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THE NIKESH BELIEF SYSTEM
When @nikesharora started at @PaloAltoNtwks, he wrote a belief document which has amazing insights. Here is the ‘Nikesh Belief System’ in a master thread for you to read and reflect -
When @nikesharora started at @PaloAltoNtwks, he wrote a belief document which has amazing insights. Here is the ‘Nikesh Belief System’ in a master thread for you to read and reflect -
Belief Doc 1 - Beware, we tend to believe our product is a consequence of insight, genius & execution while the other guy got lucky and their product has issues - replicating it is a SMOP (simple matter of programming). It's seldom true.
Belief Doc 2 - Success at scale requires a network of entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs are enabled by “accountability” – you can have monitoring systems in place to track success, micro-management doesn’t work.
Belief 3 - Number 3 player in a market is never as profitable and fun as being number 1 and 2. (Most of these aren't unique - but together they are helping build the next great company).
Belief Doc 4 - A’s hire A’s – B’s hire C’s – hence making sure you have the right leadership team is more important than anything.
Belief Doc 5 - It might be better to wait for a great senior hire than hurry, the cost of haste could be too much to bear. People have to be smart, always helps to have functional competence, but then again we get to a good job with IQ - you need EQ to get and keep a great job.
Belief Doc - 6: My most prized beliefs and often cause of failure. “When architecting a new solution, use an architect, some have building skills most struggle, don’t use a builder to architect or a maintenance guy to build." If you have ever built a house imagine the outcome.
Belief Doc 7 -Smaller – resource starved teams do a better job of resource management, focus, and prioritization than over funded teams.
Belief Doc 8 - Winning ideas have high standard deviation, high standard deviation ideas win spectacularly and fail spectacularly. Many average ideas are not a substitute for a great idea.
Belief Doc 9 - You can't get everything right - get what's "important" right. Improve the rest gradually. Overprioritizing what's important is the genius. "Important" is what compels the customer to want it. (Product, Marketing or GTM can all be part of it)
Belief Doc 10 - On decision-making. The cost of indecision is higher than the risk of a bad decision. You can fail and pivot, iterate or course correct and make progress with the latter. The former has you stalled.
