Weaver: Teaching CEO tactics at Stanford produced zero actual entrepreneurs
Graham Weaver · How to break out of autopilot and create the life you want | Graham Weaver (Stanford GSB professor) · Jan 16, 2025 · at 21:06
Graham Weaver, Stanford GSB lecturer and CEO of Alpine Investors, explains why he shifted his course curriculum from purely tactical CEO skills to personal discovery and overcoming fears.
0:00 / 0:27exact quote · 27.3s
▶ Watch the full episode on YouTube → 720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“I was teaching the X's and O's of being a CEO, basically hiring, firing, having hard conversations, managing a board, fundraising, selling, All the things you would imagine that a young CEO would need to know. After about four years, I started to realize that was great, except that no one went and did it. So the class is on entrepreneurship and they learned how to be an entrepreneur. They did the only problem. There's only one problem. They didn't actually become entrepreneurs.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Graham Weaver
Weaver: Alpha comes from world-class management, not industry perfection
“So the thing that we probably believe to be true that not that many people agree with us on is that the management team is really where we think all the alpha comes from. You can't get the industry wrong. Cause if you hire the best management team in the world…”
Weaver: Across 600 backed businesses, he's never seen one succeed quickly
“We've invested in 600 founder, 600 businesses, the vast, let's say 550 of those are founder, founder started businesses where we're the first money. I've never in one of those examples seen anyone who did thing something quickly. They've all been very, very lo…”
Weaver: Clearing obstacles for children is the worst parenting approach
“When you get kids in school, Marin, you know, you see parents, they try to clear all obstacles away from their kids. It's the worst thing you could do.”
Weaver: 3 daily actions yield 3 years of progress in 3 months
“Writing, writing down your goal and three things you're gonna do to move toward that goal. You'll get more things done in three months than you will in three years without that.”
Weaver: Assuming guaranteed future success and working backwards produces better career choices
“If you start with a, this idea, hey, five years out, 10 years out, I know I'm gonna be successful and work backwards from that, you're gonna come up with a better answer.”
Weaver: Alpine lost money on Fund I, taking 14 years to stabilize
“We lost money on our first fund. You know, we started doing well. We got hit by a recession. You know, we started digging out whatever, but long story short, I was 14 years into running my firm until I could say like with confidence, we were gonna even stay in…”