Lenny Rachitsky: belief

Transcript context

…Yeah, that's exactly the exercise. You're saying "runway" I say "burn rate", so we both were raised inside of companies, incentive tech, but I think it is do the math, right? What can you afford? And it's both what can you afford and still feel safe? Because sometimes, I mean, again, I think that is different for everyone, but it is such an important set of math to do because, A, a lot of times that number is smaller than you think it is, then your brain makes it out to be if you have this sort of existential financial anxiety versus, I always say, "Specific financial anxiety is much more useful than existential financial anxiety." And some friends are leaving jobs and I'll be like, "Hey, your number is 5K or 10K a month. You have to believe that you can get a consulting gig that will pay you that. Do you believe that?" And it's like, "Either yes or no." And then, "Okay, either we're doing it or we're not. The other part of this J- Curve that I think is really important to touch on is this idea of for the first six or nine months, you're going to be at the bottom of the J curve falling, still falling. And some projects don't last that long and then you're like, "Okay, total failure. I never emerged from this fall." So, is there any advice there? Just, how do you create that enough space to give you a chance to start to un-fall? I mean, the most valuable thing that happens as you fall is learning. And even on the other side of failure, you've learned a shit ton. I always say, "The most important thing to do in the falling phase and the risk taking land is to learn to embrace being a professional idiot." Basically, being the one that shows up at the meeting and is like, "What are we talking about? What does that word mean?" For a bunch of reasons. Number one, you can learn so much. And again, even in the face of failure, no one can take away your learning. Do you know what I mean? But the other thing is that it turns out that a lot of the questions in the world that, you're sitting in the meeting and you're like, "This is a dumb question. Everyone's going to think I'm an idiot." But then you get brave and you ask it and it turns out it wasn't a dumb question. Do you know what I mean? Turns out that everyone had that question in their mind, but no one was brave enough to ask it. So, from a skills' perspective, again, regardless of outcome, being the person that sort of takes their learning in their own hands, learning no matter what and learning to ask those dumb questions, it's a superpower. I always say that, "Actually, my superpower is being a professional moron." Because I'm the one that shows up in a room and is like, "Do we have goals? What are we doing? Why are we talking about this? Why are we having this meeting?" And most of the time it's actually what I was hired to do, which is bring clarity.…

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