2/52: The crazy ones
#CapitalAtRisk
The 2010s was the decade of the Entrepreneur.
The 2020s will be the decade of the Investor.
“She [Gates’s mother] send him to a psychologist, who turned him on to books about Freud, which he devoured, but was unable to tame his attitude. After a year of sessions, he told Gates’s mother, ‘You’re going to lose. You had better just adjust to it because there’s no use trying to beat him.’ His father recounted, ‘She came around to accepting that it was futile trying to compete with him’.”
Walter Isaacson on Bill Gates
It’s obvious when you see it
I had a reminder last week. You know it when you see it. I’ve seen it a handful of times at meals with 9others.
It’s a certain type of intensity. And not the performative kind you see on LinkedIn, but a genuine, almost unsettling obsession, often with a casual disregard for non-work things — they see those as trivial, an annoyance.
These people:
Have an insane work ethic. Everything else feels trivial and is a pain to have to do. The thing is they also know when they need to take a step back, they’re self-aware enough to know how they recharge themselves. That’s done intensely too. Corollary: They attract and recruit similar people.
What they’re working on is their life's work. It's bigger than they are themselves, but it also has the potential to be bigger than they could ever believe.
And the obsess over the product and the experience users have with it. They want to know everything, then decide whether that’s useful data.
Who are these people?
They’re Mr Beast, Mark Zuckerberg, Sara Blakely, Elon Musk, Melanie Perkins, Jeff Bezos.
One of the best podcasts I’ve listened to about this kind of person was the Founders Podcast episode on the leaked Mr Beast memo, here.
If you want to hear what resilience is listen to this about James Dyson.
And if you want to know what true grit is listen to this about Li Lu.
They’re out there. And they’re there to be invested in.
Will you find them?
Can you find them?
What will you say to them when you do?
Remember; Founders Focus
Founders Focus is a new membership program from 9others; a space for you to carve out time to work on the hard things that really matter.
Founders Focus keeps you focused, accountable and connected.
In other news
📆 The first Founders Focus session is on Monday 17th February. The first bunch of people are signed up and either paying monthly or annually. Lovely. Join us.
🎧 My interview for The Dhosjan Show was released last week, here. I’ve known Dhosjan since our 2008 MBA days at Imperial College so it’s great to see how she’s shaped her career. Dhosjan very kindly described this episode as a ‘masterclass’ on how to get started angel investing. But as I said here I’ve had some terrific teachers from near and far.
🎙️ And Nadya recorded an episode interviewing me for her Future of Skills podcast, here. The episode will be released in the next week or so and you can subscribe and get notifications here.
More from me?
If you like my writing you can get more by buying my book, ‘Find your 9others’. It’s on Amazon here.
And if you’ve already read ‘Find your 9others’ please leave an Amazon review here.
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Important: None of these posts are investment advice. If you are thinking about investing you should seek the advice of a suitably qualified independent advisor.
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