1/ Bill Campbell (Coach) was the only person I needed a separate category for when I wrote my last book A Dozen Lessons for Entrepreneurs. You can read the into to that book for free:issuu.com/columbiaup/doc… I've talked to a lot of people about why he was such an effective coach.
2/ A friend who worked with Bill Campbell for years told me: "CEOs really respected him and his opinions, especially about people." Another friend said: "Campbell and Steve Jobs were both powerful leaders, and devoted to each other, but radically different in style and demeanor."
3/ While you may never have the level of people skills of someone like Bill Campbell, you can learn from him. The way he mixed copious profanity with hugs would be impossible to replicate precisely, but you can learn to mix honesty and empathy in your interactions with people.
4/ Campbell was called "Coach" but he was also a mentor.

Definitions of terms vary but one is that coaching is more about skills development and achievement of goals and objectives. Mentoring is more about helping a person develop as a person in ways that go beyond coaching.
5/ Why was Bill Campbell so effective as a coach and mentor? In two words, 1) trust and 2) judgment. Lasting trust comes from a history of being trustworthy. “Good Judgment Depends Mostly on Experience and Experience Usually Comes from Poor Judgment.” quoteinvestigator.com/2017/02/23/jud…
6/ My first professional mentor was also named Bill. I was like a ducking who was able to learn by watching the behavior of a magnificent swan in the real world.

Finding the right mentor can be an accident, but those relationships are too important to rely on just luck.
7/ I advocate "give to get" or "career karma."

Find someone you desire as a mentor and help them. Don't expect anything in return. Value won't come back to you every time, but it will generate enough nonlinear benefits that it pays off better than any investment on earth.
8/ The unfortunate reality is:

Great mentors don't just show up one day people lives. Mentors, especially the best ones who you will have great chemistry with, must be recruited by you. Getting a mentor takes work. Using Cialdini's reciprocity principle is a useful approach.
9/ No mentor is a complete package.

A friend says Bill Campbell had the highest EI he ever encountered.

"Emotional intelligence is the ability to identify and manage one’s own emotions and the emotions of others." psychologytoday.com/us/basics/emot…

My 1st professional mentor was tall

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More from @trengriffin

14 Dec
If you go into a career that's tough you are not going to do very well. Find something where you have special advantages. There were things about law that I didn't like but I had to support my family. I spent less than I earned and invested. That enabled me to work for myself.
"I did not make my fortune on the cutting age of technology. I damn near lost all my money in an early investment in a instrument company. Magnetic tape came along and we didn't plan for that. Technology is a killer as well an an opportunity." Charlie Munger
"Some people try to get on the cutting edge of change. Other people do some of that, but mostly avoid big technology changes that that may hurt their investment. Everyone uses technology, but it helps to have some part of the business that technology can't change as easily." CM
Read 14 tweets
13 Dec
1/ Skill and success compound over time similar to the way capital can compound. Success and skill attract other other skillful people as colleagues from whom you learn more [repeat]. Of all topics in my recent Infinite Loops podcast, this flywheel idea generated the most DMs.
2/ How much you know doesn't need to be an accident. The the more you learn and acquire skills, the more skillful and knowledgeable people say, "Wow, she knows a lot. Let's get her involved." Each time you level up on knowledge and skill the more powerful is this feedback loop.
3/ I tell young people to pick an area and dig in as far as they can to learn and grow their skills. Inevitably people will come to them with questions, information and opportunities. The more you know, the more other people will want to know what you know. Success compounds.
Read 7 tweets
12 Dec
1/ This pod of transient orcas was in my hood last Sunday. These orcas are healthier than resident orcas since they aren't dependent on salmon. I have identified with orcas since my father told me bedtime stories about them when I was a very young child. kitsapsun.com/picture-galler… Image
2/ That I have edited two books of children's stories collected by my great grandfather is not well known.

If you don't like stories, I feel bad for you son, I got 99 problems, but telling stories ain't one.
amazon.com/Ah-Mo-Indian-L…
3/ "How many great stories can you tell about your own life? If you can do so you've had great experiences, which means you've met great people and you've made a difference. Soon enough you're old - then dead. Be curious and have great life experiences." infiniteloopspodcast.com/tren-griffin-e…
Read 6 tweets
9 Dec
Bill Gates: “The only trick in software is to use code that’s already been written." Computerworld, May 24, 1993.

What makes software more reusable?

"APIs all the way down." notboring.substack.com/p/apis-all-the…
"On Invest Like the Best, Benchmark’s Eric Vishria describes it simply: people interact with software through Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs), software interacts with software through APIs."

“There’s an app for that” is now “there’s an API for that.”
My memory is good. For example, in 1991 Bill Gates wrote about this API:

"Our strategy is make sure we evolve the Windows API and get developers to take advantage of new features rapidly, while IBM has a poor product with poor Windows
functionality." tech-insider.org/windows/resear…
Read 5 tweets
6 Dec
1/ A service like OnlyFans is potentially "nonrival" since we could all view content without anyone being excluded. But OnlyFans is offered on a membership basis which makes content "excludable."

OnlyFans is a SubStack-style platform for adult content. bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
2/ Membership platforms like OnlyFans solve one business model problem, but create another one. There must be something valuable people can't get elsewhere for free. There's tons of free ad supported porn available. So like any effective SubStack, the porn must be personalized.
3/ Supply is the killer of value. If potential customers can get x for free elsewhere, selling X is hard.

Ps, How do promoters solve this problem? As Charlie Munger says they bribe the purchasing agent! By paying an enormous sales commission (AKA bribe) to a trusted "advisor"!
Read 5 tweets
6 Dec
What shipped first: Microsoft's: (1) spreadsheet or (2) word processor? In what month and year did they ship? What were they called on the ship date? Do you know the pre-shipment code names?
Microsoft Multiplan was Microsoft's first commercially released application software. It was shipped by the End-User Systems Group in August of 1982. The original code-name was “EP” for Electronic Paper. Multiplan was written by Douglas Klunder, who reported to Charles Simonyi.
Word was Microsoft's 2nd application. September of 1983

Bill Gates: "The user interface was identical to Multiplan."

Richard Brodie: "We thought 'Microsoft Multi-Tool Word' sounded brain-damaged."

Simonyi: "The name ''Word" was from Jeff Raikes."
vintagecomputing.com/index.php/arch…
Read 6 tweets

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