Pavel Durov: belief

Transcript context

…I have to ask in the question of leadership in the Le Point interview, the journalist said that you’re often compared to Elon Musk, and you highlighted some interesting nuances around that, that you’re quite different. That Elon runs several companies at once, while you only run one. And Elon can lean more on the emotional side while you deliberate and think deeply before acting. Can you expand on this? Also there’s an interesting point that you made that everybody’s weakness is also a strength. Same point that he made that everybody’s weakness is also a strength. Everybody’s strength is also a weakness. There’s a dual nature to all our characteristics. So on the topic of Elon, what have you learned from his style of leadership? What do you respect about him? First of all, I don’t think there is such thing as a negative personal trait. In most cases, our bad traits and our good traits are the same trait, or at least have the same source. Of course, there are some extreme examples, but I’d say 99% of people, if you analyze their character, their bravery can be seen and recklessness in other situations. Depending on circumstances, you would see exactly the same personality trait and it would be either a good thing or a bad thing. Because humanity is perfect as a whole, and each of us is different for a reason. We have evolved to be different, to complement each other’s abilities, so that together we’re invincible. And even if you take a person as complicated as Elon, I believe that certain traits that Elon demonstrates that people criticize about him are also the sources of his strength. For example, his emotionality is derived from the fact that he cares about issues deeply, and he’s willing to start as many wars and as many fights as it takes to change the world in the direction that he thinks is right. He also seems to be able to extract motivation from all these wars and personal conflicts, which is again, not something to be underestimated. At a certain point in the life of a successful entrepreneur, the question of motivation starts to be the primary question. If we’re talking about the richest person in the world and the most famous entrepreneur in the world, you have to wonder how does he motivate himself? And if starting a war on X, debating certain issues or becoming personal with other CEOs, criticizing them, if these activities help Elon to innovate and start new projects, he should be doing more of it. There’s nothing wrong in being non-agreeable. Actually, it’s one of the main traits of a successful entrepreneur, not agreeing with things. And every time somebody like Elon, but there’s no somebody like Elon, it’s just Elon, I think, at least from the entrepreneurs I know and I personally interacted with, he’s unique in the sense that he keeps launching new things, running them in parallel, and he doesn’t seem to be stretched too thin. Well, some people think he is, but he manages to still demonstrate success in all or most of his endeavors. So again, you can criticize Elon for being emotional, but would he be the same person without this? I doubt that. And the incredible teams he’s motivated too. There’s an element of that which you’ve spoken about, the team at Telegram. Assembling a team of A players, as we’ve talked about, is a skill in itself. And that’s also a big part of the leaders that we’ve discussed, it’s like judged in part by the team you assemble.…

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