đź’ˇ I give this guide to new hires and collaborators to set expectations. If you work with me, these are the working principles + ethics that make the relationship and mission successful + that I expect from everyone I work with.
High Impact Work Only – No Fake Work
- Your 10 meetings, hopping on calls, setting up accounts, hiring a logo artist, and texting people do nothing for the company. Your cool notion template or annotated notes do nothing for the company. The only thing that does anything for the future is thoughtful action and real product. If you can’t point to a product at the end of each day, you have done nothing.
High Initiative and Agency
- If our goal is x, don’t expect anyone on the team to give you the playbook or tiny steps that get you there. You’re an adult and you’re on this team because you’re smart. Figure it out. Own the damn thing. Anthony is amazing at this. I’ll just mention, “I think I need a new assistant for my ecom business” in passing and by EOD, he’ll have 1 pager on what we need to look for, posted the job posting on 3 marketplaces, and has interviews scheduled on our calendars for 3 candidates without anyone ever telling him hey you have to do step 1 2 and 3. Everyone is an owner. Have an owner mindset. Do more than what is asked, everyone else does the same. We are a team of all stars not a team of workers.
Quick Action Loops
- Never “I’ll get this to you end of day.” Why can’t you do it now? It takes 15 minutes, just do it now. Does it take more than x amount of time to finish? Why not push the mission and business forward right now as we speak instead of 10xing the slowness by saying I’ll do tonight or tomorrow?
Quick Feedback Loops
- Give me the whole truth and best information we have now. Be fully honest with how things are. Go test hypotheses very very quickly. Don’t wonder things, put out a test ad campaign while we are still on the call. Don’t wonder, go find that information or high confidence signal now. Figure out the highest quality information and ask the exact question that will get us to the knowledge we need to get clarity, direction, and action. If something happens, lets all work on that info.
Communication Style
- I work best on my own terms and I lose focus easily. So instead of calling me or poking me, text me and I’ll get to it the next time I zoom out or come up for air. My texts are my inbox, if you need anything go there. I’ll get to them when convenient for me and when it won’t pull me out of a focus session that would cost me another 30 minutes to get back in flow
Brutal Honesty + Egoless
- As much as you can, do not sugar coat anything. I’m a designer by trade. So please tell me if my shit sucks and I’ll do the same to you. It’s not an attack on you and this feedback style doesn’t work with everyone. But it gets to the core of how we get better quickest. I’d frame feedback as a gift. Feedback allows us a path to get better and only offering 40% of the truth or sugar coating it for feelings robs both parties from their best chance at success. Realize that it is not about you, and that we are on a shared mission to be the best we can possibly be and have our project the best possible odds of success. Brutal honest feedback (if both parties are ready) allows us the best path forward and gives us the most clear action items for improvement.
- My peer group should be so critical of almost everything I do.
- I need faster and faster feedback and improve much faster if information flows freely, instead of allowing discomfort and ego to filter out some
- We are fully honest and crit each other heavily
- You must fully remove yourself from the situation, bc it’s not about ego. It’s about achieving a common goal together. You must must fully remove your ego and self worth or you will stop yourself from getting better.
- In that vein, we are all on a shared mission of self actualization and achieving our highest potential. We are helping each other get there. These are just the signals, stepping stones, roadmaps we needed to get to our highest point Self Honesty Feedback is a Gift
- To hide true crits and feelings behind ego and political correctness (your critiques and my imperfections) from me for the sake of my feelings or yours is stealing my most perfect potential future away from me
- Do not steal the highest self from each other
- Get over yourself (everyone involved)
Self Critical + Self Aware
- I spend a lot of time thinking about my mental and productivity processes from daily retrospectives to turning my phone off while I work and ridding my computer and work environment of all distractions. The same level of efficiency or much better is expected from everyone I work with. Know your weaknesses, know your output, be honest w/ yourself in order to play to your strengths and be able to protect against your weaknesses.
Generosity
- I always lead with generosity. I give and trust very freely. I find it more beneficial that everybody eats and feels good about the ownership and rewards they have to build a healthy 10 year relationships vs. skimming some off the top and negotiating each step. Lead with generosity and the pie will expand 10x more than any amount you will nickel or dime each other. I always give more than I ought to, and it has always paid me back 10 fold.
Work Ethic
- I work hard. I also play hard. We will likely do both, but I expect you to grind harder than I do. I work and learn on average 12-14 hours a day and I play the rest. It’s really fun building cool things fast, and soul draining trying to push a slow moving train from the back. I’d rather break my own bones or some other excruciatingly gruesome and slow suffering process. I hate working with people who don’t work hard, and it usually only lasts a few weeks before I leave the project.
Learn All the Time
- Continual + quick learning is the key to success. If you want to be successful you should be learning at a high rate with rich information, quick action that generates actionable learnings, + high signal knowledge for most of the day every day.
Fun
- Build cool shit and be a cool person. Invest time in being someone people want to be around. It’s not enough to just work but you have to be someone people want to work with. Crack jokes and keep it light, be sociable, be chill and be smart. We can work with the absolute smartest jerks in the world or we can work with smart people we actually want to be around. One is more sustainable. One builds healthy teams and organizations.
Mean It
- If you say you’re going to do something, do it. Don’t agree and not do it. That lie is way worse than you honestly missing a deadline. If you are behind something stick behind it. Mean it. Be decisive and make shit happen. Don’t half as or make any excuses
Care for Others
- If you borrow my airpods, don’t get them all gunked up and return them dead. If you borrow my clothes or my house, leave it better than you found it without asking. This is common courtesy. If I take a big swing and a big bet on you, repay it 10 fold and don’t take my hospitality for granted. I love my parents and my friends and I expect you to treat everyone you encounter with their best interests in mind. Not thinking but showing deep empathy and care with action. Be a good person.
Patience
- It’s inevitable that shit will happen, through fault of our own or not. Sometimes you just have to be outright patient. You will fail a lot. You will have moments that don’t go your way and you’ll be faced with the same ambiguous pile of uncertainty that you started the day with. You may even go backwards. It’s all part of the long long game of progress.