Lenny DistilledCraft → Career Growth
Life is suffering. So figure out something worth suffering for. You're going to suffer either way. And that's another thing I think people don't realize, is there isn't really a path that is easy that I've ever found.
What would you do if you knew you wouldn't fail? That's the biggest question. If you didn't have to make money, what would you do? What's play for you that is work for other people?
Sometimes I do want to encourage young people to focus on what's important because I find myself constantly in mentoring mode when I see an incredible young talent who is over-focusing on every minute dimension and aspect of considering a job.
I realized my career path was very much dictated by one thing. It was like, what's most in demand? What's most challenging?... And then when I came here, there was a really big challenging for me personally around what do I care about? What matters most to me?
If you're not genuinely excited about what you want to build, you don't have conviction about it, it's going to be very hard for you to make a big impact.
I care more about living a really interesting life than let's say a good or comfortable life. I think that's where the growth comes from. That's where the stories come from. That's to me the things that I'll remember the most.
I think a lot of people are very intentional in the micro. They think about their next job, their next title, how much salary and equity there is... but they're very unintentional about the macro. What's the big picture? What do I care about as an individual?
The only reason to start a company is because you have an irrational desire to do so, because it's not worth the money.
I do find many of the young people today think about every single aspect of an equation when they decide on jobs. At some point, maybe that's the way they want to do it, but sometimes I do want to encourage young people to focus on what's important because... maybe the most important thing is where's your passion? Do you align with the mission? Do you believe and have faith in this team?
It's a terrible outcome to wake up one day and be late career and feel trapped because you have a certain lifestyle or a certain expectations of the people around you that you have to go work this job, but then you look at yourself in the mirror and you're not happy going in there. I think that's a terrible trap that we should all try to avoid as we navigate our career paths and find the thing that's most optimal for us. Which is usually a mix of career success, but also meaningfulness and alignment in the work that we're doing with our values.