When you learn a new skill, you learn new patterns. And then you start seeing these patterns interwoven into the familiar world. The impenetrable becomes less so. Things you always knew, you now know better.
There's lots of bad reasons to start a company. But there's only one good, legitimate reason, and I think you know what it is: It's to change the world.
If you have a great product, that’s all you have to do.
I don’t think I can overstate this: Building, and keeping, a great team is the most important thing you do as CEO.
How much confidence did my co-founders and I have when starting our first business? Not very much. How certain were we that we should do it anyway? 100%. We were ready to fail. Are you?
Everything in the world can be made better, and everything in the world therefore should be made better. It deserves to be made better. It’s a moral obligation to try to improve things a little bit at a time.
Everyone who reports to me has to be much better at doing his or her job than I could ever be… this means the CEO is the dumbest person at Evernote. Please don’t tell my board.
As your company grows, you’ll progress through the three phases of Internet customer feedback: 1. Not enough; 2. Just the right amount; 3. Way, way too much. I’m joking of course. There is no phase two.
