On 14th July, 2023 I attended a virtual event to commemorate World Youth Skills Day, which is celebrated every 15th of July. Later that day, I listened to a podcast that really resonated with me and that I felt was timely advice for today’s youth who will face unprecedented challenges…and opportunities!
Below are some of Jason Fried’s thoughts that struck a chord with me as the Founder, CEO, Chief AI Officer, JEDI (Justice, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion) Officer, Marketer and Cheerleader of ROFFEKE😄
Minute 11:38 – “There is no secret sauce here…this is hard, all of it is hard so you’ve got to find a way to do something that is going to be enjoyable. In that joy, you find more ease. It’s easier to do something hard when you like the way you are doing it…the amount of pressure that’s put on you by other people to do things a certain way, to perform a certain way, to show results in a certain way is not enjoyable and it doesn’t bring an ease to the work. It brings stress and anxiety to the work.”
Minute 16: 33 - “You have a choice as an entrepreneur to decide what [business] model you want…but you also need to check your ambitions a little bit too, grow slowly, grow under control. You have to be able to handle it ego-wise, that maybe you are not going to have 7 million customers…it doesn’t matter what your economics are compared to someone else. What do you need to cover your expenses and generate a profit? If you can keep your ego in check, then you can recognize that you are not competing with other people’s egos, other people’s company size, just do your own thing. If you can get into that mindset, it’s a really wonderful place to be…"
[The short film Elevator to the Top Floor deals with this issue of keeping one's ego in check. Read the ROFFEKE interview with the director,Litvinov, HERE Excerpt from the interview: “We had little time to shoot (about two days) and a very modest production budget. But thanks to the help of like-minded people and the production company "Potential", we were able to cope with all this. The shooting was not easy due to my inexperience. Many of the things that I wanted to see from the actors didn't get to be fully realized. But I'm not ashamed of the result - it's important."
Minute 10:48 - “The other thing that’s nice about staying small is that you can achieve profitability faster. Your overhead is lower, your costs are lower. This is strangely a forgotten thing in the tech world; cost. Everyone is thinking about revenue. Cost is important. Hugely important."
Minute 10:21 – “…constantly thinking about what really matters and what doesn’t. It requires you to figure out what not to do…build a muscle that helps you figure out what not to do. That’s a good habit to form.”
Minute 13:54 – “For us we value independence more than anything else. Do we miss opportunities? I’m sure. We left money on the table? Absolutely. But we wouldn’t have traded any of it for what we have.”
You can listen to the entire awesome podcast episode HERE
This episode reminded me of the lovely bluegrass-flavoured protest song “Little Wings”by Kris Delmhorst:
“Now I don't want to be a jet airliner, I just want to be a little bird
I don't want to rip the skies wide open, I just want my song to be heard
And I don't want to be state of the art, I don't want to get there overnight
I just want to be part of all this beauty, want to be part of all this flight on little wings"
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