Making mindsets stick
This week we talked about a couple of key ideas with students: having a CEO mindset and the power of vision and culture when it comes to building a company.
Each week, students learn a new mindset that will be useful for them in the future. It might be one to make them more resilient, kinder, or even just have higher standards. Regardless of which one it is, a mindset is only useful if you practice it. We've had a lifetime with our existing mindsets, so replacing them is not always easy.
Students recently learned about the CEO mindset, where they need to not only become the CEO of their life but practice all of the mindsets they've learned to date to make the best decisions. It's not enough to learn one mindset a week and practice that one.
Much like Charlie Munger talks about building a latticework of mental models that work together, the mindsets students learn also combine to empower better decision-making and better living.
Being a CEO of your life means making important decisions and being held responsible. You need to hold your team, and yourself accountable. Who's going to make sure you stick to these valuable mindsets?
You are.
Mindsets are a habit.
We need to find ways to practice them the same way we build habits.
A few ways I've found helpful:
Pick a mindset or two to be intentional about today. It starts with intention and thinking about how you will embody the mindset today.
Set visual reminders for yourself. Sticky notes where you can see it, calendar events, an alarm clock, or a to-do item. The goal is to have little cues.
Form a ritual. Each time you’re getting feedback, you repeat to yourself Antifragility. Or every time you start a conversation, you say Boss Mentality. This could also be morning gratitude journaling. You want a little mental trick to help you remember.
Repeat this until it becomes second nature, then layer on a new mindset.
Only you are capable of holding yourself accountable when it comes to practicing mindsets. You want to be consistent with your practice and continue to add on new ones that add value to you.
Mindsets compound over time, and you have a lifetime ahead of you.
Culture is a zero multiplier.
When starting a company, we often discuss ideas and execution, debating the importance of both. What I've come to realize is that the missing ingredient, culture, is the most important. Having the best idea and execution can't work if your team despises each other and hoards interesting ideas. There's a reason many accelerators and VCs invest in the founder/team, not the idea. Culture is a zero multiplier.
Culture can be a bit nebulous to define. Sometimes it's the mindsets, vibes, and values of the founder, spread amongst everyone. Other times it’s the sum of all team members. Neither of these is better, but it's important to ask what kind of culture you want to build because culture is contagious. If you bring in the wrong people, they have the potential to drag down the rest of the team.
We don't need to only think about this from a founder's point of view. We might ask ourselves what type of people do I want to surround myself with? This goes for joining a company as much as starting one. If you join a company of people who are only driven by money (or if that's you), you'll always be looking for that better offer. You have no reason to stay. And the second someone is paying you more, or your teammates more, they will leave.1
Part of what attracted me to TKS was the opportunity to join a culture of curiosity and growth. It's rare to be surrounded by such ambition and curiosity among employees and students. A sad reality in the world is once you leave school (where this environment only sometimes exists), it's hard to find a high concentration of interesting, driven people. You need to intentionally build a friend group or company to get it back, or to find a company committed to it.
Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life, or do you want to come with me and change the world?
Any time you have a choice over the culture you can join or create, optimize for the people you want to be around.
Find a mission that resonates.
Find a culture that clicks.
Find a vision that inspires you.
Building a culture early on relies on having a strong vision and mission. This is how you attract interesting people to come build with you.
In their moonshot companies, students are creating a compelling for their moonshot companies. As they try to attract potential employees, they need to create a company and culture worth getting excited about. We spent the session practicing storytelling and trying to craft a narrative with a compelling vision of the future.
They are all trying to create something worth giving up sugar water for.
You'll hear how they did next week. 🚀
✌🏼
Obviously getting paid is important, but it's not a way to build a culture