The Best Way To Predict The Future Is To Invent It
Welcome to?The?Art?of?The?Impossible, a weekly newsletter where I unearth five pieces?of?content which I hope will both inspire?and?embolden you.
PODCAST
I first heard of Claire Hughes Johnson when she was interviewed by Lenny Rachitsky on his podcast (which I highly recommend). Claire is a corporate officer and advisor for Stripe , having previously served as Stripe’s Chief Operating Officer from 2014 to 2021, helping grow the company from less than 200 employees to more than 6,000. At various times, she led business operations, sales, marketing, customer support, risk, real estate, and all of the people functions, including recruiting and HR.?
This week, I am recommending her conversation with Tim Ferriss - How to Take Radical Ownership of Your Life and Career.
Prior to Stripe, Claire spent 10 years at Google leading a number of business teams, including overseeing aspects of Gmail, Google Apps, and ultimately consumer operations, as well as serving as a vice president for AdWords Online Sales and Operations, Google Offers, and Google’s self-driving car project.??
Claire holds a Bachelor’s degree from Brown University and an MBA from Yale University. She also serves on the boards of the renewable energy company Ameresco, the multi-platform publication The Atlantic, the self-driving technology company Aurora Innovation, and the customer management software company HubSpot.?
Her book which she discusses in this episode is Scaling People: Tactics for Management and Company Building .
QUOTE
"Don't worry about what anybody else is going to do. The best way to predict the future is to invent it." – Alan Kay
INTERVIEW
Unconventional Advice For Founders - Garry Tan at Stanford.
Garry Tan is currently the President and CEO of Y Combinator - the startup accelerator which has funded such unicorns as Stripe, OpenAI, Reddit, Deel, Flexport, Instacart, etc.
Garry is also the co-founder, board partner and advisor of Initialized Capital, an early stage venture capital fund, and co-founded Posterous, a blog platform acquired by Twitter. In this talk, Garry shares advice and insights for aspiring entrepreneurs and startup founders that challenges prevailing wisdom.
Lots of great lessons in here.
BOOK
I have said it before and I will say it again, Guy Kawasaki is one of my favourite humans (listen to my interview with him here) and he has a new book out!
领英推荐
A marketing specialist, author, and Silicon Valley venture capitalist, Guy was one of the Apple employees originally responsible for marketing its Macintosh computer line in 1984. He also hosts the brilliant Remarkable People podcast which I highly recommend and he now has a book out around the same theme - Think Remarkable: 9 Paths to Transform Your Life and Make a Difference .
Book blurb: Make the leap from average to exceptional and start living the remarkable life you were meant to lead
Ever wonder what sets people like Steve Wozniak, Stacey Abrams, Mark Rober, and Jane Goodall apart? Why do some people seem to eat, sleep, and breathe “awesome?”
In Think Remarkable, tech titan Guy Kawasaki teams up with Madisun Nuismer, producer of the Remarkable People podcast, to share invaluable knowledge from more than 40 years of working with game-changing organizations such as Apple, Canva, Google, Mercedes Benz, and Wikipedia, and delivers insights from a collection of amazing interviews that'll kick you into high gear and get you ready to start showing the world your best, most amazing self. Together the authors show you how to lead a fulfilling life by drawing on insights from working closely with some of the world's most remarkable people. You'll learn:
Buy the book here.
FILM
Project One - A Milestone in Automotive History
I love a good story where a group have come together to work on a seemingly impossible problem, up against a myriad of naysayers and sceptics, and where they share the inspiring lessons they learned along the way - akin to any good startup story as many founders will know all too well.
The Mercedes-AMG ONE: A car that made history, before it was even built.
In 2015 Mercedes-AMG set out to crack one of the last barriers within the automotive industry: The first street legal Hypercar with F1 Technology.
What started with big promises from the AMG Management and highest expectations from not only a handpicked crowd of 275 buyers but the automotive industry and beyond soon turned into a project that put the image of the entire Mercedes group at stake: misfires, problems, delays, frustrations, tensions within the management and the teams, and rising pressure from all sides. Failure was not an option.
6 years in the making, this for sure was a milestone, worth to be documented. As the pinnacle of an ending era and the stepstone into the future of E-Performance this car is sure ONE of its kind. @Mercedes-AMG gave Cutting Edge unrestricted access to their teams, management, partners, and archives. Interviews with Lewis Hamilton, David Couthard, Susie Wolff as well as the Mercedes-Benz and Mercedes-AMG management, engineers, mechanics, designers, software developers and car builders grant an ultimate and honest insight into all aspects of the PROJECT ONE and provides a unique behind-the-scenes look at how automotive history was being made.
I am not a car expert or even a F1 fan but this documentary looks great - The Mercedes-AMG Project One faced delays and tensions as engineers worked to build a street-legal hypercar with F1 technology, promised in 2015 and delivered after 6 years. Interviews provide an inside look at the car's development and the obstacles they faced.
Watch on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, or YouTube.
Thank you for reading?the?newsletter?and?for listening to?the?podcast , and?if you enjoy them, please do share with your network - my goal is to have these stories reach as many as possible so that others can be inspired too. And if you have two minutes, please do leave a review for the podcast - it would mean the world to me and helps others to find it too.
Danielle