Thread by @SeanDeLaney23

🎙NEW @WhatGotYouThere EPISODE with @rabois!

⚡️Spotting Undiscovered Talent
⚡️Learning Through Osmosis
⚡️Lesson from @peterthiel
⚡️Favorite Books
⚡️Most impressive thing he's seen this year

Listen 👇
ow.ly/g1Sw50xShaK

Some key takeaways and quotes from Keith

For full show notes by @podcastnotes 👇

podcastnotes.org/2020/01/12/kei…

“If you’re going to attract people with extremely high potential, the first thing you have to do is let them thrive. You have to give them the degrees of freedom to do both what they can do very well, and to some extent, allow them to make mistakes.” – @rabois

“If you try to constrain really talented people, you’re only going to create a mirror of yourself with your same strengths and weaknesses. You HAVE to let people do stuff that you disagree with. You can’t tell how good they are if they’re just replicating what you’d have them do”

“To be successful in an efficient market, you need to figure out what your comparative advantage is and magnify it”

Why We Sleep by @sleepdiplomat
“It will literally transform your life. Once you read the book, you’ll change all of your behaviors to focus and obsess on sleep.” – Keith Rabois

The Upside of Stress by @kellymcgonigal
“Almost everybody’s taught that stress is bad for them… It’s completely false. You want more stress in your life. With the right mental attitude, you’ll live longer, be happier, and be more successful.” – Keith Rabois

Other 📚
High Output Management by Andy Grove

Return to the Little Kingdom by Mike Moritz, a book about the creation of Apple

The Score Takes Care of Itself, especially if you’re a founder

“I’ve been obsessive about 8 hours of sleep and the importance of sleep all my life”

“I think we’ll discover in the next 20-30 years when we have more longitudinal data that most maladies are a function of poor sleep” – Keith Rabois

“There’s nothing more valuable than reading high-quality materials. You can tap into the best thinking of all time and become an expert in many dimensions, and forge connections from different fields.” – Keith Rabois

“The problem with law school is it’s a 3-year commitment, and the opportunity cost, plus the financial cost of 3 years, is quite high. So, it’s hard to recommend going to law school to anyone who’s ambitious but doesn’t quite know what yet to do.” – Keith Rabois

“I prefer to invest in areas that have a dose of legal or regulatory risk because I believe I have a comparative advantage versus other investors in assessing and calibrating that risk…"

“The real art in building a business is figuring out how to solve the problems, not identity them” – Keith Rabois

Keith's metrics
1.The number of undiscovered talented people he’s able to mentor that turn out to be incredibly important to the world.

2.The number of companies he’s able to help or influence, in one way or another, that end up going on to transform an industry, or the world.

“I’m always watching and taking notes of things I find interesting, and trying to figure out which pieces of the puzzle I can use for my own custom brew” – Keith Rabois

“I don’t think you want to replicate someone else’s strategy or unique insights. You have to figure out which pieces of their success formula apply to your comparative advantages, and which ones you can leverage., and which ones you maybe even do better than them."

"That’s where the art is. I’m borrowing lessons I’ve learned from a bunch of different people, from a bunch of different experiences, from a bunch of different companies, and packaging them together in my own Keith custom brew.”

“Debating with someone who’s very good at what they do, who’s very insightful and sharp, is always a useful exercise” – Keith Rabois

The Winner Within by Pat Riley
A particular quote from the book Keith keeps with him: “You don’t want to be the best at what you do, you want to be the only one who does what you do”

Find Your Comparative Advantage
“To be successful in an efficient market [like venture capital], you need to figure out what your comparative advantage is and magnify it” – Keith Rabois

A few of Keith’s comparative advantages:
“What I’ve been able to do very well is pair with very opinionated, strong-willed, visionary founders and be their compliment” – Keith Rabois

“The last 4 or 5 years in my executive career, I was able to blend what might be called ‘design thinking’ with empirical analysis in an interesting way”

“Being able to work with first-rate designers as a quantitative empirical thinker with a business and marketing mindset is pretty rare”

“I still believe in the benefits of intelligence and IQ. I think you need to be able to see things others don’t see… Being able to see solutions and ideas others don’t is partially a function of IQ.” – @rabois

@WhatGotYouThere @rabois @peterthiel @jack @foundersfund @mlevchin @reidhoffman @stripe @podcastnotes @kellymcgonigal For all the @YouTube listeners!
youtube.com/watch?v=OAzY8b…