Author, Investor, Speaker, Mentor
“It’s so hard/To say goodbye/To yesterday.” (Boyz II Men) We sure do love our visionaries here in the startup world. Visionary companies, visionary founders, visionary investors…every year, SVForum hands out its Visionary Awards to the pioneers of the Valley. Yet being a visionary is one of the easiest ways to drive yourself crazy. By nature, … Continue reading How To Be A Visionary (and not drive yourself crazy)
Here in Silicon Valley, we like to throw around words like “awesome,” “killer,” “kickass,” and “rockstar.” In fact, we’ve even made “rockstar” into an all-purpose adjective, as in “rockstar developer” or “rockstar salesperson.” (Can it be long before we start using “rockstar” as a verb? As in, “I really rockstarred that latest release!” Ugh.) Lost … Continue reading You’re not “awesome,” you’re “awesome at”
I write a lot about the value of humility, especially in the startup world, but I realized that I needed to add some clarification. Humility is an important trait, but it needs to be paired with realism. Humility isn’t just self-deprecation. Think of all the times some gorgeous supermodel says things like, “I don’t know … Continue reading The relationship between humility and realism
One of the key things I encourage every entrepreneur to do is to develop a healthy sense of humility. Many entrepreneurs (especially those of the brash, young, cocky variety) drip with self-confidence. That’s a good thing. You need some irrational confidence to pursue a profession with a 99% failure rate in which you take on … Continue reading Reading a lesson doesn’t mean you’ve learned it