Ben Horowitz's best piece of advice, early career advice from Patrick Collison, and the power of side quests

Welcome back to the Z Fellows newsletter! Every Monday we share 3 ideas - to help you build companies, ship products, and create your life's work.

1: Ben Horowitz’s best piece of advice

“Back in the bad old days when I was running Loudcloud, I thought to myself: how could I have possibly prepared for this? Could anybody expect me to achieve a reasonable outcome given those circumstances?

As I was feeling sorry for myself, I randomly watched an interview with famous football coach Bill Parcells. In his very first season as coach, Parcells's team was hit with a rash of injuries. When his friend and mentor called to check in, Parcells relayed his injury issues.

Parcells's: "Al, I am just not sure how we can win without so many of our best players. What should I do?"

Davis replied: "Bill, nobody cares, just coach your team."

That might be the best CEO advice ever. Because, you see, nobody cares. When things go wrong in your company, nobody cares. The press doesn't care, your investors don't care, your board doesn't care, your employees don't care, even your mama doesn't care. Nobody cares.

And they are right not to care. A great reason for failing won't preserve one dollar for your investors, won't save one employee's job, or get you one new customer. It especially won't make you feel one bit better when you shut down your company and declare bankruptcy.

All the mental energy that you use to elaborate your misery would be far better used trying to find the one, seemingly impossible way out of your current mess. It's best to spend zero time on what you could have done and all of your time on what you might do. Because in the end, nobody cares, just run your company.“

Source: Nobody Cares by Ben Horowitz

2: Early career advice from Patrick Collison

• “Go deep on things. Become an expert.

• In particular, try to go deep on multiple things. One of the main things you should try to achieve by age 20 is some sense for which kinds of things you enjoy doing.

• Make friends over the internet with people who are great at things you're interested in. The internet is one of the biggest advantages you have over prior generations. Leverage it.

• Aim to read a lot.

• Above all else, don't make the mistake of judging your success based on your current peer group. By all means make friends but being weird as a teenager is generally good.

• But having good social skills confers life-long benefits. So, don't write them off.

• Make things.

• More broadly, nobody is going to teach you to think for yourself. A large fraction of what people around you believe is mistaken. Internalize this and practice coming up with your own worldview. 

• Find vivid examples of success in the domains you care about.

• People who did great things often did so at very surprisingly young ages. So, hurry up! You can do great things.”

Source: Advice by Patrick Collison

3: The power of side quests

Best of The Week

See you next Monday,

- The Z Fellows Team

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