up
but every time I do it just becomes it
becomes a way for me to explain to
someone else what it takes you know it’s
like here’s what I’ve done I think I
have the ability to influence people
because I talk about my failures I talk
about all the things that messed me up
but I show people that didn’t let it
stop me and you don’t need to stop you
and I think I think that’s really the
secret matter and if everything you
touch was successful first to relate to
people as much and also let’s be total
and everyone know it’s cool and
also you’d be bored silly I mean think
about it if you just said I want this to
happen I want this to happen you know
people don’t value it they don’t fight
for you know it’s like you see kids
sometimes in it you know your parents
will say you’re not gonna value this if
you don’t work for it and you’re keeping
going oh well you 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 all 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
there’s no such thing 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
motion 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 extraneous when they don’t work but
they’re learning experiments where you
try things see what works try the next
thing 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 there there
you can figure out the right you know
product package or the right way to
reach users if you believe that then you
know keep scrapping because usually
there’s a way I find that levels of
success in almost any industry or area
correlate to a person asking great
questions in some cases they seem absurd
in fact the hallmarking way of great
questions is that sound completely
ridiculous so someone might ask like
Peter Thiel why can’t you achieve your
ten-year goals in the next six months
it’s a thought exercise that’s
like–that’s that’s a good question to
answer for yourself and these types of
questions come up surprisingly often
with with very very impressive folks
whether it’s in business military
entertainment or otherwise and the way
you can get better at questions is by
studying interviews in part so I studied
Larry King
I studied Charlie Rose I studied Terry
Gross I studied that that go down the
list
I studied twenty Robbins who does
in-person one-on-one interventions at
his events in front of ten thousand five
thousand people and he’s just genius
with how he uses questions to like
pattern interrupt and grab someone’s
attention and divert them in a more
productive productive direction now why
is that relevant relevant because
thinking is the process of asking
questions you’re asking yourself
questions and then you’re answering them
in your own head so if you get better at
asking other people questions you get
better at asking yourself questions
which means you are a you’re improving
your thought performance and level of
thinking there’s a lot of conventional
wisdom out there
built up over time and built through all
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 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 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
they believed 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 I’d
the hardest thing to do is start you
have all these ideas and everyone has an
idea but it’s really about executing the
idea and building the idea and
attracting other people to help you work
on the idea that is the biggest
challenge but the way to begin is to get
the idea out of your head draw it out
you know talk about it program it if
you’re a programmer or make it if you’re
building something 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
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 what this all
comes down to is doing something
exceptional for your users whether it’s
in community 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
religion is faith in the idea that it’s
going to work out in the end isn’t
useful it’s necessary because if you
move forward on a journey without some
faith whether it’s in the universe
orphans and God it’s a very lonely and
scary journey and who knows what happens
up above but it feels a lot better
believing that someone has your back and
you can’t be a cockeyed optimist oh can
you uh you know it helped me but it also
got me in a lot of trouble there’s only
a handful of primary emotions and
unfortunately we’re not we haven’t done
a great job in Western culture of
teaching how to feel emotions label them
and then how to work with them you know
we don’t have I didn’t have that course
I don’t know if you did and I didn’t
have a course on how you know the basic
mental skills work how to label them and
how to train them so we haven’t done a
great job of doing this in the education
platform and if there’s only three
things we can train craft body in mind
like why are we not training the mind
like why are we because the way that
thoughts and emotions work it’s like a
bang bang experience they happen like
right next to each other and there’s
some conversation about what comes first
is it a thought then emotion or is it
emotion than a thought most people in
the field would say of psychology would
say it’s thought than emotion the way
that I think about this is that’s like a
rider in the in an elephant so the rider
is the thought and then as soon as the
emotion wants to run because the thought
that maybe the rider scared he’s having
scary thoughts or sad because he’s
having a lot of sad base thoughts that
it’s when the elephant wants to go when
the emotions run you’re not controlling
that thing your job my job is to be the
rider a thoughtful aware rider of
thoughts and when we’re able to be aware
of our thoughts then we can guide and
negotiate our thoughts so they don’t run
while ultimately there’s a meta
awareness that takes place where when
you train awareness and we I’d like to
get into that conversation with you when
you train awareness of your thoughts
emotions body sensations
in your environment awareness of your
environment those four things we become
more finely tuned so that we can choose
great thoughts we can harness our
emotions we can feel our body sensations
and use them to facilitate clear
thinking creative thinking or great
output and when we’ll more aware of the
unfolding unpredictable environment
around us we can course correct and
adjust and pivot and that makes all the
difference in the most intense
environments in the world whether that’s
an emotional intensity vulnerability or
that is you know center court whatever
sporting environment that we’re talking
about I really do have when you believe
taking me on the road I remember I would
work with certain people but I would
never ask them to take me on the road
there were a few people who did take me
on the road with them like Todd Jordan
and Rick turns but I always knew that I
didn’t want to be that guy I knew that I
wanted to always be able to do my own
thing not just to sit at home and wait
for that beck and call deal I’m saying
like that’s the type of person that I
wanted to be like I was still at the
Comedy Store every night I was still I
did all those Mexican roads in South LA
every single one of them every night a
week that’s what pays of my addiction
but at the same time that knowing I was
also becoming a better comedian because
I would go into deep terrain four nights
a week and then go to the comedy store
everything is hunky-dory you follow me
you know this there’s places will keep
people come prepared to left and their
places but it’s a bar and you gotta go
up there and blow your toe off to get
their attention you’ve got this
I really like the titles I really want
to go after it I’m way intense I want to
win I’m all-in
getting in that kind of shape is
brutally difficult but then at the same
time you can balance it with the
playfulness and it’s not all about that
how have you learned to strike that
balance and and maybe more importantly
how do you teach other people to do that
mmm I’ve learned if I don’t learn to
strike that balance that when I go to
extreme in either one I’m not I’m not
happy I feel very scattered I feel
frantic I feel crazy so I think that for
me when I start feeling a little bit
chaotic so for me it shows up in a very
like grasping for straws things aren’t
happening like I’m running into a wall
like the feeling of banging your head
against a wall that’s what it feels like
for me and I know a lot of people can
relate to that and I think especially a
lot of people and fitness might get into
it too kind of like maybe they’re
anxious or it calms their nerves because
I think I run really on the anxious side
so for me if I don’t learn how to
control that I’ll go to the extreme of
something so it’s a must for me I
actually think it’s a must for everyone
to kind of find how to dance in the
different categories of your life
because we’re not just one thing and
when we go all in on one thing were
severely neglecting the other parts of
us which makes for an empty human you
know which makes for someone who doesn’t
feel who never feels full so I have to
remember that there’s so many parts of
me that I need to make sure that I’m
fulfilling I think I think it was
Stanley Kubrick who said the best way to
learn how to make a film is to make a
film and I certainly found that to be
the case I didn’t go to film school and
I just have always made my own films I
started at a young age and when you’re
doing films just with friends with no
money you don’t want a shoestring you
have to be able to do all the jobs
because when we made following for
example we were just shooting on
Saturdays we all had jobs in the week
and so not everybody would turn up and
sometimes you’d be recording sound and
sometimes you’d be shooting the film and
you know you really had to know a bit of
everything because you didn’t quite know
you know who your crew was going to be
on the day and and it’s a wonderful way
to learn everything and and the larger
the films have become I think the more
I’ve been able to appreciate the
learning that I did by doing
and I know enough about every job on set
to sort of be a pain in the ass to
everybody you know just enough to not
say I can do your job but just to give
them an idea that I’m paying attention
to what they’re doing and that I’m
asking for a particular approach and it
gives you confidence as a filmmaker I
recommend it to any young filmmaker
starting out it’s just try everything
try recording sound try shooting try
lighting you know try a bit of
everything except maybe acting but but
if you can get your head around all
those different disciplines you don’t
feel quite so at the mercy of your crew
and there’s an interesting relationship
as a director between yourself and the
people who work for you on set which is
they’re looking to you for leadership
and guidance and and I think they also
want to feel like you care about their
job and I think one of the ways of
showing somebody that you care about
their job you know is to know about it
and be able to engage in a conversation
with the sound Department about
microphones and which microphones are
using and things like that if you don’t
know this quote live by it one can have
no smaller or greater mastery the
mastery over oneself that’s DaVinci da
Vinci did amazing things with his life I
wanted to do equally amazing things with
mine and if that’s the game that we’re
playing if I can construct my belief
system if I can choose at any moment to
believe something that’s more empowering
than I was believing the moment before
and that that will actually find its way
into my actions allow me to do things
that I couldn’t do the moment before
then it’s like that moment in the matrix
where neo realizes he knows kung-fu and
that’s like as funny as that is that’s
how I think about life to me the very
fundamental purpose of life is to find
out how many skills I can acquire that
have utility and then put that utility
to the test in service of something
greater than myself
how many skills can i acquire that have
utility put that utility to the test
in service of something greater than
myself that is for me the purpose of
life now I don’t actually want to know
kung-fu that is not the mission that I’m
here to live but I knew that I had to
identify my mission so what was going to
be my mission mother Teresa is an
amazing quote nobody will act for the
many but people will act for the one and
that really struck me because I realized
they were right I was looking at this
global pandemic of ill health and I
wasn’t moving into action but thinking
about my mom and my sister or the uncle
I had who ate himself to death when I
was 12 years old that made me want to
act
everything you learn is just raw
information what you should start doing
is seeing yourself as a separate being
from anyone else in this room you each
and every one of you now I want to go
home and put it incorporate it after
your name in your head you are now a
being and incorporate you are
incorporated you are now going to take
information and go oh I could use that
for this and that and that don’t show
your cards to anybody else some guy
comes along these sounds like thinks he
sounds better than maybe you do maybe
you don’t but work on your thing and
then you can figure out what makes you
you artistically and then you can access
information when I go into the studio
when I sit in with an artist I’m
accessing information I’m not access
it’s like a library I go I’m going to
take this out and there’s sort of like
being a DJ
this this will work this will work but
not by way of just playing everything
and that’s what I wish people could do
more I don’t know if you can do a
real-time I don’t know maybe this is
just the time you get everything and you
worry about sort of figuring it out
later but I think it’d be an interesting
idea to look at the information learn it
and then immediately start figuring out
how you use it or how you don’t use it
you know a drummer is over play guitar
players over claims singers what we’re
saying and songwriters over right so
it’s a matter of how you begin to shape
anybody have a jam and they Jam too much
and they run out of ideas and they get
that itchy feeling on the way home like
they just gave up too much like they
just somehow sort of MDI played
everything and I saw the end of my only
musical existence but my whole entire
life I want to be a superhero I want to
be stronger than average man have abs
like an action figure and save people’s
lives all over the world I’ve maintained
that all the way through high school
when people started giving up and
started oh I’m gonna go do what my dad
is doing I’m gonna go do with what my
mom is doing when it was time to
graduate and all this all the stuff that
you do to graduate
they’re like so what are you gonna be
when you get in the real world tell me
you still don’t want to be a superhero I
want to be stronger than the average man
I want to I want to have abs like an
action figure and I want to save
people’s lives all over the world now it
was so serious when I left that that’s
when I was stuck that’s when I was lost
when I left everything that I loved to
do as a child that’s when I said I felt
like something is missing the most I
like to say that anything that you love
as a child is connected to your inner
child which is directly connected to
source as soon as I started doing
everything that I loved
there was a surge of power a surge of
confidence I wasn’t insecure anymore
because the emotion that had the most uh
dominance in my thought process and in
my heart process
was actually being paid attention to
make that are or live or have the life
or have the happiness that you also want
mm-hmm and then just worry about what
they think or you know look to them for
opinions that’s one thing that I’ve
learned – about people that say
something that’s pretty awful or you
know have just outsider’s opinions is do
they look at them do they have the life
that you want do they have the job that
you’re working towards do they have the
happiness that you want if they don’t
then ignore them because they’re not
even on the same plane as you they’re
here and your trajectory is here so you
know be true to yourself and surround
yourself with like-minded people know
that make you better
a monk Patel’s he’s never questioned the
path I never thought of leaving is lying
to you even though I wanted to be
amongst in sauce for I thought many
times of leaving and not wanting to do
it but use a stick to it because that’s
what you love it’s I’m sure when you’re
running the race at that point or you
wanna quit every race I do all right
it’s crazy yeah we got everything I get
it
yeah so it’s the same way as well this
just the thought comes up and you just
go like but this is what this is you
right you’re the racing you see being
being monkish me there’s little crickets
that get in your head
and those crickets are telling you right
you’re on the wrong path and you’ve
gotta get rid of oh yeah and it’s I
think it’s just being crystal clear of
what you want in life right from the
start
yeah and then just having that willpower
and the perseverance to to follow it
through and be unwavering in that in
your commitment and your TrueNorth and
yeah where you want to go well you know
I think they yeah I think most people
get swayed is because they don’t really
know what they want in life and if you
ask most people what they want in life
to say I want to be happy and happiness
is not a goal a presidency motto yeah
it’s a byproduct of something right if
if I eat ice cream or drink here I may
feel happy but it’s not a goal to be
pursued and I think that’s why people
get off the pass
often is because they don’t know where
they going a lot of times I’ll be the
tours of my run or something like that
and I’m all jacked up body’s broken
mines broken spirits broken I started to
say what if I can pull this off when I
first walked into the Navy SEAL
recruiters office he looked at me and
said only been 35 african-americans and
70 years make it through you know I said
to myself what if I can be the 36 it’s
the what if I can pull off a miracle
what if I can become someone that no one
thinks I can be and just that just means
talking about that I have 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 Toms
favorite event
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 unless you have a
passionate thing that you’re passionate
about now you can look at other people
or other entities or other things or
works of art you can draw things from
that to help you be better at what you
looking for those common denominators I
don’t even know how do I prepare her how
do I prepare how do I study how do I
view the game how do you build your game
and my response is much like the way he
builds products and you think
sequentially oh yeah you look at this
the end result of what you want to
create but in order to create that
there’s so many other little things that
go into this massive entity that device
it’s no different than building my
basketball game you start with what do
you want your game to be what would make
your game most unstoppable or hard to
deal with and now you work backwards
from there you start building it one
piece at a time one move at a time one
counter there’s a lot of similarities
there a rule of thumb is to only worry
about the next order of magnitude so
when you have 100 users worried about
what the company looks like can it
survive to a thousand a thousand ten
thousand and so on and so forth if
you’re worrying about the millionth user
and their experience and how your
technology is gonna scale when you have
100 users you’re you’re pointed in the
wrong direction but we realized it pays
to be a cockroach
and by that I mean it pays just to not
stop and just to not die like we thought
you know everything along the way it
tried to kill us right like all of our
friends were like startups are dumb
you’re dumb your ideas are dumb and we
kind of just looked at all of them and
said whatever and builds codecademy so
it pays not to quit 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 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 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 game we become
really excited about that as a dude we
should start a company around that but
that’s when you actually go to the other
side where you talked over you you know
find out what someone actually a problem
a problem that they have and solve that
is is when you know real value comes out
well 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 that because
your customers are gonna be the ones to
tell you if it’s really working or not
the definition of values is there the
behaviors or principles that you
religiously adhere to within your
company annoy say religious I mean that
no amount of data will sway you in it
from from those principles and the
degree to which that you have the
courage to maintain your conviction
around those ideas is the degree to
which you’re going to be successful over
the long term what I see right now is
people wrap up their sense of success
and identity with their prowess and
fundraising and comparing themselves
against how their peers are doing I
think that’s really the wrong way to
look at things in it and it leads to
kind of non optimal outcomes for
instance I don’t know if the valuations
that companies are getting today is
necessarily healthy for the company
themselves and for us again you know our
inability to raise capital actually
forced us to be very disciplined in how
we think about the operational metrics
of the company and that’s allowed us to
you know be pretty successful I’m in
meetings a lot my calendar gets very
full with those and then at night after
the kids have gone to bed I’m on email a
great deal I get messages during the day
that’s my chance to give long responses
and then over the weekend I send a lot
of mails 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 then I’m out traveling
around meeting with customers Europe
Asia and that sort of helps me think
okay do we have the right priorities
what what are people responding well to
and what would they they like to see us
do better 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 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 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 not to be involved with
it’s it’s not going to be that big of a
drag and it’s not gonna be that bit much
work it’s gonna be incredibly exciting
and rewarding because to your point
you’ll feel like you’re living your the
life that you’re meant to live 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 it really has to have this and
then you over build and then you have to
unbuild and rebuild which is very
disappointing so doing a Minimum Viable
Product is really important and it’s
even more minimum than you think it is I
was with a bunch of other investors who
I respect and they brought me a deal and
I wanted to be part of it but it didn’t
feel right
and I wrote millions of dollars on that
one and it just didn’t feel right and I
lost it all within two years associate
investors trust they’re good men
absolutely and trust you what about you
said earlier don’t be emotional and
sometimes the gut know this this is a
barometer of risk it’s something and
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 if you’re gonna start your own
thing you know maybe you have a grand
grand vision of like all the different
features that’s gonna have and all the
different you know revenue lines you’re
gonna do and you know keep keep that
vision but do one piece of that first
and do it really really really well it’s
so much better to do a few things well
than many things poorly if you’re not
utilizing an online community then
you’re at a disadvantage to those who
are you can be asking online community
that’s 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 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 realize 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 other 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 nobody woman 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 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
Sounders 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 well you’re gonna do it
differently and and there’s some truth
to that but like when you get down to to
making it work and now you’re into it
already you’ve kind of salus what you’re
doing and you have some problems then
I’d go talk to all these people who
failed because you’ll uncover all sorts
of interesting things you can try
because if you build something for
yourself if you build something that you
love which i think is sufficiently epic
if you make something that you love
there’s probably another billion people
in the world I’d love as well
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 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 it’s so hard I thought doing
this research I thought going into it
they’re 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 wanna cup and ham authentic it’s
not necessarily about the the exit or
the outcome it’s it’s about the journey
so it’s for me it’s just I think you
just you just need to enjoy that aspect
of it it’s you know because it’s not an
always an easy ride it’s a lot of ups
and downs along the way but as long as
you’re personally fulfilled by that
experience and genuinely enjoy what you
do then it makes it worthwhile 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 I
do believe that organisations human
organizations are inherently unstable
they will fall over and you have to work
to keep them upright but they fall
slowly most people don’t notice it they
let their success they blind them they
don’t see it falling over the following
takes place law but the collapse is
quick you have to do constant assessment
you have to look for the hard truths try
to do something that you would want to
do anyway whether it’s it doesn’t
necessarily have to be
very successful business because when
you do decide to become an entrepreneur
and start a business chances are it’s
not gonna do it’s not gonna become like
a multi-million dollar business so at
least do something that you love in the
beginning so that even if it fails you’d
still enjoy it 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
but ultimately the biggest thing and why
Spill still spends 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 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 grow to a
very large strata size but when I start
up is just starting out it really helps
you have an advantage as a small and
nimble company and you know what
everybody wants to hear what they
already believe to be true and so the
last thing they want to hear is an
original idea that contradicts their
belief system so it’s very hard to even
bring that kind of stuff up but those
are the things those are the only things
things that you believe that everybody
around you doesn’t believe when you’re
right that create real value in the
world everything else people already
know there’s no value created it’s just
business as usual so it’s so important
to think for yourself 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 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 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
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 start-up is
not realizing that something is
impossible and doing it anyway
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 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 res
it’s pretty varied and I have a pretty
interesting life you’ll 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
people think happiness is all about
money happiness is never ever about
money happiness is about being able to
control your own life that’s all you
want
uh-huh it don’t matter what you got in
your bank but if you can control your
own life you happy that’s the beauty and
that’s where everybody’s mixed up yeah
because you got all this money but if
somebody else is controlling you
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 if you’re gonna
have a breakout start up you really got
to think about how you can innovate on
distribution not just fallout 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 because they’ve never
really spent time thinking about it and
they just kind of assume that it a if
you build a good product everyone’s
gonna find it
and the reality is it’s a big web out
there and that’s not really true if
you’re not coming up with ten ideas a
day that’s why I have this thing I’m not
coming up when I’m filling up this page
every single day then my idea muscle
will atrophy and I started this in 2001
and I still do it every single day like
you have to come up with ideas every
single day or the idea muscle atrophies
the good news is after about six months
of doing that you’re like a machine like
people get surprised at how many ideas
you could just have any don’t
necessarily think that you have to have
the homerun and the huge Apple Computer
on your first start I spent a long time
in my life with skills just building
little devices for fun for fun is one of
the key things does that drives you to
think and think and think and make it
better and better and better than you
ever would if you’re doing it for a
company build things at first for
yourself that you
would want and oftentimes the best
methodology is to start with the perfect
experience just one person get that
right and then forget how to scale
something great instead of scales I mean
not so great and then trying to improve
it that’s really hard to do 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 until the
point with all the kids graduated and
went on to the other stuff and I started
doing adult acting classes and then I
was in the commercial classes and then I
loved like the hair and makeup classes
and just everything I just couldn’t get
enough as soon as we I got off the phone
call with him and then also when he said
it’s not in the picture now but we think
I think it’d be great if Dallas danced
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 ensues I would all know that’s not
that the other other devil in my ear
said dare you do and I just meant of
course I think it’s yes cuz I
immediately knows if you don’t you’re
Wilson out dude are you kidding me you
will forever regret you have to so as
soon as that got over that I was like
well that’s inevitable I’m doing it mmm
now I gotta bust my ass to go do it the
best I can and a lot of fear that I mean
that was yeah those are those that was
some major really good anxiety and fear
and then now we’re saying now I’m saying
by that time now everything my choice is
from that phone call long work anything
I was never sorry you have to go no do
we go all I 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 I’m gonna practice 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 n bunch of cameras and one thing
don’t come up short yo go all the way
lots of companies and why I thought they
don’t succeed over time we’ve had a more
rapid turnover of companies I said what
did they fundamentally do wrong like why
are those companies all do wrong and
they usually it’s just they missed the
future and so I think for me I just
tried to focus on that and say what does
that future really gonna be and how do
we create it I’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 that
I’ve managed to understand is the art of
delegation because if I can pass on you
know to Claire Smith to areum my palette
my understanding my knowledge then grab
it run it and then pass on to your team
don’t hold that inside 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
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 so
when we see a kid with a lemonade stand
it’s different then 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 Ben
Graham and his low in his low teens
looked around and he looked at the
people he admired and he said you know I
want to be admired 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 quality how do you think
about making a decision when everyone
tells you this is a crazy idea where do
you get the internal strength to do that
all of us well I’d say I actually think
I think I 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 are times when if
something is important enough you
believe in it enough that you do it in
spite of fear so speaking of important
things like people shouldn’t think I I
should think well I feel fear about this
and therefore I shouldn’t do it
it’s normal to feel fair like you’d have
to definitely something mentally wrong
you shouldn’t feel fair so you just feel
it and let the importance of it anyway
yeah you know actually we’re something
that can be helpful as fatalism some
degree if you just think it’s just
accept the probabilities then that
diminishes fair 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 your odds of a car
company succeeding were extremely low
and so when we’re coming up with ideas
you know we always ask ourselves what
kind of new market is this creating and
then also what what part of my day and
and what problem is it solving and so
I’ve gone as far as taking an entire
catalogue of my day from the moment I
like open my eyes and writing down every
single thing I do and then asking myself
like is there something here 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 so just go
and do it
try learn from it you you know you’ll
fail at some things that’s a learning
experience that you need so that you can
take that on to the next experience and
don’t let people who you may respect and
who you believe know what they’re
talking about don’t let them tell you it
can’t be done
because often they will tell you it
can’t be done and it’s just because you
don’t have the courage to try it
failure is part of life I mean the
difference for me though is I’m like a
failure as a stepping stone to success
it’s a speed bump I know I’m gonna fail
but it’s not failure if you learn
something and so gosh I’ve made so many
mistakes I’ve screwed so many things up
but every time I do it just becomes it
becomes a way for me to explain to
someone else what it takes you know it’s
like here’s what I’ve done I think I
have the ability to influence people
because I talk about my failures I talk
about all the things that messed me up
but I show people that didn’t let it
stop me and you don’t need to stop you
and I think I think that’s really the
secret matter and if everything you
touch was successful first to relate to
people as much and also let’s be total
and everyone know it’s cool and
also you’d be bored silly I mean think
about it if you just said I want this to
happen I want this to happen you know
people don’t value it they don’t fight
for you know it’s like you see kids
sometimes in it you know your parents
will say you’re not gonna value this if
you don’t work for it and you’re keeping
going oh well you 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 all 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
there’s no such thing 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
motion 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 extraneous when they don’t work but
they’re learning experiments where you
try things see what works try the next
thing 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 there there
you can figure out the right you know
product package or the right way to
reach users if you believe that then you
know keep scrapping because usually
there’s a way I find that levels of
success in almost any industry or area
correlate to a person asking great
questions in some cases they seem absurd
in fact the hallmarking way of great
questions is that sound completely
ridiculous so someone might ask like
Peter Thiel why can’t you achieve your
ten-year goals in the next six months
it’s a thought exercise that’s
like–that’s that’s a good question to
answer for yourself and these types of
questions come up surprisingly often
with with very very impressive folks
whether it’s in business military
entertainment or otherwise and the way
you can get better at questions is by
studying interviews in part so I studied
Larry King
I studied Charlie Rose I studied Terry
Gross I studied that that go down the
list
I studied twenty Robbins who does
in-person one-on-one interventions at
his events in front of ten thousand five
thousand people and he’s just genius
with how he uses questions to like
pattern interrupt and grab someone’s
attention and divert them in a more
productive productive direction now why
is that relevant relevant because
thinking is the process of asking
questions you’re asking yourself
questions and then you’re answering them
in your own head so if you get better at
asking other people questions you get
better at asking yourself questions
which means you are a you’re improving
your thought performance and level of
thinking there’s a lot of conventional
wisdom out there
built up over time and built through all
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 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 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
they believed 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 I’d
the hardest thing to do is start you
have all these ideas and everyone has an
idea but it’s really about executing the
idea and building the idea and
attracting other people to help you work
on the idea that is the biggest
challenge but the way to begin is to get
the idea out of your head draw it out
you know talk about it program it if
you’re a programmer or make it if you’re
building something 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
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 what this all
comes down to is doing something
exceptional for your users whether it’s
in community 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
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