Better Decisions, Fewer Mistakes
Reid Hoffman
Co-Founder, LinkedIn & Inflection AI. Author of Superagency. Investor at Greylock.
One of the difficult things about making decisions is it reduces opportunity in the short term, but that’s the only thing that really creates great opportunity in the long term.
Quick story: early in my career while at Fujitsu, I was the product manager for a virtual world product called WorldsAway.?
I had put in two years of intense work, and felt I had a few more years in me at Fujitsu to explore virtual worlds and hone my product management skills.?
But then two realities converged: I had always wanted to create new kinds of social products, and a founder who I respected approached me about doing a startup.???
That startup became SocialNet, which would launch one of the central themes of my career—social products—and influence my work at PayPal and LinkedIn.?
But at the moment, all I knew was: here’s a co-founder I like, the capital markets are good for internet startups, and I’ve always wanted to build social products.?
I left Fujitsu a little earlier than expected, but I also arrived at where I wanted to go a bit faster, too.??
In this podcast episode with Farnam Street ’s Shane Parrish , we talked about making better decisions: from formats for relaying an idea (writing vs. deck vs. bullets) to decision-making frameworks (OODA to RACI) to the three principles for decision making (speed, simplicity and empowerment) to weighing opportunity costs and optionality.??
Listen here:?
Leadership Skills for Managers on a Mission
2 年Reid Hoffman Shane Parrish deliver a decision-making master class. I've listened to the podcast multiple times and I'll be keeping it on a loop ... . Just one of the countless valuable lessons was how to participate on boards by considering it a development assignment with members expected to show up to each meeting with one question and a comment about how stuff gets done. The convo about opportunity costs and optionality is a total reset. You might guess I'm pretty excited to be learning from the best. Please keep the working knowledge coming--I'm grateful for it. Thanks for posting.
Founder, Arcstory.ai
2 年Waiting for mine to get delivered
Founder @ Venture Starters | Moonshot Investor | Family Office | Board Member
2 年If you are a startup, you can pitch our investors for free at a Venture Starters networking event we have weekly. You can register for free at www.VentureStarters.com
Marketing Manager at WuXi AppTec
2 年What an inspirational story! Thank you for being so straightforward about your early career, Reid. I guess you thought it through when leaving Fujitsu. Capital markets weren't always friendly, and a respected founder was even harder to find (we had no LinkedIn back then ??). Fuijitsu's job could surely wait, or better yet, you would no longer need those manager positions once the incredible opportunity came out in the long run.?