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1 One of the biggest lessons for me of the last few years is learning to own my tradeoffs. This is both a high-growth startup thing and a life thing. Thread >>
2 Something that @dhchait once tweeted that has stuck with me ever since: Everyone else's business looks easy from the outside.
In reality, this is not just true of someone else's business, but of their life. Most people make most things look easier than they really are.
In reality, this is not just true of someone else's business, but of their life. Most people make most things look easier than they really are.
3 In truth, the harder the thing you're trying, the harder it is to do - even if it looks easy. If you're building a business, the degree of difficulty gets harder as the complexity gets harder. And the less others see the complexity... so the easier it seems!
4 In Silicon Valley, most people tell each other how much they're crushing it all the time. The shocking truth is that, even where that is true, ESPECIALLY where it is true, a bunch of stuff is falling apart or stapled together or stapled together so it doesn't fall apart.
5 At least for me, growth has meant intentionally prioritizing what important things to focus on vs. what important things to let go for now. At an earlier stage, I tried to handle every important thing. At some point, I realized the laws of physics prevented that.
6 More to the point, trying to do all important things with equivalent priority and focus guarantees that you won't succeed at any of them. Prioritizing means you MIGHT fail, if you pick the wrong priorities. Failure to prioritize means you will DEFINITELY fail.
7 For me, the journey these last few years has been about getting comfortable with my tradeoffs - owning the prioritization decisions that I make and the intentionality of those decisions. Being willing to live with the consequences when some important things get less attention.
8 This is easy when the choices are obvious, but they so rarely are. Which also means that 1. I'm less concerned about the judgment of others, + 2. I'm less judgmental of other people's priorities. Unless you're on the inside of someone's mind, you just don't know.
9 At the end of the day, most everyone is just a person doing their best. Doing their best to make good decisions with imperfect information, biases, anxieties, and intuitions.
10 I continue to do my best to make good decisions. The journey has gotten easier on a personal level since I've also accepted that I'm a human being with limits, and that there's no path forward without making prioritization calls and committing to them.
11 The tl;dr: Cut other people some slack when you don't understand their decisions; assume there is context you might not know about. Cut yourself some slack when your own best decision is not obvious. Do your best and own your tradeoffs! ❤️❤️❤️
