Kevin Yien: commitment

Transcript context

…Wow, that is an amazing story, it gave me tingles. It makes me think a little bit about how we used to code in binary and then assembly and now it's Java, and then I don't know, all the languages, Python. And now it's like AI, LLM generating code and it's the same thing for drawing potentially. It used to be sticks on a cave and then became crayons and pens and iPads and all that stuff. And now it's again LLMs, so that's pretty bonkers. Amazing story. Thanks for sharing that. Useful to PMs and non PMs alike. Okay, I'm going to take you to another recurring corner/segment of the podcast, fail corner. I'm curious if there's a story of failure that you can share of something that didn't go the way you wanted and still had a positive impact on your life or career? Well, there's countless stories of failure, but I'll choose the one that I think I've had to reference the most with people and has been to date the most difficult one to really talk about. I'm on the other end of it, and so now it's very easy, but it took several years to get there. So context, I'm [inaudible 01:06:47] my way to PM, I land my first official, by title, PM job at a startup. I made it. I've arrived. I'm officially a product manager. And we go up, we go down, all the things happen. Fast-forward, the company is really struggling and so we go through a series of rolling layoffs and I'm round 4 something. At that point in time, my wife was nine months pregnant with our first child, and so I am freaking out. There is the personal side that I'm worried about, but then there's also my identity that has been completely crushed, because in the moment all I could think was, "I thought I was a product manager. This is evidence I am not," and I couldn't get past that. And so for what it's worth, this is the one post I have on my website that I actually feel really, really proud of. It's called Finding Swagger. I can talk about why it's titled that way, but it's the thing that I really wrote more for myself because it's a good reminder to me every time I fall into this mentality again, because that may have been the first time that I really had the feelings of, "I'm not worth it" or, "I'm not meant to be this person," but it's recurred several times since then over the past decade. And when I read back through my mentality of how I got to the other end of it, it helps even myself sort of get back on the horse. So okay, I get laid off, I'm distraught, I have no purpose, I'm nothing. And it was through a lot of reflection, a lot of conversation with friends and my wife where you eventually need to convince yourself that there is a difference between you not being good at something and a business or company not needing that thing at a particular moment in time, or you being very good at something but not in the way that a company needs. And so I think once I was able to get to that, Square for me was the immediate subsequent role that I took on. And I went into that thing just full steam ahead, I'm going to prove myself. "I know I'm good," because I think I'm good, "and I am going to prove the hell out of that" mainly to myself, but ideally to other people too. I think you shouldn't do things for other people for validation, but the initial success I got to see in launching a product, gaining the trust of my peers, having something that restaurants were texting me about, saying, "I can start my restaurant because of this. I didn't go down during rush hour because of this," that gave me the validation to say, "Okay, I am competent at this thing called product management." And then from there you can continue to build and continue to grow. But I think right now, the market's weird, right? The market's wonky. Okay, I am competent at this thing called product management." And then from there you can continue to build and continue to grow. But I think right now, the market's weird, right? The market's wonky. There's a lot of really good talent that is just getting hit over sideways. I have a lot of friends that are having the same mental conversations around, "Well, I guess I'm just not worth it. I guess I wasn't cut out actually to do this job, do this role, be of this purpose." In some cases, maybe that's true and you can sort of have a career transition or a pivot in your life, but I think it's worthwhile to reflect on what are the things that were in your control that you can now change moving forward? And then what are the things that were truly out of your control that you can now apply to find a better fit? And that's one of the big things that I've been able to, I think, come around to. And it's really hard because early on I think it's very tempting to associate a lot of different things with your identity. You're like, "I'm a startup guy. I'm a PM, I'm a fast whatever, I'm a fast thinker." And when an event happens that pokes at that part of your identity, the rest of it crumbles. And so long story short, I think it's really important for folks to use these moments where it feels bad and feels like a failure to reevaluate what parts are actually part of your identity and which parts are in your control to change in whatever you do next.…

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