Last week, Felda Hardymon retired after 41 years (!) of investing @bessemer.venture.partners — one of the world’s oldest and most storied venture firms — where he led early investments in multibillion-dollar companies like Staples, Sahara, and Endeca.
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Over the years, he also spent time sharing his expertise as a lecturer @harvardhbs and @londonschoolofeconomics , and as the author (with Ann Leamon and Josh Lerner) of the textbook "Venture Capital, Private Equity, and the Financing of Entrepreneurship,” which is required reading in B-school classrooms around the world.
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As he said goodbye to Bessemer, Hardymon left behind these simple (but powerful!) nuggets of wisdom to inspire the next generation of investors and entrepreneurs everywhere.
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#vc #venturecapital #venturecapitalist #siliconvalley #startupinvestor #startupinvesting #startup #startups #startuplife #startupgrind #startupstories #startupfunding #privateequity #investing #investorlife #investormindset
4 ways the simple act of handwriting can elevate your thinking:
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• Recall: When you write things out, your mind creates neurosensory relationships between each bit of physically recorded information, activating parts of your brain associated with comprehension, retention, and recall.
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• Conceptual understanding: Because handwriting is slower and more deliberate than typing, it encourages a higher level of commitment to ideas and information, resulting in greater literacy and comprehension.
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• Critical thinking: Compared to typing, handwriting enforces more thorough information processing and encoding, allowing your mind to better form relationships between abstract ideas and bring about new insights.
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• Focus: When you’re typing, distractions are only a click away. When you close your laptop and pick up a pen, you create conditions to bring a higher level of intentionality to your ideas.
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It goes without saying that technology can bring greater speed, simplicity, and design potential to the writing process. (We hear @medium is pretty great for this! 😉)
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But next time you find yourself blocked for one reason or another, don’t underestimate the power of the humble pen.
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Although they're often (and incorrectly!) used interchangeably, marketing and branding are two very different — but related — disciplines.
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Knowing how they're different and where they overlap is the first step to mastering both.
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Save this post or screenshot the second-to-last slide to reference later.
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Are you a politician, prosecutor, preacher, or scientist?
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As @adamgrant explains in his book “Think Again,” we tend to slip into one of these four roles when our ideas, opinions, or beliefs are challenged.
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So why are 3 out of 4 these downright stubborn? And why is the fourth — the scientist — the least commonly assumed role of the group?
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Because our brains want us to be right. In fact, we often like *feeling* right over actually *being right*. That’s thanks two cognitive biases we all carry:
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• Confirmation bias: We see what we expect to see.
• Desirability bias: We see what we want to see.
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So the next time you find yourself digging in your heels, try thinking like a scientist. Here are some tips:
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• Adopt a mindset of intellectual humility.
• Lead with questions, not answers or solutions.
• Understand that knowledge is power — and knowing what you don’t know is wisdom.
• Recognize that blind adherence to your convictions locks you in a mental prison.
• Develop the habit of forming second opinions.
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New on Knowable 🤓 Diana Cutaia is a former NCAA head basketball coach who’s taken her skills from the backboard to the boardroom, helping global organizations build stronger, higher-performing cultures.
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Get the app to hear her full lessons on coaching-inspired leadership in the workplace.
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The inversion thinking mental unlocks the power of pessimism to reveal hidden challenges and help us avoid potential future adverse outcomes.
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Rooted in Stoic philosophy, this framework encourages us to approach problems not from a place of "How can I solve this?" but "How might this blow up in my face?"
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With this prompt as our starting point, we're forced to acknowledge the potential of failure from the very outset — a reality we often take for granted. By imagining the full scope of adverse outcomes from the jump, we turn unknowns into knowns and give ourselves the best chance at success, no matter the goal.
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With applications in business, investing, marketing, sports, and beyond, inversion thinking is one of the most powerful tools in the toolbox that is our minds.
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How did Nick Saban become the greatest college football coach in history?
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He owes it to a mental model called “process thinking” — or as he likes to call it: “The Process.”
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While coaching at Michigan State, he befriended a psychology professor named Dr. Lonny Rosen, who he turned to for advice ahead of a big game.
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Introducing Saban to process thinking, Dr. Rosen emphasized that the average football play lasts just seven seconds. He told Saban to focus *only* on those seven seconds. Ignore the scoreboard, game clock, and opposing sideline. Perfecting those seven seconds — play after play — was all that mattered.
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After falling behind early, Saban's team pulled off a miraculous comeback and most unlikely win.
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“The Process” was born.
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Soon, Rosen and Saban’s unique approach — to focus on each play as if it has a life of its own — spread across the world of sport.
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But this mental model doesn’t just apply to the football field. As Ryan Holiday writes:
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“Whether it’s pursuing the pinnacle of success in your field or simply surviving some awful or trying ordeal, the same approach works…When you...get it right, even the hardest things become manageable. Because the process is relaxing. Under its influence, we needn’t panic. Even mammoth tasks become just a series of component parts.”
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Big goals can be daunting. Whether you want to get promoted, sign that client, or finish your novel — there are *no shortcuts*. There’s only the *now*.
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Let go of the past — its failures and successes. Resist the impulse to imagine the uncontrollable future.
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“The now” pushes you through the grind. The more aware you are of the value of the moment, the more you can use it as a building block toward your goal.
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And when you get there, the journey isn’t over. “You win the trophy, you hold it up, you take a picture, you hand it back, and you go try to win the next one.”
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“The Process” continues ever forward.
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#nicksaban #mentalmodel #mentalmodels #mindset #mindsetshift #mindsetcoach #mindsetquotes #mindsetmatters #mindsetofgreatness #processthinking #theprocessisreal #trusttheprocess #success #successtips #successquotes #successmindset #successmotivation
You’ve probably heard of the “80/20 rule.”
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80% of outputs come from 20% of inputs.
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Otherwise known as the “Pareto principle,” it holds true across many domains — business chief among them.
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In every market, competitors battle it out for their share. The field may start out crowded, but over time it narrows until a select few dominate.
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Google in search. Amazon in e-commerce. Meta in social. Luxottica in eyewear. It’s not a coincidence that each of these companies dominates its market. Unequal distribution is the natural state of markets. Yes, there are others that may do well. But — relatively speaking — they’re left fighting for scraps.
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The 80/20 rule applies at the personal level, too. Just 20% of the work you do day-to-day will result in 80% of the results you produce. That may sound discouraging at first, but when taken another way, it can actually be *freeing*.
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When you apply the Pareto mental model to your work, it becomes easier to identify which inputs are moving you forward and which ones are a relative waste of your time. Once that becomes clear, you can reinvest the high-leverage 20% and streamline the rest, creating a positive feedback of higher efficiency, productivity, and success.
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#paretoprinciple #powerlaw #powerlaws #economics #infographic #infographics #productivity #productivitytips #productivitycoach #productivityhacks #productivityhabits #productivitytip #worksmart #worksmarter
Follow this simple rule from Knowable expert @gretchenrubin to make your days a little bit happier and more productive 🌞
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We like to think of ourselves as purely rational actors. But that’s not the case.
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Sneaky cognitive biases — subconscious thought patterns and mental shortcuts that influence our reasoning — hold great power over the way we think and make decisions.
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Psychologists and behavioral scientists have identified dozens and smart marketers have learned to incorporate them into their messaging to persuade you every day — usually without you ever realizing it!
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The entire discipline of marketing exists to understand and influence consumer behavior, so it’s no wonder that human psychology and business are so entwined.
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Whether you’re a founder, marketing exec, or creator, learning these four common cognitive biases will help you better understand how people think and feel when making purchasing decisions.
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#cognitivebias #cognitivebiases #behavioralpsychology #behavioralscience #marketing #marketing101 #marketingtips #danielkahneman #decisionmaking
