The Wisdom Wall

“if you want to start a great startup, don't try to think of a startup. And, uh, the reason for that is that, um, great startup founders are like time travelers, and they, they get out of the present, and they visualize different futures that are a breakthrough, that break free from the present, and when you try to…”

“only with big inflections does an entrepreneur go from being, uh, disadvantaged to incumbents to having a fundamental advantage vis-a-vis incumbents.”

“I don't even think a startup is a company, right? So I think a startup is, The, the capabilities and talents of the founders and their insight about the future and what you're, what you're betting is on two things. One is that their insights, right? And two is they're good enough to navigate the idea to a great product…”

“90% of your profits come from things that started out different, and so my, my theory on that is the way to succeed is to realize that a startup isn't a company at all, and that it's, it's the insights and the founders, and you're, you, you, you make fun of your ability to predict what they're going to come up with,…”

“Companies have markets that could be segmented, sub-segmented, and classified. Startups don't. Startups, they create movements. They create, they have a secret about the future. They get early believers who co-conspire with them to create a, co-create a different future. And the market emerges as a consequence of the…”

“I don't believe that people should compare themselves with anybody. I think they should learn from people, but I don't think they should compare themselves to others, and I don't think they should have heroes.”

“sometimes, uh, by saying what you're not for, but like niching down, you're very powerful to the people who care about your niche because people say, where have you been all my life? And so what you're trying to do is find that set of like-minded co-conspirators For the niche that you've really chosen to be great at…”

“What's interesting is, in our world, none of those mental models apply. And so, because a startup's not a company, there is no operating history. There, there's no moat. They don't even have a product yet. They got no customers.”

“when a, when a startup starts, it goes through this breakthrough sequence. It has to have a great insight, which is something about the future that's not obvious that most people don't know. And then after that, they have to create a product breakthrough where they get product market fit and zero to one, and then they…”

“There's lots of ways to get rich in this world and there's lots of, lots of ways to succeed in business. Every comes back to everybody should know what's my comparative advantage and not, and not be preoccupied by all the things you can't be the best at.”

“if the 20th century was about being the quote unquote organization man and following the rules and progressing up the hierarchy, it doesn't exist anymore. Now you have to be, you have to take agency for your own life and own your comparative advantage. And, uh, Understand that that is your responsibility as a free…”

“if you're trying to create a breakthrough by definition, it breaks free from the present. So by definition, it can't be compared to something in the present. Uh, because if it's comparable to what's in the present, it's too incremental. It's too conventional.”

“you want to be a mile wide and an inch deep so that you just can appropriate creative ideas from the world. But then I think you want to be a mile deep somewhere. So it's like a T, right? And it's like, that's why you read several books at a time, but then you also go deep on a small number that are truly great.”