Categories: Articles

On Leadership, Courage… And Sucking

It’s the kind of thing that just sticks to your brain.

I have mentioned this before, but I am a huge fan of Kevin Rose‘s (ex. Digg and now Google Ventures) video podcast called, Foundation. The problem with podcasts – in terms of consumption – is that I often find myself discovering something that is somewhat older. I find it hard to keep up with all of the compelling content. I also find myself looking at the episodes of a podcast and choosing the episodes that feature themes or personalities that are familiar to me. Foundation is no exception. So, I jump to the episodes featuring people like Chad Hurley, Tony Hsieh and Elon Musk and hold off on the names that aren’t all that familiar to me. I know the name Ben Horowitz… and you should too. Horowitz is the cofounder and Partner (along with Marc Andreessen) of the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (investors in companies like Airbnb, Facebook, Fab, Foursquare, Instagram, Jawbone, Pinterest, Quirky, Skype, Twitter and the list goes on). Horowitz has had a long and respected career in technology and Silicon Valley, but he’s an acute skill in understanding leadership and what makes a great company. This conversation was published in November 2012… and I wished I would have watched it back then.

Courage.

There are so many illuminating moments in this short 40-minute conversation about startups, growth, the changing business landscape and the philosophy of business, that it would be impossible to summarize (so, do yourself a favor and watch this tonight instead of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills). There is one word that I will encourage you to ruminate on as this conversation unfolds: courage. Does your organization truly have the courage to make the right decisions (which are often the hard decisions).

Before jumping to any conclusions, please watch this:

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.