Starting companies is hard.
Before he launched Uber, Travis Kalanick “heard 100 ‘no’s’ a day for 6 years.” That’s 200,000 total!
Yes, budding entrepreneurs might “know” that the journey is messy. But doing, Travis says, takes “perseverance, energy, and stamina.” Having the audacity to commit and show up after repeated rejection is some serious grit.
That’s the unsexy stuff, before the highlights and success ever even amount.
So let’s call that Lesson 1 from Travis, on TWiST E419: cultivate grit.
Lesson 2: Create value in the face of criticism
How did Travis create value in the face of criticism? He saw the big picture.
People were upset with Uber’s surge pricing. Because no one wants higher prices. But Travis saw the good:
– Drivers were earning more money. Drivers loved it.
– Some riders could wait until surge period was over, to ease bottlenecking
– The prices surge optimized for supply/demand nexus
And what did that bring? Uber’s reputation as a reliable ride.
If prices had not increased, some people wouldn’t get a ride at all. Then reliability tanks, and people stop gaining value from the service.
Maybe taking an eagle-vision look helps the critics fall wayside.
Lesson 3: Focus on daily, purposeful problems solving, not outcomes
Toward the end of their chat with Jason asks Travis about the goal of going public as a company. So is this goal overrated?
Travis’ answer: Yes.
Because at the end of the day, outcomes (titles, achievements, status), don’t matter so much as what you did that day.
Because no matter the success, you’ll still wake up the next day with problems to solve.
Are you passionate about solving problems and creating value every single day? If so, show up and execute. Those results can happen in the background.
More from Travis
So those are some key takeaways from Ep. 419 of TWiST! For more (like hearing about Travis becoming an Uber driver himself), check out the full episode.
