Notes - The hard thing about hard things
To raise private capital, you only need one investor that says yes.
I asked myself what is the worse that could happen? bankrupt. What would I do if i go bankrupt? I would start a new software company with a new idea. Then I asked myself: how could I start a new company with a new idea while avoiding going bankrupt
Conventional wisdom is dangerous, because usually it has nothing to do with the truth.
Once in a while ask yourself: what am i not doing that i should be doing?
One of CEO most important skill: the ability to focus and make moves when there is no good moves - aka deciding when there is only bad choices.
The Bushidō, meaning "the way of the warrior", is the ethical code of conduct followed by the samurai: use it and keep death in mind at all time.
As a boss, don't only talk about the positive. Your team knows the truth, don't come sugarcoat everything. Tell the things as they are. That's how you build trust.
Layoffs:
The time between the decision and the actual layoff should be as short as possible. Everything between is wasted time and resources. Also, rumors spread quickly and either you deny it (= you lie to them) or confirm (and the ones getting fired won't work anymore until you do).
Be transparent and communicate about the layoff. Don't forget that your communication is important to the people who stay. They will remember how you treat people.
A common mistake while hiring people is to focus on weaknesses or the lack of it. But doing so, you will hire average people instead of focusing on the strengths that you need to bring to the team. If you need a PM with really good soft skills and capable to motivate people, focus on that. Don't dismiss a very good communicator because he has a few more flaws than others you've seen. He has a great skill you need, it will bring more value than hiring someone average in everything. You need to pick a few world-class strengths where you need them. Not 'all rounders' that can do everything OK but nothing greatly.
Don't hire someone for the potential of what they will bring later. Hire for the potential you can use right now. Hire someone who can manage very big corporations is useless if you have a start-up. No matter his reputation and fame. Grow your company first, hire someone like him later down the road.
If you need a big decision, give individual phone calls before. Get them aligned beforehand and not during the meeting.
Excuses for failing won't make you win. Focus your energy on winning and nothing else.
Train your people. Even employees at McDonald's get training.
Training is the boss' s job. You know your business, you know what you want from your team. Don't let external team train your employees.
To be sure your team meets your demands, train them all to deliver what you expect.
Sometimes an organization doesn't need a new solution. It needs clarity. Ex: if people complain about office days, they don't need a change in the policy, they need to understand why you want them to come. Why it matters.
A manager can easily improve its skills. But one that has lost trust of the company, will mostly never get his reputation back.
Good questions to ask employees: what would you improve right now? What do you admire in the company and why? What's the number one problem in the company and why? What's the number one thing that we should be doing right now and that we are not doing?
The most important is that the biggest problems, the best ideas, that they all can flow back to you and are not interrupted somewhere in the chain by someone or something else.
Processes:
Start with the recruiting process. It involves many groups of people inside the company (hiring team, HR) and outside the company. It is also of critical importance for the success of the company.
When reviewing processes, get help from the people actually doing the job so far to know what doesn't work and why.
It's always easier to add new people to your processes than adding new processes to old people.
If you don't like to choose between bad and very bad, don't become a CEO.
A hero and a coward both feel the same amount of fear. The only difference is how they act: we are judged by our actions, not by our inner feelings.
Everything is hard when you don't know what you're doing.
The book “Good to great” demonstrates that when picking a top leader, internal candidates dramatically outperform external candidates: the core reason is knowledge. Knowledge of technology, prior decisions, culture, people in the company,... These skills are harder to acquire than the skills needed to be able to manage a large company (note that internal candidates also sometimes fail more).
Two top skills needed to run a big company: knowing what to do and getting the company to do what you know is best.
Type 1 "know what to do": likes to collect data, to take decisions, likes strategy, gets easily bored with execution.
Type 2 "getting them to do it": enjoys the process of making the company run smoothly. Don't like to change goals too often. Thinking of strategy too much make them think we waste time. More worried about big decisions.
To be a great CEO you need to be both types.
To be a great leader: the ability to articulate the vision (The Steve Job's attribute), the right kind of vision and the ability to achieve the vision.
Feedback is a dialogue, not a monologue.
If you read the Jeff Besos letter to stakeholders in 1997, you’ll find a good example on how to communicate vision, strategy, priorities, while showing deep understanding of the business and a focus on long-term.
The quality of a CEO is measured by the speed and quality of the decisions he makes.
Intelligence, logic and courage are needed to take quality decisions: courage because you will take decisions based on often incomplete information.
Accountability is important but it's not the only thing that matters: give your employees a little bit of freedom to let them take creative risks.
After hiring someone is it normal to be busy a few months to integrate them in the company. However if it takes more than that, and it keeps you more busy than saving you time, it means the employee is not good enough for that work.
Hire for strength instead of for the lack of weaknesses. Hire for fit, for the job and the company.
Note: the author is now considered a "management guru" but nothing as nice was said about him during his time as CEO. It's only afterwards that perception change when looking back at the what is now easily seen as successes.
Life is struggle (Karl Marx), so embrace it and find joy in solving problems.