Learning

Chip: It’s great to have you join me on our daily blog, Guy. I’ll ask you a few questions over the next couple days and hopefully we’ll all be wiser for it. Psychologist Carol Dweck says that a fixed mindset focused on proving oneself while a growth mindset is all about improving oneself. Why is her book, “Mindset,” one of your favorite books and how has it made a difference in your life?

I know a catalyst when I see one. Having been on the Boards of Burning Man, the Esalen Institute, and Glide Memorial Church, I saw how these singular locations led to more global transformational festivals, personal growth retreat centers, and urban progressively-minded churches.

Bald and bewildered, I was not in my natural habitat when I joined Airbnb in early 2013. I’d never worked in a tech company. I’d never heard of the “sharing economy.” I didn’t know what it meant to “ship a feature.”

Socrates wrote, “The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.” Well, that may be taking it a little far, but there’s no doubt the older I get, the less I seem to know...and it’s not due to failing memory.

Déjà vu, all over again. The last time I co-wrote something with my Stanford Business School classmate, Seth Godin, was 35 years ago. We were two of the youngest people in our class, and, quite frankly, we were a little weird. I entered biz school at age 21, and Seth was just 3 months older. We were both entrepreneurs at heart. But we got restless in lectures, especially from professors who’d never run a business.

I was barely old enough to buy a beer when I found myself in my Stanford GSB classroom. I was bored silly. I was the second youngest person in our class of 300. Right off, I intuitively felt there was more to learning business than drawing decision trees and grokking cost accounting. So, I decided to DIY my education.

They often say your friends and companions are reflections of you. Most of the time, this is a good thing. However, we all know those friends who can make you feel like you’re in a demented House of Mirrors. You feel fat, elongated, stupid, judgmental. Hopefully, by the second half of life, you learn whose reflection you want to emulate.

Roger Bannister broke the four minute mile together, not alone. He was surrounded by pace runners. But it wasn’t a competition, it was a mastermind. Wisdom doesn’t come from a blog post or a book. It only comes from one place: experience.

Thank you, Seth. Being a friend is offering a witness to wisdom. For 37 years, I’ve had a front-row seat. You taught me that success is not a destination; it’s a way of being. You also taught me that to be successful, we must be useful. And it helps if we’re also remarkable, even if that means we’re a “purple cow” (otherwise we’ll end up invisible in a world filled with distractions).

Ever imagine what the love child of academics Mihaly Czcsikszentmihalyi and Carol Dweck would look like? I’m sure that led to a resounding, “No, Chip, I’m not a ginormous geek like you.”