2019 Letter to Self: Why I started Saltbox

Below is a letter that I wrote to myself back in 2019 just prior to founding Saltbox (yes, I often write long letters to myself!). In this letter, I reflect on the past experiences which have shaped my motivation to build Saltbox and the underpinnings of my confidence in my ability to do so.

Letter to Self:

My time at Palantir left me with a priceless gift--an intimate blueprint for how great companies are built and a deep appreciation for being a part of building them. Particularly as I become more removed from that experience, I'm finding that it has also left me with growing confidence that I can build a great company myself. Honestly, I don't quite know where it comes from, but I can feel its presence, at least deep down within my gut.

In some ways having been a part of Palantir was both a blessing and a curse. The curse is that you know what the drug of exceptional execution and being part of a mission-driven company feels like, and you're left constantly disappointed by everything else that the (professional) world has to offer. The blessing is a mere reinterpretation of the same--you know what it feels like, and you are well-equipped to build a great company yourself, assuming of course, that you can bring yourself to endure the pain of the journey.

That being said, I've come to believe that the real pain isn't the pain of doing it, but instead of not doing it. Specifically, the pain caused by not doing what you know you're capable of doing, especially considering you've been given the blueprint (which is a rare gift). In the end, it's simply the pain of not realizing your full potential, and I believe that there are few things in life more painful than that.

What exactly is that blueprint? I could pontificate on this for days, but here's how I see it in its simplest form...

You begin with a bold, compelling vision and a credible leader. Often the vision and goals of the company seem irrational at the outset. Still, the counterintuitive secret is that it's often easier (and certainly more fun) to accomplish things that people perceive to be really difficult than things that people perceive to be easy, in large part because you tend to have less competition at the outset.

The reason is simple--the world's most talented people only want to work on hard, compelling problems fueled by ambitious visions. They desire this first because they are driven to make an impact, and second because they realize that there's nothing more fun than working with other talented, driven people. You can't convince the most talented people in the world to work on easy, low-impact things (at least not at scale). Good execution leads to compounding improvements, and compounding improvements eventually lead to breakout success.

So, you start with nothing but a compelling, impactful vision and one credible leader. That leader convinces other talented people that they're not crazy and appeals to their desire to work on difficult, important problems (because it's fun and it's meaningful). Before you know it you have 1,000 talented, driven people all singularly focused on the same mission and that thing which at first appeared crazy begins to come into view as a real possibility--slow at first, but then incredibly quickly.

That's the blueprint. That's what I'm meant to be doing with my life. That's the strategy that I've had the privilege of being taught. That's how I create maximum leverage of my own talents and reach my full potential.

Despite an acute awareness of what I ultimately want to achieve (in an abstract sense), I have not been looking for it. A passion-inducing problem is not something that one discovers through an objective search--most often, it finds you. I feel both genuine and fortunate in saying that this is exactly what has happened to me. In the course of being in the weeds of True Glory for the past few years, I've discovered and become passionate about a problem that I now intend to solve.

One of the things that I often say to prospective founders is that I believe that for any given worthwhile problem to be solved, there are probably only a handful of people in the world who are uniquely well-positioned to solve it. After months of pondering this question for myself, I now feel confident in saying that I feel I've found my problem. One that I'm prepared to pour my heart and soul into solving. Some will disagree, others will not find the problem to be sufficiently compelling, but I honestly don't care. I have newfound freedom of thought that is rooted in my own personal experience, confidence, and passion, which frees me from any dissenting opinions and allows me to move confidently into the future with a clear vision of what I intend to build. It's an exciting feeling.