founder's mentality

Being a founder requires constant calibration between arrogance and humility, optimism and pessimism. You need the arrogance to believe that you have something important to say, but the humility to know most people won’t care. You need the optimism to convince yourself and others (employees, investors, customers) to believe in you. But you need... See more

As a new founder, it’s tempting and often discouraging to compare your inside to another’s outside. Every other founder and company looks so well put together, whereas you are of course all too aware of your shortcomings and insecurities.

Because of how much we deify the great entrepreneurs of our time, we end up inevitably comparing our new company

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14 more ideas from Buffett and Munger I don’t want to forget: 1. The one thing that has surprised me all my life is how many people with high IQs do massively stupid things. 2. Berkshire was a small business at one time. It just takes time. It is the nature of compound interest. You can't... See more

Parenting is the best part of my life. What I have re-learned from it is that real joy is in the small moments. The first time she said “mama” was a spectacular moment, but it is in delighting in her coy smile as I change her diaper that I find beauty. You have to love the process of your labor, not the outcome of it. That has been true in making... See more

There is a filmmaker that worked for Pixar that put this beautifully, and he used the metaphor of doing anything difficult, but for your high purposes of building a company. He says, "If you're sailing across the ocean and your goal is to avoid weather and waves, then why the hell are you sailing?" You have to embrace that sailing means that you... See more