Pursuing excellence by investing in what you're good at makes sense. However, navigating a fast-changing landscape requires taking risks, going into unfamiliar territory, and being willing to look foolish.
The speaker invested in Flexport's seed round at a $10 million cap, which was expensive, but believed it could potentially become a billion-dollar company, making it a worthwhile investment.
The speaker shares their perspective on decision making and talks about how to cultivate making faster decisions with a framework that prioritizes important but not timely tasks. They also mention Reid Hoffman as an example of prioritizing speed over perfection.
Being happy is an advantage to achieving great results, as happiness leads to better performance in the long run. Building teams for long-term success requires a happy, fulfilled workforce in order to outperform under extreme duress and stress.
The speaker discusses coding as an effective way to develop structured thinking and problem solving skills, and emphasizes the importance of teaching kids to be optimists to see the silver lining in even dire situations.