Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Do startup founders have to be savage in order to succeed? I came across this post yesterday from James Currier, who is the general partner at nfx. It's one of the biggest venture capital firms. Apparently they've had 28 unicorns in the last couple decades. So this guy knows what he's talking about when he's talking about investing in startup founders. And what I love is when I find something that I'm just like, yes, that resonates really strongly. I hope that someday I will be able to say something or write something that other people can resonate with in the same way. But I want read this because it's so freaking good and then I have some commentary on it. So he says, we are looking for very specific founder types that we've seen be successful in consumer. Sometimes we call them, quote, savage. This is the part that I love. They are obsessive, competitive, disagreeable, opinionated, insanely smart and neurodivergent, which is the nice way of saying adhd. They are fast confident enough to take in new information and change. So strong beliefs held weekly and sensitive to the nuance of psychology and language. They think small on the details and big on the business. A bit angry, a bit crazy. Then he goes on to say, if you're savage and working in a consumer facing product, contact us, we invest in seed and precede, et cetera. I tend to be a very nice person, a very kind person, a very loving person. I, I want to be positive, but I'm not like a always cracking jokes, life of the party kind of person. Especially with. When I'm around family and friends. Many times I'm focused on something else mentally. And so, you know, I'm there, I'm doing whatever we need to do and I'm, I'm being respectful and nice, but I'm, I'm focused on something else. So I have a more serious, more stoic appearance, I guess you could say. But deep down inside, there's a fire that burns just like this. And so when I read it, I was like, this guy sees me. If, if this were true and, and I was actually living my personality, my character in that way, I'd just be able to roll out of bed and raise money any day of the week for any idea I had. If this were actually true. And maybe it is true. Maybe the problem is that I listen too much to other people in order to keep the peace. And the same with everyone in human history that's accomplished something great has been not just a little bit, but massively Obsessed, had tunnel vision, obsession with whatever it is. And so I have to get, get it, get accused of having bad character. Like in Spanish, it's character fail. And that to me is like really insulting first of all. But it's also not true because usually what friends and family and, and people that I'm not doing business with in general, the side that they see is like the nice, kind, peaceful, chill, laid back side. Sometimes I can be very serious, but I'm like, when I think of bad character, I think of verbally abusive, narcissistic, a psychopath that has zero empathy for anyone, is just completely self absorbed, walks all over people. Someone who has no morals, no ethics, someone who is willing to lie, cheat, steal, do whatever, types of crime, someone who has no ethics. That's what I think of. I think of bad character. And yet for many people, they would look at what this startup VC looks for and they would look at that list and say, that's a horrible person I want nothing to do with. And yet everything that you enjoy in this modern world was invented, developed, produced and taken to market by people just like that, who are obsessive, competitive, disagreeable, a little bit angry, a little bit crazy. People who have passion for whatever it is that they are focused on. Like read about Steve Jobs, anybody who has built something great, who has done lots of winning, Michael Jordan, Tom Brady, like those guys were not friendly, bubbly, let's give everyone a hug and sing Kumbaya type of guys. And so I have to be gracious and just take it. But there's a side also that's like, man, if you think that me just being stoic and attempting to focus while also being kind and loving and all these things is me having bad character. Wait till I finally am able to fully embody the Persona and let the fire out that burns within me. Because this guy gets it. That's what he's looking for in startup founders. Because that's the kind of startup founder who's going to be successful, not somebody who wants to be normal and get along. And you know, the Dale Carnegie how to win friends and influence people thing, that may work in certain scenarios, but it doesn't work if you are startup founder. It doesn't work if you're a professional athlete, unless you're just some otherworldly talent like LeBron James where you can sort of just be everybody's buddy and, and still be super, super successful for most people. If you want to win, if you want to build something faster than the competition, better than the competition, if you want to win, if you want to create something that leaves a mark on the world, you're going to be a little crazy, you're going to be very obsessed, and you're going to be someone who's maybe not the most fun to be around all the time. And the. The trick, I think, is being willing to be disliked. And that's easy with strangers. That's easy with the population in general, at least. I've always found that. You know, I don't care if just the world likes me or not. I want to earn their respect by doing something amazing. But it's harder with friends and family. It's harder with people close to you that you know the best, who know you the best, who know how to push your buttons. It's harder when they think that you're a horrible person, even though you know that you're not displaying the charact character that you really have and that you really want to when you're competing at all. Now, what, what James is referring to with startup founders, there is an outlet in the startup world of that is the battlefield, that is the competition. That is where you can go and be savage. So the next time someone tells me that I have bad character, which I'm sure will be relatively soon, I'm going to take that as a compliment, because maybe it means that I'm living less of a facade and more of living more of the real Persona of intensity and passion and drive that I want to.
