Winning QuietlyLike A Shark
Like A Shark
Is the loudest person in the room the smartest one as well?
What makes a person smart? What makes a person successful? I could probably come up with some really long rambling about those deep questions another day (probably will), but I want today to talk (lol, to who?) about winning quietly.
I have become fascinated by the idea of sharks. Actually, let’s include Hippos and Alligators as well.
Those are some of the most terrifying creatures. You see one of those out of the corner your eye, good luck. Slow that sentence down. Because it’s actually really hard to ever see these creatures (at least for the metaphor). Why? They lurk under the water. Often times just the tips of the iceberg stick out. You know they are under there, scary and powerful, but you can’t really see what is coming.
That is how I think of the most fascinating and successful companies and people for that matter. These are the companies that you never see posting on twitter. Wait, they call that tweeting. These are the companies you only see a glimpse of every once in a while. Like you know they are there, but no one really talks about them. Of course, if no one is talking about you — there is a good chance there is a reason. But let’s talk about the outliers. The ones with great products and incredible people.
Let’s talk about Cruise (I could not find their medium account?!??, duh.)
Wait have you not heard of them? The company that was acquired for over a billion freaking dollars!?!
GM Spent Over $1 Billion on Self-Driving Startup to Keep Up With Google, Apple
A hefty sum for driverless tech.www.recode.net
The company whose CEO tweeted this after making a boat load of money:
his 83rd tweet.
Do you think their investors have to worry about priorities?
Now let me, once again correct myself. There is nothing wrong with posting on twitter. Cruise is not a consumer facing company. There are tons of reasons to focus on social media. Look at Product Hunt with their online brand; they do a kick-ass job, and it makes a huge difference (Ryan Hoover , Niv Dror). But there are tons of companies who don’t. There are tons of companies who think that just tweeting or whatever will get them closer to success.
What I want to focus on is none of that. I want to think about this concept:
The idea that you do not need to be in the spotlight to be “successful.”
I think a lot of my generation has lost that image. Everyone thinks you need to be on a bunch of Tech Crunch Articles, have a bunch of followers on Snapchat, Twitter, Vine, Instagram, Medium, Periscope, blah blah blah. THOSE ARE VANITY METRICS!!
I’ve talked about this before:
How to Be Successful
success = little things over a long period of timemedium.com
But again, to emphasize (for myself, always): the path to success can be thought of as linear. Cut out bullshit distractions and vanity metrics, and you will make it there.
Win quietly, humbly, and focus on the bottom line. Because no else cares about that bullsh*t besides ego.
Anyways, thanks for reading. I really really do appreciate it 🙂 Feel free to follow me on twitter @jrdngonen (wait yes I am letting you!) or email me jordangonen1@gmail.com
THANK YOU
By jordangonen on July 17, 2016.
Exported from Medium on February 17, 2018.