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Farhan Thawar: belief

19 Dec 2024 Lenny's Podcast How Shopify builds a high-intensity culture | Farhan Thawar (VP and Head of Eng)

“I mean, I kind of grew up working in retail and people come into the store, and then I would say, "Hey," and you're working on commission, and they're not always buying stuff, and if they don't buy it, you don't make any money.”

— Farhan Thawar

Source trail

Everything needed to verify it.

Speaker
Farhan Thawar
Attribution
Verified speaker
Claim type
belief
Recorded
19 Dec 2024
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

Transcript context

…So for folks that may want to, because I feel like this skill is so hard, but so important, being okay with failing, being okay with looking dumb, is there something you tell people to help them build this other than just like, I'm genetically good at this stuff? What helped you become comfortable with being wrong and failing before you were a big shot exec where it's like, oh, he's fine. He knows what he's doing. I don't know. I mean, I kind of grew up working in retail and people come into the store, and then I would say, "Hey," and you're working on commission, and they're not always buying stuff, and if they don't buy it, you don't make any money. And so maybe just the fact of going up and forcing myself to talk to people and then trying to get them to, and maybe you spend an hour with a client and then they don't buy anything, but you're getting that reaction of a bunch of negatives, and all you have to do is say, okay, and just go to the next customer. You can't really well on it and be like, oh my God, my whole day is ruined. But instead, you have to learn from that and say, "Okay, let me try this. Let me try that." And it's not easy, but it was a way to build up some confidence and people say, this telemarketing, or there's a bunch of things you can do to get a lot of rejection. Cold calling is another one, and that can lead you to actually building up resistance. I don't know if I'm genetically better at it or not. I just think that I literally don't care if I look dumb. I've always said the dumb thing, I'm not doing things on purpose to get nos, which by the way, is part of some sales training, which is go and get 10 nos. But I haven't done that. But I have been in many situations with many sharp people, business people, successful people who have said to me... Turn around and said, "That's the stupidest fucking question I've ever heard." I've definitely had that happen to me. And I'm like, "All right, let's move on to the next question." I love that attitude and I think that's key to it. It's just bounce off of it and not be crumble and I think it's empowering for folks to hear from someone like you that has done so well that people tell you that is the dumbest question I've ever heard-…

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