Reza Satchu

“It’s not all win… but it’s a really fun journey to be on,” @reesewitherspoon Every person has a desire to have a positive impact on the people they care about.

The infamous Elle Woods once asked “What? Like it’s hard?” That’s the kind of mindset a founder like @reesewitherspoon has- one that is backed up by empathy and inspired by the different mediums we consume. Ambition is also part of the building blocks and fearing it only holds you back.

@reesewitherspoon explains that she likes being in places where other people might be better than her, because that means she’s in the right place to grow. She doesn’t try to protect her ego- she tries to improve it. And when something doesn’t land, she doesn’t think “poor me.” She gets curious instead, asking why it didn’t work. She looks at the feedback and is willing to admit what she missed or did wrong.

In my first conversation with @reesewitherspoon I asked her what was at stake if it didn’t work. For her, it was her daughter. She saw a world where women on TV are overly sexualized, desperate for a man’s attention, or competing in shows that value appearance over character. And she realized- if she felt that way as a mom of a 13 year old girl, so many others probably did too. So she asked herself a simple question: if I’m not creating aspirational content, who will?

The capacity to found- to commit, to judge, to act under uncertainty- is the defining skill of our time. Not just for startup founders, but for anyone who wants to build something that actually matters. At its core, my new podcast, The Founder Mindset is built on this singular belief. The idea comes from my class at the Harvard Business School, where hundreds of students compete to gain entrance. One of the most popular aspects of the course are the guests we bring in: outstanding entrepreneurs who’ve had a truly profound impact on the world. I teamed up with @harvardhbs Foundry to share these conversations, starting with @reesewitherspoon who showed the defining skill of a founder- the ability to commit and act under uncertainty at a very young age when she made the decision to leave Stanford and pursue acting. It’s no surprise she became a founder and built @hellosunshine to change who gets to own stories and who gets to tell them. This episode will resonate with anyone considering the founder path.