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Peter Thiel mentions his favorite interview question in “Zero to One”

What is that one belief you have that very few people agree with you on? 

Here is my response, Peter

The best way to become great at something, is to do multiple things at the same time, all the time. 

It goes against the concept of specialization. 

Well, if you think about it, it goes against the concept of almost everything we all have been told, as part of our education and training. 

Here is my rationale to this belief

• No one in the world knows what they are good at. What is their true calling
• We supposedly are meant to find this elusive thing, to have a shot at being successful 
• And once we find it, just spend hours and hours pursuing it. Mastering the art
• However,
• What if there was something else better out there, that you didn’t even discover, or
• What if delving into something else, even if to explore and not master, would have helped you master the original skill

If I look back at my life, I have been so many fascinating things 

• An astrophysicist 
• A statistician 
• A photographer 
• A consultant 
• An entrepreneur 
• A public speaker 
• A fitness convert
• A singer
• A DJ
• A product manager, recently
• An HR professional too recently
• A multi country manager 
• A writer 
• And am sure something else too that I am forgetting 

But the thing that I am best is, is none of these. I think I am good at connecting with people. That’s where I find peace, that’s where I draw my strength from. 

And all of the above roles have helped me exponentially in doing so. In ways I couldn’t have even imagined. And still can’t. But I know they helped. 

And that makes the multidisciplinary path fascinating. 

It’s amazing how many people begin to slow down discovering new things, as they grow old. When it should be exactly the other way round. 

Come to think of it, there is a reason why the best intellectuals the world has seen, from Newton to Archimedes to Leonardo were all so many things in one. 

Come to think of it, the people you look up to, are so many things in one. 

Ask yourself “who am I”

And hope that you don’t have a single answer

At nearbuy, as we grow super fast (we have gone from 260 folks 3 months back to 540 people today), the need for communicating and ensuring consistency of our value system and beliefs hasn’t be higher before.

I can spend time speaking and engaging folks, and I will continue doing so. But something has to act as a constant reminder.
So we launched the “Little Book Of Big Things” – a visual compilation of what we stand for. What we should stand for.

Here is a glance

How you feel and how you react to this feeling is often different, and misunderstood to be the same 

You feel hurt but your reaction is that it anger

You feel scared but your reaction is that of control 

You feel happy but your reaction is that of tears

Only the mentally strong can control what they feel. And that’s fine. It isn’t such a bad thing to feel whatever is it that you feel. 

Here is what is bad, though. 

Reacting the way you react. 

Do yourself a favor and chose NOT TO react the way your heart is suggesting you to react. Pause and chose another reaction instead. 

Surprisingly, the second reaction, even if worse off, never impacts negatively as much as the first instant reaction. 

Our first reaction to things, especially when we feel negative, are almost always wrong! Just wrong. 

First reaction is the worst reaction 

At the AllHands call last Friday, I got asked this question

A few confessions to make, while I answer this. 

By personality, I am a paranoid person. 

I bite my nails. All the time.  

I hate losing. 

I get scared imagining that someone out there might be working harder than me and I am not doing enough. 

I worry all the time of whether I am taking the easy path. 

I worry that I will be wrong, if I don’t invest in myself. 

So I am emotionally very hard on myself. I feel like my heart is always full of emotions. Of things I want to say. Of moments I could cry for. Of just wanting to work so hard that even life bows down. 

So the hardest part about being a CEO is to feel the moral responsibility of 540+ people every single day. 

I feel responsible for them. For their safety, for their happiness at work, for their career opportunities. 

I wake up every single morning with a nagging thought in my head of some incidence yesterday involving the unhappy state of an employee. Something someone wrote. Something someone felt, experienced. Which didn’t make them feel respected or loved. 

It’s this journey that is the hardest. 

It’s this feeling that is the hardest. 
The easiest thing to build is a company 

The hardest thing to build is an institution where people love to come to work

Over the weekend, a conversation digressed over to discussing the super wealthy. A close friend heads the strategy function of one such billionaire and has seen their life up close. 

Despite being worth billions of dollars, they lead an unpretentious life. Their homes, spread over acres reflect class. Their daily routine shows how money is an output of their life. Not the outcome. 
There is also another section that believes in public display of money. Of lavish lifestyles, of making friends that only care about this side of yours. 

I have my preference over which life to lead. 

Neither is right or wrong. It is a way of life. For every warren buffet there is a Donald trump as well. 

However the distinction is clear. 

One side makes money work for them. It is part of their life but not the factor that determines it. They know they are wealthy. And it ends there. 

The other side lives for money. It is a large reason for them waking up every day. It defines them. 

And this starts defining the way they act

Money shouts. Wealth whispers. 

Over the weekend we sent a special email to the early adopters of the nearbuy mobile app 

It entitled them to Rs 300 of credit once they upgraded to the new version of the app. Because they have given us the best feedback so far. 

It was a thank you gesture. From us

One of those users copied the sexy part of that email. And pasted it on an affiliate forum. Craftfully omitting the conditions or the fact that this was for a limited audience. 

The forum went viral. 

We got 5000+ downloads 

And 33 one-star ratings 

in a day 

The brickbat was all about how they didn’t receive the 300 credit on downloading the app. 

It wasn’t meant for first downloads

It wasn’t meant for the forum 

It wasn’t meant for the world 
Let’s replay this

Someone made a false promise on your behalf

Without asking you 

And when the promise wasn’t delivered, the world went against you 
Reminds you of something? 

Each day, we meet people. People we influence. People we leave some impression upon. 

They, without knowing us, spread these impressions around. Unknowingly make promises on our behalf. 

And the world, when it meets you, isn’t a blank slate. It is already clouded by these promises. It is not trying to figure who you are. It is trying to figure if you are what they think you are. 

And at that stage, you have got to ask yourself

Will I be me? 

Or will I do what they want? 

The Power Law of Investing as a concept is quite simple. 

And quite powerful. 

It states that in investing, your best returning investment will almost always give you supernormal returns, exceeding the combined returns from the rest of your portfolio. 

The 2nd best will be higher than the sum of the remaining. 

So on and so forth. 
Each week I spend an hour welcoming the new members to the nearbuy (formerly groupon) fanily. 

And I leave them with this precise message. 

Rather a question

“In today’s world, even if you left everything to fate and just existed, you would end up being 5/10/20X of who you are today. 

Think of how you can be 100X of who you are today

How much will you multiply yourself?”

Here is the deal about multiplying 100X – you don’t know what will get you there. 

No one does

People who do are the ones who are constantly on the hunt. 

Who are constantly searching for the thing they are super normally good at. 

Who are constantly working on themselves. Invest time. And don’t ever get comfortable. 

They don’t know how good they can get. 

So they never stop! 

It’s a lot like investing 

Happiness is a good feeling

It charges us

It makes us confident

It is the goal for almost everything we do

And it’s source can be multiple things – money, love, appreciation, victory. 

And we end up searching for happiness. 

All our lives 

In all our doings 
When instead, the search should be for peace

Because peace is what contains you

Peace is what stays with you 

Peace is what you gift yourself

Especially when happiness eludes you 
There is a certain magic about being calm. And every single day I tell myself – if I remain at peace with myself, with my work, with my world – I can conquer it. 

I don’t have to crave to be happy. That’s not in my control. That is not the reason for my peace. 

Sukh hai alag  (happiness is different)

Aur chain alag hai (and so is peace)

Par jo yeh dekhe woh nain alag hai (the eyes that realize this are different too)

Chain to hai apna (peace is within)

Sukh hai paraye (happiness comes from outside)

– Sapnon se bharein naina (luck by chance)

Punishment 1:

This isn’t what I wanted 

Why didn’t you work hard

Why didn’t you work longer 

Couldn’t you be more rigorous

This is wrong 

You are wrong 
Punishment 2:

You have let me down. I trusted you 
Guess which of the two is the easy path?

Guess which of the two is the right path? 
Don’t tell people they are wrong. They know that. 

Instead tell them how you didn’t expect them to be wrong. 

And tomorrow they won’t be anymore!