The most important skill every entrepreneur should learn
I once had a boss could get people to do whatever he wanted. To me, it seemed like a superpower. The funny thing is, it seemed like everyone else around me was completely oblivious to it. He even used this superpower on me. Multiple times. For example, there was a time I remember being very grateful to him for giving me a valuable resource. Later I realized he had taken that same resource from me a year ago. Once I realized what happened, I wasn’t even angry. I was just in awe at how casually I was manipulated. It was the closest thing to mind control I’ve ever witnessed.
Now don’t get me wrong. There was never anything unethical, illegal or even slightly distasteful about his methods. It was just simple psychological persuasion executed at Jedi master levels. And it was a marvel to behold.
That experience taught me the importance of adding psychology to my talent stack, especially for a technical cofounder like myself. As an engineer, I like the world of 0s and 1s. In the digital world, the relationship between inputs and outputs are linear and predictable. By contrast, the world of human relationships seems inscrutable. But as I began to study psychology and persuasion, I discovered systematic ways to think about human interaction. The more I dug into the literature, the more I realized my boss didn’t have a superpower, he just had a deep grasp of psychology and knew how to apply it.
This realization has made a profound impact on my personal and professional life, and I’m dedicating an entire series to this topic. Specifically, I’d like to explore how entrepreneurs can benefit from modern psychology research. Even if you are not an entrepreneur, I think you will find this material helpful. Here are 4 reasons why you may want to subscribe and get this content.
Everything an entrepreneur does requires persuasion
As an entrepreneur, it feels like you are always rolling a ball uphill. In almost every interaction, you start with a weak hand. Whether it’s getting a large company to use your untested software instead of the market leader, or convincing an investor to pick your idea out of hundreds of others. The principles I’ll introduce will help you level the playing field, and in some situations, even gain an upper hand.
Become a chef, not a cook
What’s the difference between a chef and a cook? Simply put, a chef creates recipes and a cook follows them. Sales seminars, marketing classes, and even dating coaches are basically using pre-canned psychological recipes tailored for a specific purpose. That is not my goal with these posts.I want to teach you the underlying science behind why certain techniques work and others don’t. You won’t be boxed in to a specific framework but you’ll have the tools to create your own recipes on the fly based on first principles. Be a chef. Not a cook.
Recognize game
When I was negotiating the acquisition of my last startup, I sat across the boardroom from a shark. He was a smooth, custom suited ivy-league McKinsey alum, and he ate inexperienced entrepreneurs for lunch. That’s the moment I realized I needed to learn what he’s known since since Harvard. If you are an entrepreneur, you are getting played in a lot of business negotiations. You may not even know how. These principles can help you understand how the chess board is arrayed against you, and how you can turn the tables.
Combat anxiety and depression
This was an unexpected side-effect of studying psychology for me. One of the great things about being better at persuading others is that you become better at persuading yourself. Quick disclaimer: I am not a clinical psychologist so I’m hesitant to push this claim. But since I started studying psychology and trying to apply it to my own life:
- I‘ve worked out 5x a week every week for the last 2 years. In the past, I never was able to exercise consistently.
- I’m generally happier, more optimistic and more confident, on average.
- I’ve been able to bounce back from adversity much faster than before.
Like many entrepreneurs, I’ve suffered from depression and anxiety in the past. I won’t rehash the reasons why this seems to affect the startup community as there are a ton of awesome blog posts on this topic. But I hope this series can offer some help to those who may be suffering.
This is a huge topic, so I’ll be dripping content over time. I don’t have the entire series planned out yet, but you can subscribe for updates. Excited to go on this journey with you!
This post is part of a multi-part series on psychology for founders. You can read my other posts here:
