Cleaning the Attic
Why do we all shoot iPhone videos at concerts and sporting events or (worse yet) fireworks?
The iPhone camera is good at many things but this isn’t one of them. I’d also wager that the median views on most concert videos is 0. While it certainly takes you out of the moment, I believe this behavior is about feeling ownership. The act of capturing becomes a way to create a lasting memory, even if it is never revisited.
Digital notes and bookmarks are a bit the same… click the icon, jot something down, tuck it away, and never come back to it. There are a lot of tools to try to make sense of this saving and organization problem. I find that simplicity and speed are the most important facets of a tool in this category. This has led me to not organize, but instead, to simply use whatever is most handy. Usually Apple Notes, but also Twitter bookmarks, email drafts, etc. Pile it into the attic.
This attic then, of course, brims over. In my scheme, lots of boxes without always remembering what was tucked where. Rather than building some more elegant organization system, I have started regularly revisiting and clearing it out, harvesting the good bits… a spring cleaning every so often. This is both cathartic and allows a revisiting of past threads — with new perspective.
The journey can stop there but I think that publishing this raw material offers another opportunity. When someone shares these ideas, you get a glimpse of how they organize and present their thoughts and the corners of their internet. These are not blog posts or essays. Their result is more akin to a well-kept garden or curated art gallery.
Some people do this really well. A few examples that come to mind are Patrick Collison’s Fast or Stu Griffith’s ReadJPEG. This idea of curating and inviting others into this semi-organized space was something we talked a lot about at the start of The Browser Company. Today it is core to their vision for exploring the internet beyond Google’s ten blue links.
In a recent review of my notes, I came across a collection of some wisdom that I collected from founders, colleagues, and others during my time at Thrive. I jotted these down for one reason or another in the moment — and I am happy that I did. I’ve collected together a few of these notes below to share with you. I am pleased to now have some more room in the attic to collect new ones.
— —
Perspectives from the Thrive team & founders, 2018-2023
-
Building a firm is different from building a company. It is about building trust between individuals and a flexible platform to rise to the challenge or opportunity dynamically.
-
Investment firms can have a product as well: investment strategy, process, people, and ambition of partnership with founders.
-
Taking a builder mindset to your work — building an investment firm as a product and company — is still rare and unique in this business.
-
Lean on your team to improve your own independent perspective, not to seek consensus or outside validation.
-
Founders are everything in this business. They are the heroes in this business. But their story is incredibly romanticized. Being a founder is very, very hard. Starting and incubating companies allows us to experience a small part of that alongside them.
-
Building companies also gives an informed perspective on investing in products and markets. It enables you to be a more meaningful partner to founders as a result.
-
The best ideas can come from anyone and anywhere — but they rarely come from the headlines.
-
Being opportunistic doesn’t mean lacking focus — it requires extreme focus.
-
Passion, tenacity, and grit will beat pedigree and experience every time.
-
Listen more than you talk.
-
Decision-making is simple if you always do the right thing. Doing the right thing is always the right thing. People remember how you make them feel about themselves.
-
Focus on the inputs, not the outputs.
-
Life is short and long. You grow more in moments of turbulence but what is constant is winning with integrity and kindness. How you show up in these moments, when it is not in your self-interest to support, are often the most important.
-
The world does not end very often.
-
Unpopular actions can result in the most popular achievements. Success comes from a willingness to be bold.
-
It is equally hard to build something small as something big. So build something big.
-
Having something to prove to yourself and being in competition with yourself is the greatest motivator one can have.
-
Nothing you ever do at work will measure up to what you do at home.
-
Show gratitude. Be present. Have balance.
— —
They say you become the average of the people you surround yourself with and I am lucky to have been surrounded by the thoughtfulness and culture of these founders and the broader Thrive team over the last five years. Onward.