Steve Jobs on focus, Peter Thiel's advice to his younger self, and Tesla's anti-handbook handbook

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: Steve Jobs on focus

“Apple had to decide what were the fundamental directions we're going in, and what makes sense and what doesn't. There were a bunch of things that didn't.

Microcosmically they might have made sense, but macrocosmically they made no sense.

You think focusing is saying yes.

No.

Focusing is about saying no.

You've got to say no, no, no, no, and you say no, you piss off people, and they go write a shitty article about you.

Focus is about saying no, and the result of that focus is going to be some really great products where the total is much greater than the sum of the parts.”

Source: "Focusing is about saying no" - Steve Jobs (WWDC'97)

2: Peter Thiel's advice to his younger self

“One of the resolutions I came up with a number of years ago was to always value substance over status and prestige.

If I was giving my younger self advice on what to do or how to think about one's life, I probably would still go to Stanford, I might go to law school, but I'd ask a lot more questions why I was doing these things. 

I had sort of this crazy rolling quarter life crisis that culminated in this big New York law firm where from the outside everybody wanted to get in, from the inside everybody wanted to get out. I lasted 7 months and three days, and when I left one of the people down the hall said 'It's so reassuring to see you leave Peter, I had no idea it was possible to escape from Alcatraz.' 

All you had to do was go through the front door, but people's identities get so wrapped up in the things they compete for that it was inconceivable for people to actually do that.“

Source: Peter Thiel Returns to Stanford to Share Business Tips from "Zero to One"

3: Tesla’s anti-employee handbook

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See you next Monday,

- The Z Fellows Team

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