Insight certainty 4/5 debate potential 2/5

Berger: Founders must pursue meaningful goals without outcome attachment

Kenneth Berger · Why not asking for what you want is holding you back | Kenneth Berger (exec coach, first PM @Slack) · May 19, 2024 · at 18:53

Executive coach and former Slack product manager Kenneth Berger explains how the founder mindset of operating under severe failure risk applies to asking for what one wants in life.

0:00 / 0:26exact quote · 26.6s
▶ Watch the full episode on YouTube → 720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“If you're a startup founder, you've got to be okay with, I'm just going to go for this. And I know I probably won't get it, but it's so meaningful to me. I'm going to go for it anyway. And so to me, that's not just about The big picture of running a startup. It's about really anything you might want in life, because that's such a useful perspective to say, I know I'm not going to get it. I know I'm not guaranteed to get it. I'm not going to be attached to that. I know people aren't obligated to tell me yes, but I'm going to go for it anyway, right? Because I want it and that's enough.”

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 Kenneth Berger

Opinion
Berger: Expert gut instincts are as valuable as SQL database insights
“Even though that gut information to me is just as important as anything we can get from, you know, The SQL database or whatever.”
Kenneth Berger May 19, 2024 ▶ 34:36 Why not asking for what you want is holding you back | Kenneth Berger (exec coach, first PM @Slack)
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Berger: I was fired from Slack three separate times
“I was fired from Slack three different times, which I feel like has to be some kind of startup record.”
Kenneth Berger May 19, 2024 ▶ 45:39 Why not asking for what you want is holding you back | Kenneth Berger (exec coach, first PM @Slack)
Insight
Berger: Fear-driven motivation is dysfunctional for modern knowledge work
“Fear is for when there's a tiger chasing you and there's no tiger chasing me. I'm sitting in my office in a desk chair on a zoom call, right? Like there's no real danger here. And so fear is not particularly functional.”
Kenneth Berger May 19, 2024 ▶ 1:03:17 Why not asking for what you want is holding you back | Kenneth Berger (exec coach, first PM @Slack)
Insight
Berger: Pure discipline is merely a short-term coping strategy
“It's not that discipline doesn't work, right? But it's like people pleasing. It's a short term it's a short term coping strategy. Like discipline will get you in the gym for a week, but it's not going to get you in the gym for a year, right? The people who are…”
Kenneth Berger May 19, 2024 ▶ 1:04:29 Why not asking for what you want is holding you back | Kenneth Berger (exec coach, first PM @Slack)
Insight
Berger: Regularly making requests prevents self-deception and frustration
“And I think to me, the flip side of that is, is sort of the reason that the stakes around asking for what you want are so high because yeah, you know, if you're, we can't guarantee we're going to get what we want, but if we're asking for it regularly, if we're…”
Kenneth Berger May 19, 2024 ▶ 5:49 Why not asking for what you want is holding you back | Kenneth Berger (exec coach, first PM @Slack)
Insight
Berger: Entering meetings convinced you are right is fundamentally disrespectful
“It's fundamentally disrespectful to go into a meeting already deciding that you're right and the other person is wrong, right? Because you can't know that for sure, right? There's always a new perspective, new data that could come in. And so you want that conv…”
Kenneth Berger May 19, 2024 ▶ 8:51 Why not asking for what you want is holding you back | Kenneth Berger (exec coach, first PM @Slack)
Made with StarZero

Turn any episode into a week of clips.

This entire site, over 300 episodes transcribed, diarized, checked and made playable, runs on the StarZero media pipeline. Drop in your own episode and the podcast clipper finds the moments worth sharing, cuts them, captions them, and reframes them for every feed.