Author, Investor, Speaker, Mentor
If failure is more likely than success, what is the formula for success? If you’re really lucky, you might succeed right away. In that case, you could retire immediately and rest on your laurels. But this seems unsatisfying. Very few people have the willpower to walk away from the roulette wheel right after they win, … Continue reading The Mathematical Formula for Success
For years, I’ve been saying that I ought to set up a drivetime consultancy. I’m in the car for 20-30 minute chunks each day, and I’d rather be talking with people than listening to the radio. What’s held me back is the work involved. I figured I would need to build a fancy scheduling system, … Continue reading Drivetime Consulting
One of the exciting things about Paul Graham handing over the reins of Y Combinator to Sam Altman is the fact that it gives Paul more time to write. Paul has long been one of my writing inspirations, and his concise yet conversational style has always struck me a near-perfect fit for his topics. I’m … Continue reading Gaming The System Doesn’t Work, And Everyone Has Worries
Today, I got a chance to meet a very impressive entrepreneur, and I learned a new way to find a great idea. John-Thomas Marino was a software engineer when he and his co-worker Daehee Park decided that they wanted to start a company. But rather than just build an app, they took a very different … Continue reading The Hate List
As a manager or CEO, what is your reaction when someone proposes a plan of action? Most of us feel like we need to “improve” such proposals. It’s hard to say why. Perhaps that helps us “look smarter.” Perhaps we feel like we want to help. Or maybe we’re worried that if we don’t offer … Continue reading As a manager, the default is trust
After writing about the importance of reputational capital, I realized that in many cases, it’s more important to focus on building your reputation. The key insight is this: As an entrepreneur, your control over the financial outcome of your startup is limited. Luck is a necessary but insufficient factor in nearly every startup success. On … Continue reading Why You Should Focus On Building Your Reputation
I work hard to be trustworthy. Partly, this is because it’s the right thing to do (darn my inconvenient morality!), but partly this is because it has real business benefits. When most of us think about the value of being trustworthy, we think that the key driver of value is that people believe us. In … Continue reading The Power Of Being Trusted
Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir recently published their book, “Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much.” I even wrote about them when I pointed out that busy professionals, like the working poor, face a scarcity–but of time, rather than money. http://bit.ly/1g1Pnod I wish I could say that I’ve already read their book, but alas, … Continue reading Escaping the Scarcity Trap
The great Eric Barker does a fantastic job of illuminating the difference between management and leadership in his post, “Qualities Of A Leader”:http://bit.ly/1bnDaYc Eric quotes theorist John Kotter on the fundamental distinction: “Management controls people by pushing them in the right direction; leadership motivates them by satisfying basic human needs.” For entrepreneurs, the implications aren’t … Continue reading Leadership is Emotional, Not Rational
The myth of Silicon Valley is that it is a perfect meritocracy where things like wealth and class are irrelevant. The truth is that while Silicon Valley and the startup world are better than most other institutions, wealth and class still play a role. The vast majority of entrepreneurs are young, well-educated, well-off men, who … Continue reading Wealth, Class, and the Startup World