Author, Investor, Speaker, Mentor
It’s hard to bring something new into the world. If it were easy, it would have already happened. Nearly all startups fail. They’re trying to do something new, and the status quo is one hell of a competitor. Doing nothing is easy and most people’s default choice. Don’t jump into entrepreneurship because you’re lured in … Continue reading Startup Success Requires Accepting Failure
The following two arguments are both plausible approaches to accomplishing something: 1) Just start working, and figure it out along the way. 2) Make a plan, and work on the important things. There are times when “just start” works best, and there are times when “make a plan” works best. But I’d be willing to … Continue reading Just Start
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
Little known fact: I am the Michael Jordan of family game nights. Over decades of gameplay, I am undefeated across a variety of games, ranging from Trivial Pursuit to Cranium. And like Michael Jordan, I play to win with a ruthlessness that borders on the pathological. (This, by the way, is why I’ve vowed never … Continue reading Are you doing everything in your power to win the game you’ve chosen to play?
When it comes to telling the story behind their success, most people will either tout the value of hard work, or tell the story of how a single decisive moment changed their life forever. In reality, you have to do both. If you focus solely on hard work, you overlook the importance of being ready … Continue reading Hard Work AND Decisive Moments
I was delighted when my friend Ben Casnocha published his essay about what he learned from working with Reid Hoffman. Ben described the subject of his essay as “10,000 hours with Reid Hoffman,” but its roots go back even further. Ben had long been interested in learning from the massively successful; one of the book … Continue reading Ben Casnocha and Reid Hoffman
Envy, to put it bluntly, sucks. This isn’t news; envy is one of the original seven deadly sins. And the media is happy to tell us that envy is the most modern of sins, enabled by social media and the fear of missing out (FOMO; by the way, who decided that everything had to be … Continue reading The Real Reason You Need To Overcome Envy
We love winning and winners. In sports, we hand out trophies and belts to scorers and champions. In business, we celebrate CEOs who increase their stock price. In politics, we anoint winners and losers based on the votes they win. What do these have in common? In each domain, it’s easy to keep score. In … Continue reading Don’t Mistake Winning for Accomplishment
Here’s a great item from Eric Barker’s Bakadesuyo blog: http://bit.ly/HxinYf “People were asked how much they trust others on a scale of 1 to 10. Income peaked at those who responded with the number 8. Those with the highest levels of trust had incomes 7% lower than the 8′s. Research shows they are more likely … Continue reading Trusting Too Much Is Better Than Trusting Too Little
I’ve been writing a lot about reputation lately. But one thing I’ve neglected to do is to point out the key difference between reputation and notoriety. When people talk about “reputation,” they often mean notoriety. Notoriety is what people who don’t know you think of you. You get notoriety from being written about in TechCrunch … Continue reading Don’t Mistake Notoriety for Reputation