Who You Work With And What You Work On

So let's talk about hard work
There's this battle that happens a lot
Should you work hard or should you not?
You're slave driving people
All the great founders worked their fingers to the bone
And they're talking past each other
First of all, they're talking about two different things
Employees and the lifestyle business, which is fine
Your number one thing in life, if you're doing that is not getting wealthy
If you have a job, you also have your family, you also have your life
But Keith is talking about the Olympics of startups
Hе's talking about the person going for the gold mеdal trying to build a multi-billion dollar public company
That person has to get everything right
They have to have great judgment
They have to pick the right thing to work on
They have to recruit the right team and they have their work crazy hard because they're basically engaged in a competitive sprint
So if getting wealthy is your goal, you are going to have to work as hard as you can
If getting wealthy is your goal, you are going to have to work as hard as you can

[Chorus]
But hard work is no substitute
For who you work with and what you work on
Who you work with and what you work on
Who you work with and what you work on
Hard work is no substitute
For who you work with and what you work on
Who you work with and what you work on
Who you work with and what you work on

Finding product-market-founder fit, how well you are personally suited to that business, the combination of that three, that should be overwhelming goal
And you can save yourself a lot of time, if you pick the right area to work in
Picking the right people to work with is the next most important piece
And then third comes how hard you work but they're like three legs of a stool
If you shortchange in any one of them the whole stool's gonna fall down
So it's not like you can pick one over the other that easily
So the order of operations when you're building a business or even building your career, is first figure out, what should I be doing?
What is something where there is a market that is emerging, a product that I can build that I'm excited to work on, and something where I have specific knowledge and I'm really into it
And then second, surround yourself with the best people possible
No matter how high your bar is, raise your bar because you can never be working with other people who are great enough
If there's someone greater out there to work with, you should go work with them
I advise a lot of people who are looking at which startup to join in Silicon Valley, the one that's going to have the best alumni network for you in the future
Look at PayPal mafia, they worked with a bunch of geniuses so they all got rich
So just try and pick based on the highest intelligence, energy, and integrity people that you can find
And then finally, once you've picked the right thing to work on and the right people to work with, then you work as hard as you can
Then you work as hard as you can

[Chorus]
Hard work is no substitute
For who you work with and what you work on
Who you work with and what you work on
Who you work with and what you work on
Hard work is no substitute
For who you work with and what you work on
Who you work with and what you work on
Who you work with and what you work on

This is where the mythology gets a little crazy
People work 80, 120 hour weeks
A lot of that's just status signaling
It's showing off
Nobody really works 80 to 120 hours a week sustained at high output with mental clarity
Your brain breaks down, you just won't have good ideas
So really the way people tend to work most effectively especially in knowledge work is they sprint as hard as they can while they're working on something and they're inspired and they're passionate
And then they rest, they take long breaks. It's more like a lion hunting and much less like a marathon runner running
So you sprint, then you rest, you reassess, and then you try again

[Outro by Akira The Don]
Hard work is no substitute
For who you work with and what you work on
Who you work with and what you work on
Who you work with and what you work on
Hard work is no substitute
For who you work with and what you work on
Who you work with and what you work on
Who you work with and what you work on
Hard work is no substitute
For who you work with and what you work on
Who you work with and what you work on
Who you work with and what you work on