Our last class in Entrepreneurship & VC featured all three of the instructors - Andy Rachleff (co-founder of Benchmark Capital), Peter Wendell (founder of Sierra Ventures), and Eric Schmidt (CEO of Google) - individually talking for 45 minutes, giving us parting advice. It was one of the best single classes I've ever had. I thought I would share here some of my key take-aways.
- Successful people listen. You have two ears and one mouth. Use them in that ratio. You learn more when you listen than when you talk.
- Putting on "the cloak" of leadership. A large part of your role is to inspire and motivate your employees, and people will look to you for confidence. If you were on a plane with engine problems, you don't want the pilot to say "I am exploring a number of options and hope that...", you want him to say, "I will do whatever it takes to land this plane."
- The importance of passion. When Warren Buffet finds people to run his business, his key criteria is to find somebody who would do the job whether they would get paid or not.
- Just when you think you've got it 100% right, you can be taken down. Look no further than what happened to JetBlue in February. In January, a mistake like this by JetBlue was almost unthinkable.
- People who are lucky make their own luck. And you only make your own luck by staying in the game.
- You will only be as good as the people you will recruit. Media & culture celebrate individuals, but teams succeed.
- The best scientists can explain complex issues in simple terms. Pretty good scientists can explain complex issues in complex terms.
- A's hire A's. B's hire C's. Always strive to hire people better than you are.
- Be a clear, fair manager. For example, when speaking to a business unit leader that isn't succeeding, say: "I want a strategy to win in 1-page and the objectives we need to hit each quarter to reach them."
- When considering a business:
- Look for change. What inflection point are you taking advantage of? Without change, there is rarely opportunity.
- Always look for the 80/20. 80 percent of the value is delivered by 20 percent of the product/service. Focus on that 20 percent.
- Does is answer a real pain? Who is the user and what is their pain point?
- Just keep selling. Not a bad default strategy to communicate to your team.
- Be humble. The markets are brutal to those who are arrogant.
- Understand what you don't do well. Surround yourself with people and resources that can do these things well.
- Practice self-discipline. Set targets, have timetables, have clear unambiguous goals. Life passes quickly - days, weeks, months, years, a lifetime.
- Be yourself. In group settings, you usually serve the group best by thoughtfully expressing exactly what you are thinking. Not necessarily what the group wants to hear.
- You've got to give trust to get trust. Treat people as you would want to be treated. Sometimes people take advantage of you. That's fine, don't do business with them again.
- Shoot for the moon.To be successful, don't follow the pack. If you want to win, don't hedge.
Just as an add on to a couple of your points ...
1) “A's hire A's. B's hire C's”, I have been working for the last 4 years (would say am still a toddler in the business world) with various people reporting into me ... I believe there also exists something I call the 'Group-Karma' (yes I am an Indian...might sound a bit whacko but none the less.. a theory of mine… an add on to ur point)... A's not only hire other A's but also attract the other A's...A's surround themselves with A's & A's who believe that their boss is an A... I think the belief does half the job... I have seen it happen quiet often... check out the karma concept yourself...
Also the point of "You will only be as good as the people you will recruit."...true enough ... its most logical...but how many would actually be able to do that without feeling insecure themselves + in the current competitive scenario I think that would be rather tough to brim with such confidence may be in the higher management.... but for people lower down that would be a tough call… Personally I did encourage a junior once who performed very well (may be a tad too much on hindsight) but he practically steam rolled me and got on the higher ranks much more easily … so how good is too good????
Posted by: Aps | April 27, 2007 at 08:42 AM
Great.. I hope I studied at stanford.
Posted by: Rajat Rajwansh | May 03, 2007 at 01:59 AM
That's really well written very inspiring.
Posted by: online backup | September 17, 2009 at 11:45 PM