Even some of the greatest technology-led revolutions, or allegedly technology-led, really were only made possible because of trends already present.
People pitch me all the time. But hopefully, you'll just go ahead and do it. We are trying to eliminate the need for pitches. I'd rather sit there and applaud. Customers buy products, not Powerpoint presentations.
A lot of companies have teams, but they are not really independent. They still have to get stuff approved by the boss. You have to change how and where decisions are made. If the hierarchy makes the decision, it will be based on politics.
Spend time with the customers, immersing yourselves, watching. Spend time at their homes. Hear what they say, but most importantly, watch their behaviors as the indication of where the pain is. And then go solve that pain.
Mutual funds were created to make investing easy, so consumers wouldn't have to be burdened with picking individual stocks.
If you give the boss all the decision-making power, they see the world through their eyes. The big innovations are generally such a shift that they won't see it. For a long time, it looked like it was just inevitable that you would get slow and bureaucratic.
You're kind of taught that the role of a business person is the decision making.
Technology is similarly just a catalyst at times for fundamental forces already present.
Fifty years ago wealth was stored and transmitted physically through gold bars, stock certificates, bank notes, and coins.
The changing nature of money is only one facet of the financial services revolution.
Even the once simple home mortgage now has so many flavors and styles and variations that it is difficult for people to make a decision.
As you grow as a company, you get layers and hierarchy that, in theory, should make your decisions a lot better. They get reviewed, and thoughtful people look at decision.
Behind every successful enterprise, there is a supporting wife and surprised in-laws.
What I teach our people is that, as a leader, you have four key roles apart from people management. First is to champion the grand vision. Two, install systems and a culture to run experiments. The third thing is to savour surprises. The fourth thing is that even a leader's ideas need to be subjected to tests.
Dig for feedback on yourself. You need to have the courage to ask for feedback. You need to learn how you can learn how to grow. It is important that you are going to be a lifelong learner.
I spent some time studying Toyota, because how could a loom maker - they made looms. That was their business for 50 years, 35 years - and then they decided to go into the car business after everyone else was in the car business.
We make it easy for anyone to get free resources. Anyone can launch an idea for five minutes. Anyone can comment on, add, and enhance the idea. Need a designer? We provide an entrepreneurial matching system without the bosses getting involved. And in terms of unstructured time, we have a permission for that.
In my view, product/market fit is the most important thing to get right as a startup entrepreneur. There's a variety of ways to do it, but without solving some pain point that the customer gets so excited about they tell their friends, it's really hard in the modern age to get any liftoff.
Before 1980, it was basically illegal for U.S. banks to invent new products.
People don't place their trust in government or company pension plans; they have to be self-reliant.
