BC LIFE

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GREG ISENBERG
@gregisenberg 3 years, 1 month ago 729 views

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Life gets better when:

You understand that grades never mattered but how you grade yourself does

You learn from disagreements, you don't get upset

You keep your private life private

You often have your phone in DND mode

You realize you’re talented but probably just lack focus

You care more about impact than dollars

You believe age is just a number and don’t let it get in the way of your dreams

You realize feeling lost is normal. Everyone feels somewhat lost

You stop watching so much reality TV 😅

You can work when you want, where you want

You live your life on your own terms

Your friends give you a dose of inspiration

You become a master at not overthinking small or big decisions

You have healthy competition in your life among colleagues and friends

You write clearly every day

You think positively

You can stop your brain from making excuses

You build a community of people who are rooting for you

You realize work isn’t just a business, it’s a wonderful way to learn about yourself

You notice that everyone is learning as they go

You hold onto great investments and don’t give up

You give up on perfectionism

You laugh often

You become someone you would hire

You do things when you don’t “feel” like it because it’s good for future you

You build unique projects

You figured out a way to pay your bills. It’s hard to think clearly when bills are always on the mind

You don’t “beat around the bush”

Your work becomes freedom not frustrating

This quote inspired this thread:

“Improve by 1% a day, and in just 70 days, you’re twice as good.” – Alan Weiss

“Simple” as that

Keep chasing dreams

For more threads like this, follow me @gregisenberg

And get my free email newsletter on the community-led movement and future of startups at https://t.co/o2YiBTeG4v

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GREG ISENBERG
@gregisenberg

Anyone else love a useful how-to?

I put together a mega-thread of mega-valuable how-tos that can transform your startup, career or life

All you have to do is read these 10 how-tos:

How to write a cold email:

- Be short
- Humanize it. Record a 60s selfie video
- Write a cold DM instead of a cold email if possible
- Never follow up by saying “just following up”

How to write copy that isn’t boring (and that sells):

- Don’t write copy, write stories
- Can be long or short, but must take you for a ride
- Focus entire story on the problem the customer has
- Share credibility
- Use inviting, warm words
- Create a clear call-to-action

How to come up with compelling startup ideas:

- Framework #1: X for Y (Robinhood for Canada)
- Framework #2: Anti-incumbent (Anti-Spotify, Anti-Amazon)
- Framework #3: Unbundling of X (Reddit, Facebook etc)
- Framework #4: Ask your community, they’ll tell you

How to sell a company:

- Spend 5% of your energy building allies at incumbents
- Get them excited about what you’re doing
- Make them feel invested and jealous
- Get them to ask if you’d be open to selling
- Profit $$

I've seen this strategy work for $10k-10B size deals

GREG ISENBERG
@gregisenberg

Here’s the story of how I (almost) lost everything building and selling my last company Islands to WeWork

I’ve never told this story publicly. Sharing it on Twitter because sharing is caring

Here we go…...

In June 2016, I was having tea in SF and realized “group chat is the new social network”

My thinking: everything would be verticalized

You’d have group chats around finance, around gaming, around work etc.

People want fluid, spontaneous communities/groups, not newsfeeds

I had previously sold a company. I created a short slide pitch deck

I raised $2m from some of the world’s best investors on an idea. From first pitch to money in the bank in 45 days

We had no product. No prototype. No users. Just a crazy idea

SF is sometimes magical like that. It was a privilege

We were off to the races

We built the product. We decided to focus on colleges

The idea: open up Islands on your campus, see group chats around you, form communities and create relationships

It was like Slack for communities. Focused on college

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GREG ISENBERG
@gregisenberg

Marketing isn’t a scam

Marketing makes change happen. Marketing makes your creations known

I'll share some tactics & frameworks I use

How to get lucky in marketing in 2021:

How marketing has evolved:

Marketing used to be a contest for attention

But now, marketing is a contest for CONNECTION

Whoever owns the connection, wins

Turn your product into a social statement

Products that make you feel good or defend you from being cancelled, spread fast

Ex: Make clothes out of recycled plastic

Point: People want a chance to show they stand for something

Are you working with creators?

Some of the world’s biggest brands were catapulted in the 1960s via TV

Brands bought TV ads. Captured attention

Working with creators is like buying TV ads in the 1960s

Point: Co-building with the right creators is like fishing with dynamite

Avoid ads. Build media companies

Prediction: every public company will own a media arm

It’s a magical shortcut to building true fans

Ads just don’t hit the same way

GREG ISENBERG
@gregisenberg

The billion dollar Google Chrome extension club:

- Loom
- Honey
- Grammarly

These companies started as Chrome Extensions and created billions of value

Here's why it works:

- People barely uninstall extensions
- Barrier to install is low
- Extensions are "always on"
- People pay for many of them

Chrome Extensions are underrated

The cool thing about Chrome Extensions?

You could make millions to billions from extensions

Tons of opportunities small and large

Chrome Web Store:

2 billion users: 200,000 extensions = 10,000 users : 1 extension

Apple App Store:

100 million iPhone users : 2 million iOS apps = 50 users : 1 iOS app

Google Play Store:

2 billion Android users : 3 million apps = 667 users : 1 app

Bottom line:

Launching a Chrome extension gives you 200 times more potential users than an iOS app

GREG ISENBERG
@gregisenberg

When I was 17, I was in a school shooting. It was traumatic

I'm convinced that overcoming fear is the secret to winning at startups, business and life:

Here's some tips and lessons on overcoming FEAR:

The greatest productivity tip of all time:

It isn't to drink coffee or get 8 hours of sleep or use Notion

It is conquering your fears. Period.

Life is too short for fears

"Adjusted for the subjective increase in how fast time passes, life is half over by 23 or 24. Don't waste time."
h/t @samaltman

Time is ticking

Beat your "amygdala"

Amygdala = the part of your brain that registers all your fear

When you have an experience that creates fear, it gets "coded" into your brain

For the rest of your life, your amygdala, is tainted with your past experience

Arm wrestle your amygdala and win

Rejection sucks. But it's one of the most useful ways to refine your craft

Mindset shift: use fear to learn & motivate, not run away & demotivate

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Quinn Cummings
@quinncy

Gather round, Gentle Readers. It is time I tell the story of the worst decision I ever made in an office. Some of you have heard this. Some have not. Whatever you do in your office today, this week, the rest of this year, you can console yourself by recalling this tale.

A long time ago, I was a talent agent. I worked for a woman named Susan Smith, who had her own small boutique agency. She was known for three things:

1. She had fantastic taste in clients. If there is someone you admire, odds are good that at some point, she was their agent,

2. She could negotiate a deal like few who have ever trod the earth. Casting would give her all the money they had budgeted for that part, plus a little more, plus promising to get her dog Barnaby groomed. She was magnificent to watch.

3. She was insane.

I'm sure you're thinking, "Quinn, it's the entertainment industry, they are all insane." Yes, many are. So consider this; if you told someone you worked for Susan, people who worked for insane people would look and you and whisper, "I hear she's insane."

Bayo Adeyinka
@greaterbayo

The Law of Trust

“I’m not upset that you lied to me. I’m upset that from now on I can’t believe in you”- Friedrich Nietzsche

Sometimes in October, I received a call from a former client who had been out of the country for almost a year.

He is not a Nigerian but had just secured an appointment with a company. His first statement was “Bayo, I need to pick your brain on this because with you I know where I stand. I know you’ll not deceive me”.

After our discussion, he told me he had already informed his Chairman that their banking relationship had to come to me. I’ve signed it on since.

I’ve had cause to reflect over his statement many times since then. Here was a man whom sometimes I had very difficult conversations with. I’ve had to tell him no when I knew his requests were not possible. Sometimes, the relationship was stormy.

I never fail to tell my colleagues that the major currency for transaction is integrity and this will only be sustained in an atmosphere of trust. Never lie to customers in order to make a sale.

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dopaminedream
@dopaminendreams

Convo between @tferriss & @naval on modern loneliness:

Naval: In India there's this concept of the extended family where you basically live with your tribe at all times, so when we were young, at our grandmother's place with my aunts, my uncles, my cousins, my grandparents,

everyone was there, and it was a warm night so we went out to the backyard and put all these comforters and these little cots out and everyone would sleep in this giant pile with fifteen people underneath the stars...

it was amazing...so there's two things that were great about it: the noise level didn't bother you, if someone's foot was in your face it didn't bother you. When it's family and you're young it all just works and you feel very safe and very happy.

Another thing is that it reinforces how important the tribe is. Modern society gives us incredible flexibility in that we can get away from our crazy family members, we're not destined to die where we are born or to do what our parents did. So we have incredible freedom.

But coming with it is this tremendous loneliness that we try to cover up either through drugs, alcohol, partying, even trying to find a mission like putting people on mars. But the reality is that a lot of that loneliness comes from being disconnected from growing up in your

MaybeTheJingoAteYourBa...
@colbymommy

Try to imagine yourself as an older Republican. (Obviously you are white and you have a penis.) You have long believed R's to be the responsible ones, the moral ones, the ones who will do the right thing even when it's hard.

You remember your heroes: Eisenhower and Reagan, the Bush's? Right? You knew that they would "take care of us" while all the crazy tree huggers and hippies wanted to buy the world a Coke and and give all your money to poor people and immigrants!

...and how was THAT gonna teach them to pull themselves up by the boot straps and make something of themselves like YOU DID??
After all, this is the land of opportunity, RIGHT? Everyone has the same chance to be successful and PROSPEROUS, right???

You did it all with NO HELP--ALL BY YOURSELF, DIDN'T YOU. I mean, the G.I. Bill didn't do all that MUCH!
Rich people were taxed at 70%, and that was OK with you because you weren't one. *YET*

Just because the cost of living was MINISCULE compared to now, and you got a spiffy new job with a company car and paid health insurance, and a freaking house you BOUGHT ALL BY YOURSELF for 25 thousand freaking dollars,

$\U0001d413\U0001d421\U0001d41e \U0001d400\U0001d42b\U0001d42d \U0001d428\U0001d41f \U0001d40f\U0001d42e\U0001d42b\U0001d429\U0001d428\U0001d42c\U0001d41e \U0001f1fa\U0001f1f8$

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐀𝐫𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐏𝐮𝐫𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐞 🇺🇸...
@creation247

The 25 Worst Pieces of Advice I've Seen

(and why)

// THREAD

1. “Follow your passion.”

NO - stop wasting your time. Make money.

Then you use your wealth to pursue your passion.

Build the foundation first.

2. “Choose career over family.”

I see so many slaving at their job and it’s usually a dead-end job. They pay little attention to their children. It’s sad.

If you have to choose one always choose family.

Rich people choose both.

3. “Just walk away.”

If someone damages your reputation you need to defend it. Fight hard. Your name is your honor.

4. “Never trust anyone.”

Jaded people think like this.

Yes, humans make decisions in their best interests.

That our nature. Deal with it.

"Never trust anyone" is a reflection of personal darkness.

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Jaya_Upadhyaya
@Jayalko1

HORANADU ANNAPOORNESHWARI, CHIKMAGALUR (KAR)
#bharatmandir

Annapoorneshwari is the Devi of nutrition and food. The literal meaning of Annapoorneshwari is “Feeding one and all”. Anyone who comes here is offered meals and shelter within the premises.
@LostTemple7

Maharshi Agastya is believed to have done pratishtha here.

Once, Shiva and Parvati had an argument. Shiva declared everything in the world including food to be Maya or illusion. To prove him wrong, Devi Parvati disappeared resulting in entire Earth becoming still.

Taking pity, Devi appeared as Annapoorna and relieved everyone.
Another belief is that once Shiva beheaded Brahma and his skull got stuck in Shiva’s hand. He was cursed that till the skull is not full of food or grains, it will remain stuck to his hands.

Shiva went everywhere and asked for food but the skull was never full. He finally came here and Maa Annapoorna filled the skull with grains and reversed Shiva’s curse.

It is believed that who ever visits Devi Annapoorna here will never be without food in their lives.

$Joey Tawadrous \U0001f1ee\U0001f1ea$

Joey Tawadrous 🇮🇪...
@joeytawadrous

1) Core attributes of a promising founder worth following:
- Progress/trajectory over time
- How well they lead a team &
- Make the vision happen
- Most impressed when someone is way ahead of where you thought they would be when you check up/see them a few months later.

2) Indie Makers have such a benefit of being small, fast, nimble workers in comparison to big companies.

We can easily pivot and vastly change a project of ours. We can change as we learn more about our users.

Big companies can take months/years for even the smallest of pivots.

3) Before you find a product market you can pivot your project as many times as necessary until you find something that works.

Then you only have one thing to do: scale, scale, scale.

4) Be obsessed with the little details.
- listen to every single person who uses your product
- reply to every single person who emails you about your product
- ask them what they like and do not like
- iterate your product, make changes, pivot if necessary

5) Paul Graham's (@paulg) name came up with a feeling of great admiration! Naturally! It was Paul who said:

In the early stages of a company just;
- write code
- talk/sell to customers to stress test your idea

Nothing else.

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katya adler
@BBCkatyaadler

Again, at such a key moment in UK and at such high political levels, evidence of deep misunderstanding of EU: The PM is under pressure in some quarters to delay #Brexit vote to allow her first to “improve” deal in Brussels BUT EU is determined not to budge at this stage

2) All EU leaders watching tomorrow’s vote. Of course they want to avoid a no deal #Brexit BUT they feel the deal - so painfully negotiated between EU and UK - is too fresh to re-open. Clarifications, yes but fundamental renegotiations, no.

3) The EU’s international reputation as a tough deal-maker is at stake here too. If Brussels now suddenly “gives in” to U.K. on EU red lines (eg backstop) then that would weaken the EU’s reputation in future trade negotiations with other non EU countries

4) Also on backstop the EU is unlikely to cave in to favour a relationship with a leaving member state (UK) against the explicit wishes and ignoring the deep concerns of a continuing member: Ireland.

5) Both the EU and the PM signed up to a guarantee to protect the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. If either the U.K. or EU can leave the backstop unilaterally then this clearly is no longer a guarantee.

Quinn Cummings
@quinncy

Gather round, Gentle Readers. It is time I tell the story of the worst decision I ever made in an office. Some of you have heard this. Some have not. Whatever you do in your office today, this week, the rest of this year, you can console yourself by recalling this tale.

A long time ago, I was a talent agent. I worked for a woman named Susan Smith, who had her own small boutique agency. She was known for three things:

1. She had fantastic taste in clients. If there is someone you admire, odds are good that at some point, she was their agent,

2. She could negotiate a deal like few who have ever trod the earth. Casting would give her all the money they had budgeted for that part, plus a little more, plus promising to get her dog Barnaby groomed. She was magnificent to watch.

3. She was insane.

I'm sure you're thinking, "Quinn, it's the entertainment industry, they are all insane." Yes, many are. So consider this; if you told someone you worked for Susan, people who worked for insane people would look and you and whisper, "I hear she's insane."

Talha
@dhiblawe1990

Thread: History of Mogadishu and it’s conquest by Imaam Al Yaqubi

One of the First Imaams of the Hiraab Imamate was Mohamed Ibn Imaam Ahmed ibn Imam Ahmed Ibn Imaam Mohamoud Ibn Imaam Cumar Halol Al Yacquubi (Abgaal) during the year 1097 hijri.

After the collapse of the Ajuuran Abgaal nomads from the interior had started moving to take over the strategic port town of Mogadishu which was then under the muzzafar dynasty. By the 1600s Abgaal warriors had captured the city and set up their base in shingaani.

Mogadishu at the time was a large and well known port town. The Abgaal clan taking over control allowed them to obtain political power and world wide recognition.

Under Imaam Yaqubi’s time in power it’s reported that French merchants had arrived at the port in 1701
and stayed for 11 days. They had attempted to take the city but were successfully repulsed.