roald dahl + lessons from a VC
TRADER JOES DUMPLINGS, LOWER NOB HILL -
i’m surrounded by quotes and one-liners daily as part of the whole Professional People Person thing, but only some make me pause. it’s on brand, earnest and probably cliche, i know.
the first quote that ever caught my eye is from roald dahl.
“I began to realize how important it was to be an enthusiast in life. He taught me that if you are interested in something, no matter what it is, go at it at full speed ahead. Embrace it with both arms, hug it, love it and above all become passionate about it. Lukewarm is no good. Hot is no good either. White hot and passionate is the only thing to be.”
i run with the motto that “lukewarm is no good” both professionally (i still text tony to make sure his health is okay) and personally (i often look at the red flags within people as white ones). depending on the day, i have thoughts on if diving deep is my weakness or my strength, but more on this week’s ruling later. first some words.
my words: i wrote about dropbox’s new desktop platform (which streamlines all your apps like slack and google docs into one home) and how it impacts private companies. before you roll your eyes, here’s what drew houston, ceo of dropbox told me: “no one is going to stop using Slack because of this…and that isn’t our goal.”
etc: i was on a walk with a VC this week. we talked about cold brew, how founders can tip the scale in their favor during the fundraising process, brex, and the hard social parts of our careers.
learning lesson: deadline-less interactions. during our talk, he explained how he gets that part of journalism is building sources and due diligence, but poking can easily be insensitive to employees going through a tough leadership change, or scandal.
nothing new or profound, but the chat was a good reminder that as we stay in our orbs (aka our jobs), understanding and articulating the other side is refreshing.
unorganized tab time:
zume pizza wants to get sustainable
before slack lists, read this
an ‘sf is changing piece’ you shouldn’t miss
back to it:
this week i also met one of my editors, jenna, in real life. it was energizing as heck. she, knowing only bits of me, left me with some really strong advice. paraphrased it was something like
your emotions are a superpower. not everyone feels, but if you do —- it means you physically feel ownership. you physically feel pride. you physically feel a different degree of investment than someone who doesn’t feel. it’s a different sense.
jenna and roald tag team reminded me that it’s a rare capability in the first place to care. these are nice quotes, but to believe them? to pause from them? that’s a damn superpower. and i feel lucky.
i swear i’ll be less deep next week,
N