Sam Lessin: belief

Transcript context

…Okay. Let's move on to conversations. Give us some tips. So I mean, on the conversation front, I think the key again is to welcome people into the conversation. Consider it, especially you see this happen sometimes, especially when there's weird power dynamics at play. You'll see some famous VC or founder walk into the room, and then some young startup person will waylay them and almost flock them off and they're really excited to talk to this person, but you're like, there's a bunch of people around and the more you can be inclusive and low heart rate, it's not a scarcity mindset, it's an abundance mindset. I think that's kind of the tone to think about in terms of what a conversation is and how to show up in a room and meet with people. Another really big one we harp on a lot in the book in a bunch of the panels is ask questions, but there's a limit. So asking questions is great. You're coming in and says, "Hey, it's nice to meet you. Let me give you my four-minute startup spiel and everything I'm into da-da-da." So self-centered. It kind of misses the point that a conversation is a give and a get and it should be an exchange. And so when you go in with a mindset of I should ask questions, that's great. There is doing it too much, which is when it's done in a forced way, sometimes I feel this, you'll meet someone and you feel like it's the inquisition or all they're trying to do is extract information to you and giving you nothing in return. This happens sometimes. And so I think, again, this is about balance, this is about low heart rate. I do think questions are a great tool to engage someone, but don't make it six questions in a row and make sure there's always in some ways a give to get. If you can come in, the best conversations are coming, someone comes in and gives you an idea or has a point or sparks something, then it's like a game of ping pong, then you can kind of react to and it goes back and forth where there's openness and they're playing with you, not playing single player is almost the way I would think about it in a conversation. So the tip here. So it's basically indexed towards asking questions, but not 100% you asking questions?…

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