Newsletter #7: What important truth do very few people agree with you on?
8 minutes reading time. Thoughts on startups, growth, and technology 🚀
Hey there,
This week I want to kick off with a question coined by Peter Thiel, one of Silicon Valley's most successful and controversial venture capitalists.
"What important truth do very few people agree with you on?"
According to Thiel, that's one of the greatest questions you can ask in an interview.
At first glance, the question sounds easy as it's straight forward. But in reality, it's one of the hardest questions one can reflect on. As Thiel describes it in his book Zero to One:
"It's intellectually difficult because the knowledge that everyone is taught in school is by definition agreed upon. And it's psychologically difficult because anyone trying to answer must say something she knows to be unpopular. Brilliant thinking is rare, but courage is in even shorter supply than genius."
Before we move forward, let me give you a few bad answers so that you can understand the complexity of the question.
The educational system is broken
There is no God
Both statements might be accurate, but they are bad answers. In the case of the first statement, it is commonly used as most people frown on the educational system, meaning, people already agree with that. In the case of the second one, it merely represents one side in a debate as old as time.
Next, let me attempt to answer myself.
The customer is NOT always right
It's easier to succeed in building a hard startup than building an easy one
The customer isn't always right.
My background covers 3 degrees and eight years of experience within the hospitality industry. Most of my experience is international covering studies or hands-on experience across Bulgaria, Denmark, Greece, Taiwan, Malaysia, and Indonesia.
During every course at school and while employed by some of the world's largest 5-star hotels, there was one consistent theme. Professors and hospitality executives would regularly repeat how the customer is always right.
I used to believe that for a very long time.
Running a business taught me better. After experiencing countless of bad customers, I came up with a few scenarios where the customer isn't right.
When customers create unnecessary stress on employees
When customers drain more time and money, they are worth
When customers try to exploit your business through loopholes in contracts/business model
As the famous quote (somewhat dubiously) attributed to Henry Ford says:
"If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses."
Moving to hard vs. easy startups.
Easy startups (think a similar app to Instagram) are easy to start but hard to make successful.
The most vital commodity to attract in the startup ecosystem is not funding, ideas, or a large market; it's talented people.
In most cases, smart people want to work on something they find meaningful (remember my previous essay on mercenaries vs. missionaries?).
Any company is as good as the people running it. Typically, the first few people are easy to attract in any new business because the founder can incentivize through large equity grants and areas of responsibilities.
But as the company grows and attracts more funding, your ace for attracting great talent becomes the mission of the company and the quality of the people there.
As Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, argues:
"An easy startup is a headwind; a hard startup is a tailwind. If people care about your success because you seem committed to doing something significant, it's a background force helping you with hiring, advice, partnerships, fundraising, etc."
I hope my essay provoked some thinking on your end.
What important truth do very few people agree with you on?
Articles worth reading:
Hunter S. Thompson’s Letter on Finding Your Purpose and Living a Meaningful Life - In April of 1958, Hunter S. Thompson was 22 years old when he wrote this letter to his friend Hume Logan in response to a request for life advice. Thompson’s letter, found in Letters of Note, offers some of the most thoughtful and profound advice I’ve ever come across.
Tesla, software, and disruption - To begin: the idea of ‘disruption’ is that a new concept changes the basis of competition in an industry. In the beginning, either the new thing itself or the companies bringing it (or both) tend to be bad at the things the incumbents value, and get laughed at, but they learn those things…
The Mandalorian: This Is the Way - Disney's new 'Mandalorian' Star Wars TV show did most of the special effects in a radically different way: instead of green screens, they build a huge wall of LED screen and displayed the effects on that, live and in 3D with the actors and camera in front, with the cameras tracked in real-time to get the parallax right. So, most of what you see on TV was also what the cast and crew were seeing as they worked, instead of a 'green void'’ and that was also providing most of the lighting. All powered by the Unreal game engine.Â
A quote worth remembering:
By James Clear, author of Atomic Habits.Â
"Aim to be great in 10 years.
Build health habits today that lead to a great body in 10 years.
Build social habits today that lead to great relationships in 10 years.
Build learning habits today that lead to great knowledge in 10 years.
Long-term thinking is a secret weapon."
A book recommendation:
Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel and Blake Masters
"Every moment in business happens only once. The next Bill Gates will not build an operating system. The next Larry Page or Sergey Brin won’t make a search engine. And the next Mark Zuckerberg won’t create a social network. If you are copying these guys, you aren’t learning from them".
Available as an audiobook as well, check it out.
A productivity tool I use:
My weekends are spent vacuuming tech and business information through various reputable sources. To be able to stay on top of so many newsletters, blogs, media, I use Feedly. An aggregator application that compiles news feeds from a variety of online sources.
Check it out here.
PS. As you have noticed, I’ve revamped my newsletter and moved over to Substack! I hope you like the new experience.
Onward and upward 🚀