Episode 3: Permission to Act

I think one of the vulnerabilities that many entrepreneurs have is hiding in what they're good at, right? Whether you've come up as a coder, you stick with that as long as you possibly can because you're good at it, you're comfortable at it.

Are there places where you still hide what you're good at? I mean, I know that the SaaS world obviously has been changing very rapidly with the way that AI is changing the landscape of...

many of our businesses.

But where is comfortable for you and where is the pull to hide in that or cling to that? And what's your relationship with that now?

This is a really good question because I talk a lot about this on my podcast and I talk about this certainty versus uncertainty framework of, I get the question, what should I, I don't know what to work on next for a new founder or an old founder, frankly, an experienced founder.

And it's work on the areas of uncertainty.

Because if you can, you know you can write the next line of code.

You know that you can send the next support ticket, respond to it.

You know, there's certain things that are just certain in a business at any age.

And then there are things that are uncertain, like can we market this? Can we sell it? What should we price it at? Blah, blah, blah.

Founders should be working there.

Usually the uncertain often is outside of your comfort zone.

That's just the way entrepreneurship is.

So I like that I get to preach that to everyone and Now you're asking me today, what is my comfort zone? I will admit, I have a luxury today of having between the two companies that I run, MicroConf, TinySeed, there's 10 of us.

And so I actually am able to stay.

Maybe it's like, ooh, here's the thing.

I get out of my comfort zone a lot.

That doesn't bother me at all, being out of my comfort zone.

In fact, I get a little exhilarated when I am.

And I think there can be a bit of an adrenaline junkiness in being an entrepreneur.

If you start to like it, you start to really like it.

Can you

imagine either you or I or any great entrepreneur we know going and working like a middle manager job at Target or Best Buy, corporate? Cannot.

The politics alone would kill you, but then just the lack of adrenaline.

Of stimulation.

I think one of the vulnerabilities that many entrepreneurs have is hiding in what they're good at, right? Whether you've come up as a coder, you stick with that as long as you possibly can because you're good at it, you're comfortable at it.

Are there places where you still hide what you're good at? I mean, I know that the SaaS world obviously has been changing very rapidly with the way that AI is changing the landscape of...

many of our businesses.

But where is comfortable for you and where is the pull to hide in that or cling to that? And what's your relationship with that now?

This is a really good question because I talk a lot about this on my podcast and I talk about this certainty versus uncertainty framework of, I get the question, what should I, I don't know what to work on next for a new founder or an old founder, frankly, an experienced founder.

And it's work on the areas of uncertainty.

Because if you can, you know you can write the next line of code.

You know that you can send the next support ticket, respond to it.

You know, there's certain things that are just certain in a business at any age.

And then there are things that are uncertain, like can we market this? Can we sell it? What should we price it at? Blah, blah, blah.

Founders should be working there.

Usually the uncertain often is outside of your comfort zone.

That's just the way entrepreneurship is.

So I like that I get to preach that to everyone and Now you're asking me today, what is my comfort zone? I will admit, I have a luxury today of having between the two companies that I run, MicroConf, TinySeed, there's 10 of us.

And so I actually am able to stay.

Maybe it's like, ooh, here's the thing.

I get out of my comfort zone a lot.

That doesn't bother me at all, being out of my comfort zone.

In fact, I get a little exhilarated when I am.

And I think there can be a bit of an adrenaline junkiness in being an entrepreneur.

If you start to like it, you start to really like it.

Can you

imagine either you or I or any great entrepreneur we know going and working like a middle manager job at Target or Best Buy, corporate? Cannot.

The politics alone would kill you, but then just the lack of adrenaline.

Of stimulation.