2min snip

Brian Balfour: 10 lessons on career, growth, and life

Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career

notes

NOTE

Focus on Winning, Not the Costs

As a team grows, there is a tendency for initiatives to become filtered and diluted before reaching decision-makers. It is crucial to prioritize discussing what it takes to win upfront, rather than focusing on potential costs or difficulties. The central goal in startups is to do whatever it takes to win, avoiding wasting time and resources on watered-down strategies. Leaders should encourage their teams to boldly propose ambitious ideas, with a focus on achieving the ultimate goal of winning, and collaborate on strategizing the best approach without diluting the initial vision.

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Transcript

Episode notes

Brought to you by Jira Product Discovery—Atlassian’s new prioritization and roadmapping tool built for product teams | Coda—Meet the evolution of docs | Wix Studio—The web creation platform built for agencies

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Brian Balfour is the founder and CEO of Reforge. Prior to Reforge, he was the VP of Growth at HubSpot and co-founded three other startups. In today’s episode, Brian shares 10 lessons from his career, growth, and life:

• Lesson 1: Inspect the work, not the person.

• Lesson 2: Tell me what it takes to win; then tell me the cost.

• Lesson 3: Problems never end (and that’s okay).

• Lesson 4: The year is made in the first six months.

• Lesson 5: Growth is a system between acquisition, retention, and monetization. Change one and you affect them all.

• Lesson 6: Do the opposite.

• Lesson 7: Use cases, not personas.

• Lesson 8: Solving for everyone is solving for no one.

• Lesson 9: Find sparring partners, not mentors or coaches.

• Lesson 10: 2x+ the activation energy for things that need to change.

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Find the full transcript at: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/brian-balfour-10-lessons-on-career-growth-and-life/