I have founded two startups and am about to venture into my 3rd now.
At 20, I figured I would be a multimillionaire by 35. I was wrong about that, but that hubris was useful in helping me get started.
Here are 10 things I wish I knew then that would have helped me move faster:
When you finally emotionally detach from someone, it doesn't matter whether they are happier without you, having the best time of their life with someone else, miserable, or indifferent to you.
How do you feel about a rock, for instance? Nothing, right?
That's how it becomes.
When a bird sits on a fragile or broken twig on a branch, it doesn't fear collapse nor panic at potentially falling to the ground. It's confident in its ability to fly.
The challenge before you might be considerable, but you are not incapable of overcoming it.
Trust your wings.
“i’m just a man of the people, not above but equal.”
what a great exhibit of humanity and the business we dream of. i want to be as human as you when i grow up!
One of the biggest transactions we have done was with a client who was unwell for a year.
We would call and drop in to check on them and their health, never bringing up business.
When they recovered, they called us and signed off on a million dollar purchase.
People first.
The most underrated act of kindness is simply letting people be. Let them mispronounce a word, talk too much about a show they love, or get excited about something you don't quite understand. Everyone has something that lights them up, let them shine, even if it's not your thing.
Young men,
If you do not prioritize your financial independence and build in your most productive years, old age will be cruel to you.
Men fade away into aloneness as their utility reduces over time. You have to make a plan for yourself for when that time inevitably arrives.
I have noticed that the people who changed my life did not try to change my life. they were simply in the room being themselves with such completeness that the completeness altered me. through proximity alone. the way a fire alters the room simply by being lit inside it.