(Dis)comfort Challenges, Accelerators and Leaning In
Hello Friends!
This week – a “challenge” to get you out of your comfort zone, a novel way of accessing remote startups and another one of my favourite quotes.
1. Something New I Tried
Most of us are familiar with the comfort zone and how most of our learning happens right outside of it. Which is why when a few weeks ago I was reminded of a set of “Comfort Challenges” from Tim Ferriss’s best-selling book Four Hour Work Week, I decided to try one of them out.
The one I picked to try out was learning/practicing making eye contact with people while talking to them since it was something I knew I could improve on (spoiler alert it is as hard as it sounds!)
A couple of tips from the video above which really helped out with this activity:
Focusing on one eye is a lot easier than trying to look into both
While it’s easier to make eye-contact when listening put in a conscious effort to do so when you’re speaking as well
The goal of this exercise is to get comfortable with the feeling of discomfort and I can tell you right now that it 100% achieves that. Even though I have only done it for a few weeks, I can already tell that I am much more comfortable making eye contact in conversations with friends and with colleagues at work.
2. Quote I Loved
"If you’re offered a seat on a rocket ship you don’t ask what seat. You just get on."
Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google (quote from Sheryl Sandberg’s book Lean In)
This was Schmidt’s line of reasoning as he convinced Sandberg to join Google in its early days after she had expressed doubt of not being a good fit for any of the open positions. Turns out Sandberg herself was very good at spotting rocket ships as she went on to join the social media rocket ship aka Facebook relatively early as well, in 2007 as its COO, and has since become a household name in the tech world.
I believe this quote is great career development advice for many of us who have gone through the process of choosing between working at an established company versus working at a startup, especially right out of college.
Schmidt’s advice suggests that it’s a better deal to take up a role that might not be a perfect fit with your skillset at a fast-growing company than a role that you are more comfortable doing at a larger but more stagnant company.
3. Concept I Found Really Cool
Startup accelerators and incubators are everywhere these days and most have very similar incentives when it comes to their offer which is a co-working space; a little bit of money + a network of mentors in exchange for equity in your startup. Yet, an accelerator called Pioneer stands out.
Pioneer’s entire pitch is that since remote work is on the rise and startups working in areas that aren’t Silicon Valley are plenty, simply fund these startups where they are at.
And it makes sense too since the Venture Capitalism (VC) space is getting super crowded and mammoths like Y Combinator are competing over pre-seed deals for promising startups making it very hard for smaller players like Pioneer to get in early. An example of a deal Pioneer offers startups is covering the cost of flying to SF and spending a month with Pioneer mentors in exchange for 1% of equity, with the promising ones being funded anywhere from $20k - $1 million.
My Take? I like the idea of scouting for talent globally when so many angel investors and VCs don’t look beyond stateside. Differentiating yourself in a market (for quality startups) getting increasingly competitive by the day is certainly the move.
4. Shower Thoughts of the Week
Here are this week’s shower thoughts (via Reddit):
It’s funny how all the sudden lots of jobs can be done from home
No one in movies ever has the bottom locker
Kids that saved their game multiple times grew up to be adults that lock their car multiple times
That’s all for this week!
Cheers,
Rohail
More of one thing, less of the other? Comment here or reach out on Twitter (@rwk93) - Instagram (ro.khan)