#51: hire people who give a shit
👋 Welcome to the 51st issue of Out of Curiosity, a weekly newsletter promoting ideas to help get 1% better everyday.
My name is Reza, and every week, I go through nearly 100 pieces of content (from books and podcasts to newsletters and tweets), and bring you the best in this newsletter.
In my work, I live and breath startups! Currently, I lead all things marketing at On Deck, where we bring together ambitious founders and their earliest supporters to help them build and scale impactful companies.
🙋♂️ A very warm welcome to the 35+ new subscribers who joined since last week. Thank you for tagging along!
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📝 This morning I finally finished How to Live by Derek Sivers. It’s a book of “conflicting philosophies” designed to be read slowly. So, I took my time.
In true Derek fashion, it’s short and sweet in terms of both the number of pages and sentence/paragraph length. I highlighted virtually 50%+ of the book. Here’s one:
If an action feels necessary, and you can’t let it go, just write it down for later. Everything seems more important while you’re thinking of it. Later, you’ll realize it’s not.
You can expect more snippets from this foundational book in the upcoming issues.
And with that, let’s dive into this week’s ideas!
In this issue:
🧑🏫 The joys of being an absolute beginner
💼 Hire people who give a shit
🗣 How hard feedback changed my life
📈 57 startup lessons
🧘♂️ How to find focus
🧑🏫 The joys of being an absolute beginner
If humans seem to crave novelty, and novelty helps us learn, one thing that learning does is equip us with how to better handle future novelty.
More than any other animal, we human beings depend on our ability to learn. Our large brain and powerful learning abilities evolved, to deal with change.
We’re always flipping between small moments of incompetence and mastery.
💼 Hire people who give a shit
Over time interviewing, I’ve found that I mainly screen for one key thing: giving a shit. And this is how to get a check on it:
What’s the hardest you’ve ever worked on something?
How many hours were you working a week?
Why did you work so hard? Why did you care?
When were you the most unmotivated in your life?
What’s the thing you’re the most proud of?
Do you think it was worth it?
🗣 How hard feedback changed my life
Feedback is a gift, but you get to choose what to do with it.
Sometimes feedback causes us to overcorrect because we feel like we need to react, but be conscious that what you do with feedback is your choice. Take the feedback you’re given and give it some time. Ask a trusted sponsor if they see the same patterns. Then decide how you want to take action.
While feedback may be valid for the giver, how you address it is completely within your control.
📈 57 startup lessons
Morale is very real and self-perpetuating. If you work too long without victories, your investors, employees, family, and you yourself will lose faith. Work like hell not to get yourself into this position.
Pick the initial team very carefully. Everyone should be pleasant to work with, have at least one skill relevant to the business they’re spectacular at, be extremely effective and pragmatic. Everyone should have product sense and a shared vision for the product and the company.
Learn the difference between people who might buy your product and people who are just commenting. Pay obsessive attention to the former. Ignore the latter.
🧘♂️ How to find focus
I’ve had an easy time being focused lately. I say no to obligations or opportunities that I would have easily accepted before. I have fewer things on my todo list, which means I get to spend more time on the few things that I’ve said yes to when I sit down to be creative.
I also have a stronger sense of my values – what’s important to me, and what’s less important – and that’s helped me leave more room in my schedule for myself.
✨ One last thing…
👋 Until next week,
