Models I Live By

We need the courage to do more ‘different’. We cannot rely on clean air and great beaches for happiness. Humans intrinsically have a need to contribute to something bigger than themselves. External things simply can’t manufacture an infinite supply of satisfaction for us. It is both a relief and a personal challenge that the power rests with us – not policies or government. So we’ll probably make the most impact by rewarding courage. We can’t rely on the fickle nature of our political landscape in this country to make change. We must do it ourselves by literally building the world we want to live in. Paul Bassat is making a way ahead with Amplify.

For a few interesting ideas on building a world we want to live in, see:

• The Great Good Place by Ray Oldenburg
• Retrosuburbia
• Shared Living Experiment in VIC

Use the litmus test – does what you’re doing give you job satisfaction – and are you building your own utopia?

Seems counterintuitive. But this is the question that Jessica Ducrou posed and one that Tobi Lütke mentioned in a recent episode of Lenny’s Podcast. Jessica’s job satisfaction was seeing people join in part of a collective moment – something many people in the music industry enjoy because it’s so powerful. She also met an oft unmet need for humans to connect. And when you think about the nature of Splendour in the Grass, Jessica literally did the thing that founders do – ‘Create your own utopia’. Many of us can’t say we do have true job satisfaction, but don’t have the courage to try something else. It helps to pitch your ideas and thoughts to people who would be happy to talk about them with you.

See Your Own Universe by Derek Sivers

Consider the future – like way into the future. What 100 year problem are you solving?

This exercise really helps you frame your problem. One example that Helen Zhang and Jeremy Dicker from International Intrigue mentioned was food security. Food security has been a challenge at different points in history – but the needs have been the same for the last 100 years. We can’t rely on export and import laws, because that just means volatile supply. We need a stronger local food network for the long term. But we also need to learn how to feed ourselves on shelf stable solutions – which are often calorie dense and inexpensive. What might the problem you think about look like in 100 years?

No matter what happens in the future, we will always need a sense of belonging to something bigger than ourselves, and we’ll always need to discover. Some things simply won’t change. Focus on that.

Assess what you have and use it. It requires the c word again – courage – to find each other, see a better future and work towards it. 

A startup is the taste of its founder. The shape and design of the iPhone were a direct result of Steve Job’s travels to Japan and learning about the clean lines and design that are so valued there. When it comes down to it, this is really about knowing yourself. Is there such a thing as bad taste? You’ll know from your customers. If something is done in bad taste, I’ve personally found a part of you feels it, and also you know when your customers respond the same (or don’t respond at all). Sometimes you’ll pitch something and your customers don’t respond well but you feel it’s good taste – I actually wouldn’t ignore this – I’d just change something about what I’ve done. Instinct is a powerful guide. We get our sense of taste from other inputs around us, so curate your life feed to what you want to see.

It exponentially increases your chances of success, especially if you try to be earnest, sincere and honest. This worked for Lucy and Annabel of Clutch Glue.

Sacha Judd offered an interesting perspective. Your most powerful users of anything are the ones who go out of their way to offer free information and data online for a cause they believe in. One of my favourite books, Pattern Breakers, dedicates a whole chapter to this.

It was originally said by Sam Altman and to be honest this resonated strongly with me. Most people who have affected change in this world did have to believe in the thing in the face of a mountain of doubt. That’s pretty hard to do. Unfortunately it is even harder in a place like Australia where we still have tall poppy syndrome; something Shannon Scott of Palantir and Airwallex contests we have to deal with in Australia pretty consistently. Your belief must not just be internal – you have to convey it loudly and strongly enough for others to join your procession as you stride down the street calling out your message. There’s no way around it – you have to have the courage to push.

Find the thing that captivates you. The way Ben Shewry described its importance was that you can centre yourself back to the love you have for the thing you do in the eye of the storm – no matter how big the storm is around you. If you don’t have a burning love for the problem you’re solving, it won’t succeed.

Be a positive force and radiate that to others. Your energy will radiate – it is literally a force. We shouldn’t look past our ability to influence character. Be ready to have potentially conflicting conversations – be fearless. It may turn out better than you even expected. 

One of my favourite takeaways was the fear of losing, a battle between scarcity and abundance. Shewry had this fear that everything would be gone and he’d be broke. But what’s really interesting is that we fear the emotion that comes with the consequence, not so much the consequence itself. It’s about pushing through the fear to realise the consequence isn’t so terrifying – or likely – and your brain is just trying to keep you safe.

Practise radical novelty rather than incrementalism. When you think of an idea, ask what it would look like if it was 100x better. For smaller missions on the way to the big mission, you experience euphoria when you reach the end of a creative mission and have realised something that feels truly new. And the only way you can test those ideas is by ‘publishing’ them and hearing back from your customers – in this case for Ben Shewry, it’s ‘publishing’ a dish for diners and taking on feedback.

See Bus Tickets by Paul Graham.

If you couldn’t utter the words ‘fail’ or ‘mistake’ to describe an event, how would this change your thinking?

You’d likely have to say something like ‘I didn’t want this outcome’ and that forces you to reframe the thinking – what outcome would you have wanted and how else could you get there? Thinking in a narrow frame of ‘mistake’ or ‘failure’ doesn’t give you the other end of what you were trying to reach for.

It’s something you can see. When you watch the physical place where the work is done, you should viscerally see the culture being played out. A good example is basketball.

See Culture by Brian Chesky and Alfred Lin

Ask for forgiveness (unless it hurts someone). Lyft wasn’t even legal when it launched its ride-sharing service. The moment I recognised that lawyers spend our careers seeking permission, not forgiveness, I sought to get out. It seemed inefficient to me when I could actually be doing the thing I wanted to do. Founders shouldn’t rely on waiting for policy changes or paperwork to create the utopia they want to exist. Obviously there’s some important things to get out of the way, but we have a way of letting a lack of permission stall our progress. Most of all I find we wait for our own – and the longer you wait, the longer it takes to give yourself permission to go for the thing you want in life.

We’ve succumbed to incrementalism. One way to combat this is through high agency. And the physical world around us (the world of atoms) has improved incrementally. Yet our physical world is incredibly key to having effective ways for smart people to connect over big ideas. For instance, logistics is the overriding reason that new food systems are so hard to build. People behave a certain way because of their environment.

The volume of inventiveness was higher a century ago because we had an ‘improving’ mindset. We are becoming more of a ‘complacent’ class. The best thing we can do is practise autonomy and have good relationships that fuel ideas.

Remember: ‘We haven’t won yet.’ Instead of being complacent, practise autonomy in your daily life in small ways, and you’ll start to see that limitations often exist only in our minds. See more of Sam Bowman’s ideas here.

You’re more likely to get to the future faster.

My final thoughts on being a founder and on my industry.

(1) How do you actually do this – build something from scratch? For so many of us, it feels unsurmountable – even though Tim Doyle insists ‘it’s not that hard‘. There is nothing more unhelpful than hearing ‘just do it’, yet that the line every advice piece echoes.

I think back to how I got started. It came down to (1) thoughtfulness -literally sitting and thinking about what I want for my life (2) asking for what I want from my circle (3) courage and then accepting I have to ‘trick’ myself into starting to then get me the momentum I need. “But Ange, isn’t tricking myself into working a bad thing?” Tricking yourself seems counterintuitive, but I love how Paul Graham puts it. You just say ‘I’m going to just read the first sentence’ and before you know it you’re off to the races. You know you want to do it, you just need a bit of a self-push to get there. 

(2) It’s great that there are founders with no background in their industry (Tim Doyle of Eucalyptus isn’t a doctor; the Hay sisters who developed Clutch Glue weren’t in beauty). They bring information to people the same way they wanted to receive it – like a layperson. This is also my background. I’m ex-law and I’m in the world of whole food groceries. So don’t let a lack of experience stop you.

(3) Finally, the future of ‘AI and groceries’ isn’t what you’d think. The mode of thinking is often ‘let’s use AI to look at customer’s historic grocery purchases’ and then predict your cart. But this is extremely limiting when you consider the landscape of whole foods – it’s basing customer options on what they have been exposed to already, not what they could like, based on the thousands of varieties that exist but aren’t sold to the public easily. The future grocery model must incorporate novelty in a way that ticks all the boxes for customers – that it makes them feel good after they eat it, and that it is novel enough, and that it is a trustworthy source. 

(4) Be courageous.