How to #lifehack like Hiten Shah — Part 1
Hiten Shah: Co-founder of Crazy Egg and Kissmetrics
Hiten Shah,co-founder of two B2B SaaS companies, Crazy Egg and Kissmetrics was at Tradecraft this week and it was incredible hosting him. He is a ball of energy, ideas and advice and an incredible paradox of abilities: someone who is capable of both thinking deeply but acting fast, casual in his demeanour but ferocious in his execution, interested in everyone despite being the most interesting person in the room. I admire his voracious appetite for learning and a key #learninghack that I walked away with is listening to books on audible at 2x speed to amp up my learning velocity.
Here are some lifehacks that other Tradecrafters walked away with during his time here:
Changing your mindset to transition from a practitioner into an entrepreneur
The fundamental difference that sets a successful entrepreneur apart from everyone else is their mindset. What kind of mindset do these entrepreneurs embody? This is what Hiten has to say:
Be a Doer, not a Don’ter
Hiten emphasized the importance of introspection for aspiring entrepreneurs to understand why they have not already started a business. There are a myriad of excuses people make to justify putting off pursuing (and possibly achieving) their dreams, but the truth, Hiten says, is that a self-defeating mindset — the one producing all the excuses — is actually the root cause.
Successful entrepreneurs are able to identify and snap out of self-defeating thinking patterns. Obstacles, setbacks and failures are a reality of life —but it is determination, perseverance and resilience that ultimately propel them to succeed. We can’t always control what we have, but we can control what we choose to do with what we do have. Hiten also suggests taking action, even if it’s taking a baby step is key to making the transition. He mentioned that he can often tell when people are about to leave their jobs simply because they started blogging (a baby step).
Seek to Understand Deeply
Asking the right questions can be an incredibly powerful way to understand and to learn. One transformative but challenging ability, Hiten suggests is stop pretending to know more than you do. Even when you think you know the answer, he suggests developing the habit of asking “what if the opposite were true?” and staying with this point of view for atleast 20 minutes. This reveals hidden assumptions, uncovers subtle biases, helps consider alternatives and challenges the limits of one’s own understanding. Mastering the way you think is the first step toward success in any business or life in general.
Hiten’s book recommendation to hack your thinking: The Five Elements of Effective Thinking by Edward Burger.
Don’t fix every problem
The underlying mythology in Silicon Valley is that almost every problem can be solved. Having technology idols like Jobs, Bezos or Musk, who have disrupted multiple industries only serves to deepen our collective resolve to find solutions to all problems.
The subtext is that in a technological utopia harbouring vast amounts of brainpower, the limiting factor is how hard you hustle. Get shit done. Done is better than perfect. Move fast and break things. Sleep under your desk if you have to. Do these things and you too could change the world. Maybe.
From the perspective of a motivated, ambitious person looking to make massive impact at a startup early on in his or her career, it seems logical to solve more problems fast.
Enter Hiten with a reality check:
The number one mistake of motivated, ambitious people is to try to fix every problem.
Not every problem is worth solving.
Your willpower, energy and time are finite resources. There is an opportunity cost to every problem you attempt to solve. Spend them wisely to avoid burnout.
Get aligned on what “better” means to people who care.
Understanding the scope of a problem and what qualifies as a success, are critical to avoiding disappointment. Moreover, having someone to champion your wins will ensure it’s aligned with actual business priorities and that credit flows where it is due.
Don’t jeopardize your ability to make a positive impact.
While most companies may appreciate your ability to think critically about areas for improvement, continuously raising issues at work could be viewed as attention seeking or as destructive rather than constructive behaviour
Pick your battles wisely.
In short — every problem can be solved, but not every problem is worth solving. Focus on fixing the ones that matter the most. To borrow from Bezos: move step by step, ferociously.
Special thanks to my fellow Tradecrafters, Gabriel Marciel @gabetheory and Luanna Williams @ellewms at Tradecraft for co-writing this post
Want to continue the lifehackathon with Hiten? Check out Part 2 of How to #lifehack like Hiten Shah
