Today marks the end of my one-hundred-eighteenth week of working from home (mostly). Here are my takeaways from week one hundred eighteen:

• Conviction – This week was a reminder that understanding why you’re doing something is critical. It helps you build the confidence to make a decision and stick with it when others don’t understand it or when things look bleak.  
• Nonobvious markets – I spent some time thinking about this. Many markets are undercapitalized (for various reasons). Some have the potential for outsize returns. Finding these markets—or people who understand them—early is something I’m thinking about a lot.
• No meetings – I blocked off a day with no meetings again this week. The day was super productive. I want to keep this habit up. If I can do it for all of July, I think I’ll be able to keep it going.  

Week one hundred eighteen was a calm one. Looking forward to spending the holiday with family and friends.  

Today marks the end of my one-hundred-seventeenth week of working from home (mostly). Here are my takeaways from week one hundred seventeen:

• Differing perspectives – This week was a reminder that there’s value in hearing differing perspectives. Hearing someone else’s perspective helped me think about something differently and slightly adjust a strongly held opinion.
• Contrarian viewpoints – I spent some time listening to successful people who’ve taken contrarian views that led to outsize success. It’s a very interesting approach. I’m curious about these folks and intend to study them more.
• No meetings – I blocked off a day with no meetings. It was great. I was able to go deep and be productive. I want to work in one of these days every week.
• Leveling up – I want to make sure I’m always learning and leveling myself up. I need to continue putting myself in uncomfortable situations so I can grow. This week was a reminder that discomfort leads to insights and growth.

Week one hundred seventeen was a steady and productive one. Next week will be busy. Looking forward to it.

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Today marks the end of my one-hundred-sixteenth week of working from home (mostly). Here are my takeaways from week one hundred sixteen:

• Growth – I was reminded this week that growth comes from being in uncomfortable situations. Going forward, instead of focusing on the discomfort I’ll remind myself that I’m growing. I think this mental reframing will help me lean into more situations that will help me grow.
• No meetings – Last week, I blocked off an entire day with no meetings. I was hoping to repeat that this week, but I gave in to meeting requests. What a difference! I want to work toward consistently have one meeting-free day every week.

Week one hundred sixteen was a good one. Looking forward to next week.

A founder friend of mine recently hired a coach. The coach had him do an interesting exercise: go around to people in his life and ask for feedback. I and others were asked to grade him in certain areas and provide written feedback on strengths, weaknesses, etc.

One of the most important things founders can do is develop self-awareness. Easy to say, but hard to do. People don’t want to hurt your feelings, so they avoid giving pointed feedback. When you’re the leader, it’s even worse because most people are uncomfortable critiquing their boss. And frankly, some founders don’t want to listen to what can feel like criticism.

I think this founder and his coach soliciting feedback is a great exercise. He’ll receive the feedback digitally, so he’ll be able to revisit it in the future. Going through this process with the guidance of a coach will help him reflect on the feedback, make connections, and develop actionable steps going forward. The coach can hold him accountable to the process and the changes he commits to.

Self-awareness is an attribute of many successful entrepreneurs. I’m excited to see what my friend learns about himself and how he uses it to improve as a person and entrepreneur.  

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Today marks the end of my one-hundred-fifteenth week of working from home (mostly). Here are my takeaways from week one hundred fifteen:

• Patience – I can get a little antsy at times. This week was a reminder that patience is my friend and I have to be patient to allow my decisions to play out (for better or worse).
• Markets – Spent time thinking about why some markets are overlooked by investors. I think there’s an opportunity here for founders to get funded and open-minded investors to generate outsize returns.  
• Giving back – I spent time with Endeavour entrepreneurs—some rising and some seasoned. It was great to see how impactful established founders’ words were on newer founders. I’m happy Endeavour is making these connections. I think we’ll see some huge companies built in Atlanta as the result of Endeavour’s efforts.
• No meetings – I blocked off an entire meeting-free day this week. I was amazed at how productive I was. I need to do this regularly.

Week one hundred fifteen was steady but still productive. It felt like a great pace that I was in control of. I’m looking forward to continuing this next week.

Today marks the end of my one-hundred-fourteenth week of working from home (mostly). Here are my takeaways from week one hundred fourteen:

• Probabilities – I learned a valuable lesson in probabilities this week. I ignored the >50% probability of something happening, and I paid for it.  
• Serendipity – I met some great folks unexpectedly. One of them is a successful investor with roots in my hometown. I think there’s something to be said for increasing your odds of serendipity by hustling.
• Short week – I enjoyed my holiday on Monday, but it made for a short week. It made me a feel as though I was a bit unproductive, even though I know better.

Week one hundred fourteen was busy. I’m looking forward to a normal pace next week.

Over the holiday, I finished reading Billion Dollar Loser: The Epic Rise and Spectacular Fall of Adam Neumann and WeWork. I’ve read stories here and there about the WeWork saga, but it was good to get a chronological account with more details. Here are a few takeaways:

• Pitch – Adam wasn’t good at a lot of things (he didn’t even manage his own emails), but he was a great storyteller and pitchman. WeWork wasn’t a tech company, but venture capital funds specializing in tech invested in Adam. Their thinking was that he was the best salesperson they’d ever met, so they wanted to bet on him. They wanted to be along for the ride, wherever it took them.
• Softbank – Adam and Masayoshi Son bonded over their shared ability to think bigger and be more ambitious than everyone else. That bond served them well at first, and Softbank invested a gargantuan amount of money (almost $17 billion in debt and equity) at eye-popping valuations. Ultimately, WeWork became detached from reality. The relationship changed when WeWork came crashing back to earth after its IPO failed and it was in danger of running out of cash.
• Profitability – WeWork escaped having to be a profitable company for many years, but when the day of reckoning came, it wasn’t pretty. Companies can’t be unprofitable forever.
• Culture – The tone is set at the top. WeWork had a bad culture that began with Adam. It was a Game of Thrones environment where people burned out after 18 months or so.
• Husband/wife – This story is a cautionary tale of what can go wrong when there are no clear boundaries between spouses at work.
• Accountability – Adam’s accountability was minimal, which enabled him to do many of the things he did.
• Hypergrowth – The company was focused on growth and tried to achieve it at all costs. The end result was a ridiculous amount of capital burned to fuel expansion.

This was a great read. It’s such a crazy story that it’s hard to believe it’s true—but it is. It’s a cautionary tale of what can go wrong when too much capital is put in the wrong hands. WeWork is now a public company. I’m curious to see how the company will progress with its new CEO.

Today marks the end of my one-hundred-thirteenth week of working from home (mostly). Here are my takeaways from week one hundred thirteen:

• Networks – I’ve been thinking about networks in VC. I shared some of my thoughts in yesterday’s post. Changing how we think about networks and incentivizing venture investors to build broader networks to meet founders where they already are could have a huge entrepreneurial impact. How exactly to do that is the question.
• High-velocity hustler- Velocity matters more than speed. Being a high-velocity hustler is a great founder attribute. These folks are shaking trees to see what falls but picking up only the things that align with the destination they have in mind. Hustlers are flexible and can adapt to what’s thrown at them, and the good ones don’t waste time on shiny things. They stay focused on the goal.
• Holiday – I always think of Memorial Day as the start of my summer. I’m looking forward to the holiday weekend and an uninhibited summer.

Week one hundred thirteen brought me several insights. I’m looking forward to the holiday downtime.  

Today marks the end of my one-hundred-twelfth week of working from home (mostly). Here are my takeaways from week one hundred twelve:

• Retreat – I attended retreats with other founders for years. I haven’t been able to do that regularly since 2019, and I’ve missed those trips. This week, I attended one and really enjoyed it. The opportunity to have a change of scenery, do activities I otherwise wouldn’t, and think deeply with smart people was amazing.  
• Learning – Spent a good bit of time thinking about the impact of accelerated learning. I devote time to learning now, but I want to supercharge that over the next decade. I’m thinking about ways to execute on that goal.    

Week one hundred twelve was a good week. Good times with great people. I’m ready to get back to it next week.

I had a great conversation with an entrepreneurial buddy yesterday. He built and sold his company and has opinions on business. We discussed knowledge gaps and how they affect people’s trajectories. If you don’t know how a space works, it’s hard to excel in it compared to others who do have that knowledge. For example, it’d be hard for me to be a great restaurateur because I know nothing about restaurants. I might have the necessary abilities, but that knowledge gap hinders me until it’s filled.

As we chatted about our journeys, we zeroed in on a trait we share. Throughout our journeys, we both prioritized learning. We realized we were behind (something I was embarrassed about), so we supercharged acquiring knowledge to fill the gaps. We read tons of books, went to seminars, sought out more experienced founders we could learn from, and did a host of other things.

As we expounded on this, we noted that our other successful founder friends had filled their gaps and ultimately accelerated their success by increasing the rate at which they learned. My buddy framed it well: the biggest throttle on your success is how fast you can improve yourself. Said differently, the faster you improve (and learn), the more successful you can become.

Warren Buffet reads 500 pages every day and is one of the most successful investors of all time. Not only did he fill any gaps he had by turbocharging his learning, that knowledge compounded over time and led him to outsize success. He left his peers in the dust.  

Having knowledge gaps isn’t a great starting position, but they don’t mean you can’t be successful. If you want to make up for that disadvantage, improve the rate at which you acquire knowledge and how consistently you do so. It’s something you have complete control over, and anyone can do it. Stick with it long enough and you’ll not only make up ground on your peers, you’ll leave them in the dust.