Vlad Loktev: recommendation

Transcript context

…We had an awesome episode with Ami Vora. She's CPO at Faire, and she is also extremely good at this and a huge advocate of starting with questions and understanding what she's missing. Totally. Well, the other thing I would say is, the other motto that has really helped me drive impact, and I use the analogy of the bear, and I've always told myself, "Don't be afraid to poke the bear." And what that means is don't self-censor. If you have a strong view after you've really grounded yourself in the truth and you feel like you've done your homework and you've asked all the questions, if you still disagree, if you still feel like we're going in the wrong direction, don't be afraid to poke the bear no matter how hard things get. It's interesting because I think a lot of, especially as an organization matures, you find yourself in meetings with many execs, founders, et cetera, it's often hard to voice your real opinion. And you usually tone it down a little bit because you're afraid of being the only one who disagrees, or sounding stupid or things like that. And so I remember it was probably 2014 or 2013 where I made a promise to myself, "I'm going to always poke the bear no matter how hard things get." Because at the end of the day, what's the worst thing that's going to happen? Did I get fired? Why would I even be afraid of that? But if I do, I'll find another gig. Life is short. You've done this really well, where I feel like you've also always... I remember when we were working on Instant Book, you've definitely poked the bear, where you were like, "You guys are wrong. This is how we have to approach it." And I've always really appreciated it. Thanks, man. Is there an example of maybe working with Brian where you poked Brian and like, "No?"…

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