Brian Chesky's "I Haven't Made It Yet" Philosophy for Growth

Nugget by Brian Chesky (Co-founder of Airbnb)

Hey friend!

I was revisiting my highlights and notes, and I stumbled upon this insight from Brian Chesky which I thought is so good that I wanted to share it with you in today’s letter! (also, I pictured in my mind the perfect visual to make this nugget super memorable!!)

So… here it is! I hope you find it as useful as I did :)

👤 Doers

💡Nugget

The Podcast host, Lenny Rachitsky, asked Brian the following question:

"What have you found has been most helpful to helping you continue to grow and keep up with the business [Airbnb]?

Is it coaching?

Is it reading? 

Is it other mentors? 

Something along those lines?"

👇 You can see Brian's answer below

🟠 Brian Chesky:

You ask really good questions. And by the way, thank you.

I'll share a few thoughts.

I was with Sam Altman probably a few weeks ago at dinner, and I told him:

“I still feel like I have a lot to prove. I haven't made it yet.”

And he was really surprised. He's like, “What are you talking about?” And I didn't even realize that he thought that was an absurd notion, but I said “No, I haven't made it yet.”

It's not to say I'm not grateful, or I feel like I need to get somewhere — so that then I'll feel worthy. But I still have this kind of beginner's mindset — the bigger I get, the more a beginner I tend to feel. It's like a weird feeling.

I think that when I first took off [had success with Airbnb], I thought maybe I can do everything or I knew more than I certainly did. But the moment you get to some frontier of knowledge, you start to become a beginner again! And everything is new.

And so I think the first thing I try to do is to be a beginner.

Pablo Picasso had a saying, he said “It took me four years to learn to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to learn to paint like a child.”

In the Dwarkesh Podcast, Mark Zuckerberg also said:

"One of my favorite quotes is this Picasso quote: All children are artists, and the challenge is to remain an artist as you grow up."

And so I've tried to always see the world through the eyes of a child. And I think one of the key characteristics of a child is curiosity, to see everything with fresh eyes, to not have too many judgments.

[For instance] When I was trying to figure out how to run a company…

• I studied the history of Divisional Organization,

• I studied Steve Jobs,

• I studied what Bill Gates,

• I studied Alfred Sloan (at General Motors, and from whom MIT Sloan is named after),

• Also, the founding of Divisional Companies (founded by DuPont)…

So, I try to understand the sources of things.

I try to learn.

I try to be shameless about reaching out for help. I think that a lot of people are afraid to reach out for help because they think other people are busy. [But] The biggest honor most people get in their lives, or one of the biggest honors, is when other people ask them for help. Because we all just want to feel useful.

So, don't feel ashamed to reach out to someone for help. It actually gives a lot of them great honor. And I think you don't need to reach out to people 10 years ahead of you, they can just be people a year ahead of you. In fact, [in the case of] an entrepreneur getting started, I might be less useful than somebody two years ahead of them that [for instance] knows the latest distribution channels that I kind of have forgotten.

So, I think that that is the key. It's learning, it's growing, it's curiosity, it's constantly having that hunger and that fire to always want to be better, to feel like “I haven't made it yet.”

The reason I say “I haven't made it yet” is because if I've made it, then I'm done.

And I want to feel like an artist. Bob Dylan used to say “an artist has to be in a constant place of becoming.” And so long as they don't become something, then they're gonna be okay.

And I hope [that] years from now, Lenny, I hope 70% of what I said I still believe, but if 100% of what I say I still believe then I probably haven't learned very much. And so, if 90% I say I don't believe anymore then I'm delusional and wrong. But I sincerely hope that I retract or change or modify a few things I said today in a few years, because that will mean that I've gained more wisdom. And so how do I do that? By being curious.

👉 Video Source

"Any year that passes in which you don't destroy one of your best-loved ideas is a wasted year."

- Charlie Munger (Article source)

Reflections:

Reading and understanding this brilliant insight by Brian, made me think about these quotes too:

"In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s mind there are few." 
- Shunryu Suzuki (from his book - Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind)

"Beginner’s mind is starting from a pure childlike place of not knowing. Living in the moment with as few fixed beliefs as possible. Seeing things for what they are as presented. Tuning in to what enlivens us in the moment instead of what we think will work. And making our decisions accordingly. Any preconceived ideas and accepted conventions limit what’s possible."
- Rick Rubin (from his book - The Creative Act)

"I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life."
- Steve Jobs (from the book - Make Something Wonderful)

I found this insight by revisiting highlights and notes on my personal database of nuggets.

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💥 Stuff I Loved

I always loved this advice from Jim Rohn:

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Talk you soon,

Julio :)