Diving into the life, lessons, and greatness of the founders of PayPal from Jimmy Soni's book called, The Founders: The Story of PayPal and the Entreprenuers Who Shaped Silicon Valley

Check out my new book Chasing Greatness: Timeless Stories on the Pursuit of Excellence

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0:00 - Wrong Ideas

“You start off with an idea, and that idea is mostly wrong. And then you adapt that idea and keep refining it and you listen to criticism…and then engage in sort of a recursive self-improvement…keep iterating on a loop that says, ‘Am I doing something useful for other people?’ Because that’s what a company is supposed to do.” - Elon Musk

2:50 -  On questions

“A lot of times the question is harder than the answer, and if you can properly phrase the question, then the answer is the easy part.” - Elon Musk

6:35 - Trust

“Trust builds speed. We could be on a much faster cycle than a lot of companies where you have to take a month to sort of massage things throughout the company before you could say what you were trying to say.” - Peter Thiel

7:40 - On hirings

“As hire As. Bs hire Cs. So the first B you hire takes the whole company down." - Max Levchin

15:30 - On all-nighters

“I think there's something very special about the all-nighter ethic. There's definitely something about the nocturnal lifestyle for engineers specifically that really opens up the chakras of creativity or code writing. People get slightly sillier, but also maybe a little more creative. They get tired and some spirit and camaraderie wakes up in those hours and you get more done because you're not afraid to tell people to shove it when they're doing something wrong and the interactions become more interesting." - Max Levchin

17:15 - On losers

“Show me a good loser and I’ll show you a loser.” - Peter Thiel

25:50 - A question to ask.

“Who is the most eccentric or unorthodox person you know and could I meet them.” - Reid Hoffman

27:00 - One final note

 "The fates guide the person who accepts them and hinders the person who resists them." - Cleanthes