What Jay Z and Mark Andreesen agree on
Decision Balance Newsletter | 6.12.2024
Key Insight
The right market might be more important than the right team or the right product. Jay Z said it in his song American Dreamin, “Ain't nothing wrong with my aim, just gotta change the target” and Mark Andreesen said in this blog post “Personally, I’ll take the third position—I’ll assert that market is the most important factor in a startup’s success or failure.” Good teams and good products only matter if their “target market” is healthy and in need of your solution. Thanks for the connection @founderspodcast
A question to ask yourself
If you travel ahead to the death of your business / the death of what you have built in life / your own death…can you say it was worth it? Was it meaningful? Was it the best way to spend a short, precious human life? Now ask, is there anything you are feeling compelled or inspired to change. A slight reorientation compounds to a big change over a long life.
Reading, podcast thoughts
Do you know how to listen? According to Caroline Coughlin You can listen to fix, to win, or to understand. Good listeners pause their judgment and believe what is being said is valid. As a boss you can listen to fix and you may get the short term results you want. However, over time you will likely create an unmotivated employee who is afraid to admit they are wrong. With your employees listen to understand, communicate to teach, and then you build trust. Only then can you guide someone to sustained improvements in performance.
Doubling down on this concept of optimal listening I would encourage you to (re)readThe Mindful Athlete by George Mumford. On page 76 he says “Life is all about the stimulus we experience in the world and the way we interpret that in our minds.” We can react in “knee jerk ways - with agitation, anxiety, fear…or we can respond…by getting still, paying attention” to what arises in us. As a coach, one of the ways I measure improvement is in the magnitude of space between stimulus and response in my clients. Magnitude as measured by depth of attention multiplied by clearness of thinking (not length of time). When the magnitude is large “the game” slows down…just like for an elite athlete.
Health
Klotho (KL) gene is a longevity factor that declines in aging and represents one of the most promising areas of research in brain health. Elevating klotho in mice and monkeys has led to boosts in cognition according to recent publications by the National Institute of Health and the scientific journal Nature. Human relevance for klotho in brain health is supported by studies showing that individuals with elevated KL, due to genetic KLOTHO variation or other reasons, demonstrate better cognition, attenuated neuropathological measures or decreased dementia risk in aging and Alzheimer’s disease.”
Welcome to the DecisionBalance newsletter where I share insights, questions, and reading recommendations. I coach asset managers and start-up founder/CEOs to set goals, improve performance, and find deeper meaning in their work.
