Charles Xu

A good manager improves collective outcome with multiplier effects. Focus on purpose, people, and process. Prepare for meetings. Feedback is a gift. Manage expectations. Trust, delegate, grow.

Raise your standards, B players drive A players out. Hire people ahead of their own curve. Hire for aptitude over experience. Give people the career opportunity of a lifetime, a huge motivation. Coaching struggling teammates to a better place is possible but rare. Regardless of open headcounts, maintain a top-talent list and check in periodically because 1) if you wait until an opening, you can only tap the then-current suboptimal supply. 2) people currently occupying these roles might leave or could not grow as fast as the company. Staff ahead of need. Recruiting never stops. Trust is earned by delivering your promises. Always underpromise and overdeliver. Publicly admit regrettable decisions, which encourages everyone to do so. Apply focus and urgency. Time kills all deals. Time introduces risks, such as new entrants. The faster we separate from the competition, the more likely we are to succeed. “Priority” is a singular word. The moment you have many, you actually have none. Great execution is rarer than great strategy. Growth trumps everything else as a driver and predictor of long-term success. Once a start-up begins showing profits, investors conclude that either it doesn't know how to invest in further growth or that it has run out of growth opportunities.

Be kind, not nice. Practice continuous feedback. Delegate. Listen. Empathize. Build personal connections. Praise in public; criticize in private. What you measure, you improve. Set expectations. Process is risk management. Be curious, ask questions, learn. Better to talk about learning instead of structure, transparency instead of process. Culture is how the things get done, without people having to think about it.

People quit bad managers, not companies. Direct reports watch everything you do ("toxic tandem"). Watch your tone of voice, the way you look at people, the use of nicknames, a memory for faces, names and dates. These details refine your relationships. Effective leaders are both competent and benevolent. Humans prefer hierarchical relationships. The challenge is not to reinvent management but dampen known drawbacks.

Renting out your time or just working hard will not lead to financial freedom. 99% of effort is wasted. Wealth comes from judgment. Play long-term games with long-term people. Find a worthy mate; be worthy of a worthy mate. Find work that feels like play. All returns in life—wealth, relationships, knowledge—come from compound interest. Reading is faster than listening; doing is faster than watching. If you cannot decide, the answer is no.

Self-disclosure strengthens relationships, despite risk of being misunderstood. Stretch your relationship comfort zone 15% at a time. To communicate well we must express facts/cognitions and feelings/emotions. Emotions assign meaning, intensity, and importance to facts. Showing your vulnerability often brings people closer. Stick to your reality. Make no assumption about others. It is a profound difference between “I feel irritated and dismissed” and “I feel that you don’t care.”

Inquire instead of assuming intentions. Elaborate my emotions, and listen to theirs. Intentions, emotions, and identities are complex. I cannot control but prepare for others' reaction. Explore joint contributions to the dispute. Start with mines to avoid their defensiveness, but include theirs. People want to be heard. Listen actively by paraphrasing, eye contact, notes taking, and deep questions.

Habits are compounding and shape who we are and what we will achieve. The best way to build a habit is to make it part of your identity (I am trying to quit smoking vs. I am not a smoker), attach the new habit to existing ones, make it small (atomic), and surround yourself with people who have the habits you want. Willpower is limited; instead, design the environment to support your habits.

In decision making, human often resort to shortcut/reflex, such as reciprocation, consistency between commitment and action, conforming with those similar to us, adherence to authority, preference to folks we like, and equating scarcity with value. Awareness of such routines keeps oneself alerted to exploiters and magnifies your influence in work and life.

Grant yourself permission instead of waiting for others to do so. Cold email the people you admire. If you are not failing sometimes, you are not taking enough risks. Do not burn bridges. You are not going to like everyone and not everyone is going to like you, but there is no need for enemies. To make good decision in dilemmas, think about how you want to tell the story in a future job interview. Recognize your mistake, apologize early and profusely.

There’s no such thing as not giving a fuck. You must give a fuck about something. Rude gas station attendants and boring day-time TV shows do not deserve your limited attention. Prioritize your life based on personal values. You learn what matters to you through emotions and psychological pain. Happiness is about doing, not being. Nothing is once-and-for-all. Life is full of problems. True happiness occurs only when you find the problems you enjoy having and enjoy solving.

"Follow you passion" is a bad advice. A rare and valuable job requires rare and valuable skills (career capital). Acquiring more career capital with deliberate practice gives you the autonomy to pursuit the work you love. Deliberate practice means doing things that hurt: playing guitar pieces above your skill level, or practicing the tennis backhand that you suck at.

Negotiation is everywhere in life. The fixed pie mentality is not appropriate, because you will see the same people again. No need to grab all the value. Never lie because people always find out. Don’t give the numbers too early because you did not know everything at first. Practice is the only way to improve. Emphasize fairness and win-win. It is way easier to negotiate what is the right criteria and standard than to directly negotiate the price.

Mirroring upwards invites elaboration. Mirroring downwards (late-night FM DJ voice) builds empathy, trust, and calmness. Humans are emotional, sometimes irrational. Label the counterpart's emotion and motivation to get them to say "that's right". "No" is not the end of negotiation. Explore alternatives.

Give before you take. You gain trust by helping others. Trust solidifies relationships. Relationships build institutions. Build the relationships long before you need them. Be audacious. Respect the gatekeeper (e.g. assistants) who will make or break your access to the decision makers. Follow up frequently. Forward relevant articles to your network. Go to conferences to meet people, not to learn new knowledge. You engender life-bonding loyalty when you help others with their health, wealth, and children. Build an online presence with personal, generous, and candid messages.

Detailed explanations of ISO, NSO, RSU, and taxes with lots of references. 83(b) election. Secondary markets. Right of first refusal. AMT trap. Liquidation overhang.

Learn in the public. Write a lot. Open source your knowledge. Good enough is better than best. Invest in new technologies. Know your tools.

Great startups prioritize distribution over product. Product itself is not defensive because of too many great engineers and second-mover advantages. Raise prices to test PMF, fund distribution and R&D, and grow faster. Delegate. Audit your calendar regularly. Say no more often. Passing 50 hires, hold weekly staff meetings and start layering in HR. Empower smart people. Communicate context, not exert control. One of the cofounders should be dominant. Board members should be people who you wish to hire but are out of reach otherwise. Take a lower valuation if necessary to get the right board. Talk to board members individually for open-ended brainstorming. Key determinant of candidate conversion is how quickly you interview + make an offer. Reference check everyone: "If this person joined my company, would you join?" Spend 30–50% of their time early on (scaling from 3 to 15 people) on recruiting.