Michael Jordan on the price of leadership, Steve Jobs on making something wonderful, and the personality profile of founders

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: Michael Jordan on the price of leadership

“I pulled people along when they didn't want to be pulled. I challenged people when they didn't want to be challenged. And I earned that right because my teammates who came after me didn't endure all the things that I endured.

Once you joined the team, you lived at a certain standard that I played the game, and I wasn't gonna take anything less.

Now if that meant I had to go in there and get in your ass a little bit, then I did that.

You ask all my teammates, "The one thing about Michael Jordan was he never asked me to do something that he didn't fucking do."

When people see this, they're gonna say, "Well, he wasn't really a nice guy, he may have been a tyrant."

Well, that's you. Because you never won anything.

I wanted to win, but I wanted them to win and be a part of that as well.

Look, I don't have to do this. I'm only doing it because it is who I am. That's how I played the game. That was my mentality.

If you don't wanna play that way, don't play that way.”

Source: Michael Jordan - Leadership Has a Price

2: Steve Jobs on making something wonderful

“There's lots of ways to be, as a person. And some people express their deep appreciation in different ways.

But one of the ways that I believe people express their appreciation to the rest of humanity is to make something wonderful and put it out there.

And you never meet the people.

You never shake their hands.

You never hear their story or tell yours.

But somehow, in the act of making something with a great deal of care and love, something's transmitted there. And it's a way of expressing to the rest of our species our deep appreciation. So we need to be true to who we are and remember what's really important to us.”

Source: Make Something Wonderful by Steve Jobs

3: Personality profile of founders

Source: Zero to One by Peter Thiel

Best of The Week

See you next Monday,

- The Z Fellows Team

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