TODAY’S THEME: Personal Growth
I had the pleasure of attending the Silicon Slopes Summit
in Salt Lake City, Utah, from Sep 27 to Sep 28. It was the first time in 10 years that I attended a non-Salesforce IT conference (yes, I know. I have been pretty head down in Salesforce conferences. Need to remember that there is a world outside Salesforce ??). The focus of this conference was to unite the top IT entrepreneurs in Utah. To my amazing, pleasant surprise, in tiny Utah (population of just 3.5 million), there are thousands of IT entrepreneurs and start-ups, and many are uber-successful. Utah is home to unicorns such as Vivint, Lucid, Qualtrics and Pluralsight, making Utah the 3rd BIGGEST tech hub after San Francisco and New York.
Due to this strong start-up spirit & community in Utah, the conference was able to attract world-class speakers:
- Tony Robbins - Author, coach and speaker
- Jesse Itzler - Entrepreneur, author, and rapper
- Max Levchin -Ukrainian-American software engineer and PayPal co-founder
- Gary Vaynerchuk - Belarus-American businessman, speaker, and internet personality
- Ryan Smith - Billionaire businessman, Utah Jazz owner, Qualtrics founder
- Reed Hastings - Netflix founder, American billionaire businessman
- David A. Bednar - One of the 12 leaders of Mormons
- Pablos Holman - Hacker, Inventor, and Technology Futurist
We also heard speeches from CEOs of major corporations like Google Cloud and Yahoo. But I did not find their speeches as mesmerizing as speeches by Founders. I realized that there is a difference between the aura of a Founder who took a company from zero to a billion-dollar valuation and a hired CEO. The Founder is a builder, and creator who must inspire employees, clients, investors, and partners. With the same energy, the founders (self-made people) inspired us, the listeners. I realized that if I have to choose between a speech of a founder vs a CEO, 100 times of out of 100 I would pick to listen to the founder. The most amazing founders for me were Jesse Itzler, Gary Vee & Tony Robbins.
Here are the top 5 things I learned from the conference that I would like to share with you:
- ExerciseThe first common theme that struck out was “all these uber-successful people exercise a ton”! Many speakers spoke of the crucial role of daily exercise in their lives. BUT I was amazed at the rigorousness of their exercise routine. For example, Jesse Itzler, even though he is 55, still does Ironman races and completes 100-mile runs
regularly (running a 42 km marathon is long enough. How can one even run 160 km?). Also, a Mormon businessman told me that he bikes 200 miles every weekend. This made me think that I should run a marathon. What if I can do it? Would you like to join me on that mission? Let’s do it!
- Be cheerful & think positively“Never give pain a voice. Give time only to positive voices” - Jesse I.“The words you speak matter, they materialize” - Jesse I.Our thoughts materialize. Let’s only let positive things materialize
(this was the secret to Jesse conquering the 100-mile run)! I thought that I was a realist; therefore, I would think of the positive and negative scenarios and anticipate both.If we dwell on negative things, they eat us up, inhibit our energy, and prevent us from reaching our potential. But if we are cheerful and positive, we attract positive energy, positive events, and positive people start to surround us. I saw a trend that all the speakers who are Founders were cheerful, energetic people. Obviously, right, they had to be in order to build their empires against all odds! So, Let’s also be cheerful as we build up our start-up called life. How do you think we can program ourselves to be cheerful? Share your thoughts in the comments.I noticed that for 3 days after the conference, I was high on positive energy. I would smile at everyone (i.e. Uber drivers, pilots, stewardesses) and say “Outstanding!” if anyone asked me how I was. So my question to you is “How are you feeling?” I can’t hear you! Let’s try again. “How are you doing?
- Utah is amazing! Apparently, Utah is the 3rd biggest tech hub in USA, after Silicon Valley and New York. One of the reasons this was made possible is that Mormons go on missions. After Mormons serve 2 years on a mission (spreading Mormonism around the world), they become fluent in the language. Naturally, Utah is an ideal location for companies serving global clients because they can deliver customer service in almost any language.
- Write notes after each presentationThe next day after the last day of the conference (after listening to a dozen world-class speakers who are billionaires or influencers) I sat down for 30 minutes to jot down all the things I learned. I thought I would swiftly have a list of 20 items because there were a lot of “Ahaaa” moments BUT only the 3 things I listed earlier came to mind. I know 100% that there were more things, but I forgot so fast. My takeaway for next year is to write down 3 things that I learned after each speaker.
- Good to attend conferences for entrepreneursThis was the 1st non-Salesforce IT conference I attended in many years. The energy of attendees at an IT conference for entrepreneurs is totally different! While in Salesforce conferences, most are individual contributors (ICs), at Silicon Slopes, the attendees were ICs who are working on a start-up or already have a nice start-up. The conversation was not about specific technology or the latest features but how to acquire customers or how to stand out in the market. This was absolutely fascinating for me! If you choose to attend Silicon Slopes in Utah let’s meet there and we will take an awesome photo like the one below.
