To: Founders, Indie hackers & ambitious employees From: Matt Quinn (2 time non technical co-founder, side project maniac and 2x corporate sell out) Subject: Put your blinders on and go get what you want As I round out the end of 3 months in my new corporate role, I wanted to jot down some quick thoughts on the gravity of mediocrity that plagues our world and how important it is to fight it. All my career I have suffered from the challenges set out below and so to think that you will not, is naive and stupid.
Be very careful to make sure you know what path you want to take and that you are taking it. Even when you are working in a so called ‘high functioning’ team, it is very easy to look at the people sat next to you who are doing similar work and think that you are all on the same path. This is for the most part, statistically impossible. A person’s path is made up of many inputs, but fundamentally everyone grew up in a different environment, to different parents, with different experiences and different standards set for them. Many times I have allowed my ambitions, salary expectations, and personal expectations to default to the median because everyone around me seems to be like me and thus, subtly, I became like them. This extends to their opinions and advice. You only see the 10% of the iceberg above the water, but miss that someone may hate kids, money, working hard, or even men. In engineering school I remember looking up to very organised an good engineers who, after we graduated, led lives I would deem unsatisfactory. Two specifically basically gave up all the work they had put in. One of which wanted nothing more than a big family and became a full time parent less than a year after graduation. They have never actually worked in engineering. I used to think this person walked on water. The other, in the face of several great career starting offers, moved home to their small town in rural Wales. They grew up in the country, and they didn’t find a way to manage the stress of city life. Last I saw he was a bartender 10 years on with a engineering degree from a top school. I have seen the same in Startupland. Founders/hackers who privately never want to manage people or who’s absolute 100% achievement goal is to buy a house. The former will likely influence you away from leverage and outsourcing. The later will set targets with little vision and rarely have the hunger to take a kill shot. Ultimately, know yourself, beware of relying on your colleagues opinions and plans and carve your own fucking path.
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