Rejection, asking, & finding your competitive advantage

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: Brian Chesky on Rejection

Rejection emails Brian Chesky got the first year of starting.

Today, Airbnb is worth $94B.

“Next time you have an idea and it gets rejected, I want you to think of these emails.”

Source: 7 Rejections

2: Steve Jobs on Asking

“I’ve never found anybody that didn’t want to help me if I asked them for help.

I called up Bill Hewlett (founder of HP) when I was 12 years old.

He answered the phone himself.

I told him I wanted to build a frequency counter. I asked if he had any spare parts I could have.

He laughed.

He gave me the parts. And he gave me a summer job at HP working on the assembly line putting together frequency counters.

I have never found anyone who said no, or hung up the phone.

I just ask.

Most people never pick up the phone and call. And that is what separates the people who do things, versus the people who just dream about them.

You have to act.” — Steve Jobs

Source: Steve Jobs on Failure

3: Keith Rabois on Finding Your Competitive Advantage

“The key thing to develop over time is, what are you going to be incredibly awesome at?

There’s a quote I discovered reading a Pat Riley book 20 years ago where he’s quoting Jerry Garcia from The Grateful Dead. He says, ‘You don’t want to be the best at what you do, you want to be the only one who does what you do.’

You want to develop strengths that are unique or world-class over time that become your competitive advantage and you want to double down on those as much as possible and find companies and roles that leverage them to your maximum potential.” — Keith Rabois

Source: How To Be Incredibly Awesome At What You Do

See you next Monday,

- Jay + The Z Fellows Team

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