I’m reading All I Want to Know Is Where I'm Going to Die So I'll Never Go There: Buffett & Munger—A Study in Simplicity and Uncommon, Common Sense by Peter Bevelin. I’ve never read a book structured like this one. It takes old quotes from various letters and interviews that Charlie Munger and Warren Buffett gave and structures the quotes as if they were part of a conversation with someone seeking their wisdom.

I’m not done with the book yet, but one quote from Charlie Munger caught my attention today:

I have what I call an ‘iron prescription’ that helps me keep sane when I naturally drift toward preferring one ideology over another. I feel that I’m not entitled to have an opinion unless I can state the arguments against my position better than the people who are in opposition. I think that I am qualified to speak only when I’ve reached that state.

A few days ago, I shared that Henry Ford had a similar view of the importance of understanding other people’s perspectives. Ford and Munger are two credible people who achieved outsize business success. Ford died in 1947; Munger, in 2023. Since they reached the same conclusion although their professional careers occurred at different times, it’s probably timeless wisdom. I want to work toward mastering it.

I’m continuing with my learning survey, which has turned into customer discovery. This week I had a chat with someone working at a late-stage venture capital firm. He shared a helpful insight: the amount of information available has skyrocketed because of the internet, but its quality is questionable. A high percentage isn’t value add. It takes time and energy to distill all this information down to the knowledgeable pieces that add value and align with learning goals. This friction frustrates him and slows his learning.

The more I read about the history of capitalism and the great entrepreneurs who came long before us, I more I see a pattern: the best companies of all time were built by entrepreneurs who understood human psychology—mainly that people are more easily influenced by stories than by logic or facts. People find stories more relatable. Facts and logic can feel cold and impersonal. It makes sense that history’s greatest companies were built by entrepreneurs who were gifted in storytelling.

Mother Nature wired me to communicate with facts and logic. My natural storytelling abilities are average on my best day. For a long time, I’ve recognized the power of storytelling and wanted to be a better storyteller. But I’ve never put in the practice to improve this skill, so I’m still average. This year I want to change that. I’m going to seek out creative ways to publicly practice and improve my storytelling in 2024.

I’m following the rumored Reddit IPO, as it’s anticipated to be the first major technology IPO of 2024. The performance of this IPO could affect the actions of other late-stage technology companies and venture capital investors. With the NASDAQ trading just shy of all-time highs as of this writing, a well-performing IPO could unleash a wave of technology IPOs.

Last week, Reddit officially filed its Form S-1 with the SEC, indicating its intention to publicly list on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Per CNBC, the company’s public market debut is expected in March (but that isn’t confirmed and is subject to change).

I’m curious to learn more about Reddit’s business and follow its post-IPO performance (assuming it moves forward with its public offering).

I read a quote today from Henry Ford that stuck with me:

If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person’s point of view and see things from his angle as well as from your own.

I try to see things from other people’s perspectives, and I’ve gotten better at it, but I’m not where I want to be. The Ford quote was a good nudge; it reminded me of the importance of mastering this skill. I’m committed to working on this until I’ve mastered it.

I’ve been discussing the topic of company vision with a few founders. These conversations reinforced to me that some founders aren’t clear on what vision means. They talk about how much revenue they’ll generate in five or ten years, what they plan to build, etc. It’s good to be clear on your aims, but that’s not vision. Those responses are too tactical.

I believe the root of why these founders are missing the mark isn’t a lack of ability or intelligence. It’s simpler than that: it’s a terminology mix-up and maybe not enough practice in thinking non-tactically.

Vision is painting a picture of what you think the world could look like. It’s painting a picture of how you want the world to look. It has nothing to do with your company.

Even when the term is defined, I’ve noticed that it’s hard for some founders to understand vision without an example. This week I spent time searching and found what I think is a good example.  

In a talk, Brian Armstrong, CEO and cofounder of Coinbase, detailed not only the company’s thinking behind its vision but also its mission and strategy. Here’s how Brian expressed the company’s vision and mission:

• Vision: Create more economic freedom for every person and business in the world over the next ten years.
• Mission: Create an open financial system for the world.

The vision is big. It will materially change the world if it becomes reality. The mission is what Armstrong’s company plans to do to accomplish its vision. I like how Armstrong explains the logic behind each statement, how they differ, and how they support one another.

At the end of the video, Armstrong ties the vision and mission together: “Our vision is to have a billion people in, say, five to ten years accessing an open financial system, through our products, every day. When we’ve done that, we will have materially changed the economic freedom of the world and we will have bent the shape of that curve.”

In a different video, Armstrong clearly explains his vision of the world: “I imagined a world where anybody with a smartphone could have access to sound money and financial services; where every payment could be as fast, cheap, and global as sending an email.”

Coming up with a vision isn’t easy. It requires zooming out and thinking about the future of the world and what’s possible. Hopefully, the example above is useful and helps founders articulate how the world will be transformed if their company achieves its mission.

This is my two-hundred-fourth weekly reflection. Here are my takeaways from this week:

• Delayed results – This week was a reminder that sometimes it takes longer than anticipated for a decision to be proven correct or incorrect. When the results are clear, accept and learn from them to improve future decisions.
• Home Depot – At the suggestion of a friend, I looked into Home Depot’s cofounders. One, Ken Langone, caught my attention. His role as VC investor and investment banker for Home Depot in the ’70s and for various companies after that intrigued me. I’m in the early stages of researching him, and I’m excited to learn more about him.
• Reading – I’ve read a few books this month that give historical context on specific topics. These are good books for me to read, as they help me zoom out and learn about a topic over a longer time period. I still get more value from books that detail someone’s journey, the knowledge they acquired on that journey, and how they applied it in pursuit of their goal.

Week two hundred four was another week of learning. Looking forward to next week!

Warren Buffett once said, “Interest rates power everything in the economic universe, and they have some effect on the decisions we make.” I decided I wanted to learn more about interest, so I bought a few books.

This week I finished reading The Price of Time: The Real Story of Interest by Edward Chancellor. Chancellor’s main points are that interest is necessary to allocate capital to its best uses and valuing assets would be impossible without interest. He provides historical content on interest, going back to Babylonian times. I enjoyed how Chancellor detailed the interest-rate environments of various time periods and the impact they had on society and the economy at the time.

I’m glad I read the book. I highlighted many sections I want to revisit someday.

This week I caught up with a founder and chatted about his fundraise. He recently kicked it off (again), and it’s going well this time. A few bank wires have cleared and he has significant interest from various funds for the remainder of the round.

This is starkly different from his efforts to fundraise last fall, so I wondered why he’s having more success this time around. Is something materially different about his company (or pitch)? When I asked, he said the company is still progressing at the same rate as a few months ago. He sees a difference in venture capital investors. More investors are receptive to his pitch, which is essentially the same as a few months ago.

In March, we’ll see start-up fundraising kick into high gear: more pitch competitions, demo days, etc. Lots of founders will “officially” kick off their raise and begin pitching investors. Fundraising wasn’t great last year. How will it go this year? I’m curious about whether this founder’s fundraising experience will be the exception, the norm, or somewhere between the two.

I read a quote today from the German missionary Albert Schweitzer that caught my attention:

An optimist is a person who sees a green light everywhere, while the pessimist sees only the red stoplight . The truly wise person is colorblind.

This got me thinking about my experience. I’ve learned to balance my thinking in any situation by considering the counter to my natural instincts. For example, if I’m super excited and see lots of upside, I try to think about the downside. Conversely, if I’m hesitant and see lots of risk, I try to think What could go right? and see the upside potential.