Published on 14th November, 2024
Notes on: Build - An unorthodox Guide to Making things worth Making.
This is a second part of my on going notes on Tony Fadell's book Build. Previous post can be found here
Chapter 1.1 Adulthood
Simple: Adulthood is your opportunity to screw up continually until you learn how to screw up a little bit less. Failure is important because sometimes that is the only way you can learn. Fuck around and found out, erh?
The central theme of this chapter is choosing above everything else, trying and failing, learning from the experience and retrying again. This is so perfect that if I were to summarise, I would be doing you injustice.
"So when you ’re looking at the array of potential careers before you, the correct place to start is this: “What do I want to learn?” Not “How much money do I want to make?” Not “What title do I want to have?” Not “What company has enough name recognition that my mom can brutally crush the other moms when they boast about their kids?” The best way to find a job you ’ll love and a career that will eventually make you successful is to follow what you ’re naturally interested in, then take risks when choosing where to work. Follow your curiosity rather than a business school playbook about how to make money . Assume that for much of your twenties your choices will not work out and the companies you join or start will likely fail. Early adulthood is about watching your dreams go up in flames and learning as much as you can from the ashes. Do, fail, learn. The rest will follow."
Which soap do you currently use? I use Santex. Why? because it was my mum's favourite and I used it growing up, why change. Which do you use and why? Tony talks about how growing up most decisions are made for us by our parents and now we have this slight window to make decisions for ourselves. Decisions where our lives are at stake and it is a small fast moving window in which we must take control and make decisions and in this situation we should take risk. If they don't pan out good, we can learn and make better decisions next time. To drive that point home, Albert Einstein once said "A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new" and Mark Zuckerberg also said "The biggest risk is not taking any risk at all". Tony adds us one saying "I learned more from my first colossal failure than I ever did from my first success" and "if you want to prove yourself, to learn as much as you can and do as much as you can, you need to put in the time."
I would love to complete the is review with this, a direct quote from the book.
"That’s what you’re looking for when you’re young, when you think you know everything then suddenly realize you have no idea what you’re doing: a place where you can work as hard as you can to learn as much as you can your ass, the force of that kick will propel you into a new stage of your life. from people who can make something great. So even if the experience kicks And you’ll figure out what to do next."
Summary
1. School teaches learning wrongly: The effect is that people that complete school tend to think they are done with learning but learning never stops.
2. School teaches failure wrongly: Adulthood is a different kind of school. In Adulthood there are really no syllables and no teachers*. Adulthood is the class where you develop the courage to do and fail. It is a step you can't dodge because there are some lessons that you can only learn through failure. You need to embrace failure. Understanding that learning doesn't end with school and that there are so many lessons you can learn from failure, you get out there, take risk and try things out on your own.
3. Take risk: Prioritise learning over everything in the beginning of your careers and that will mean to not focus of branding of the company you want to work at or how much they pay you. Focus on working in an environment where there is an enormous opportunity to learn.
4. Have a goal: To strive for something big and hard and important to you. Then every step you take toward that goal, even if it’s a stumble, moves you forward.
5. Work hard: Don't kill yourself for a job but if you want to prove yourself, learn as much as you can, you need to put in time. And if you have chosen a goal worthwhile chasing it should be fun and worth doing.
6. Make bold decisions: At sometime it is going to fall onto to watch straight into your future to make the best decisions for your life. Embrace the responsibility, take risk and make the best decisions for yourself. It is totally okay to ask for advice to make the right decisions.