Things I believe
26 principles that have shaped how I work + approach life
I finished reading Play Nice But Win by Michael Dell last week.
After hearing him covered on the Founders podcast, I ordered a copy of the biography.
Overall, I thought it was a good book. Surprisingly honest for someone who built one of the largest companies in the world. Made plenty of highlights while reading it, but the part that stayed with me the most was at the end in a list he called “Things I Believe.”
He had a concise list of just over 20 principles + beliefs that he said helped shape how he built and led over the years.
As I closed the book, that left me with the thought of what would mine say?
So what follows here is my attempt to answer that question based on where I’m at in life. Most of these aren’t novel thoughts - they’re things I’ve learned, noticed, failed at, and have had to relearn. Some you’ll recognize as topics covered in prior sends of this newsletter. Some are more internal thoughts that I haven’t shared here before.
Now, in no particular order, the list of 26 things I believe:
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The list
Ecosystems, not channels. The contribution of any single person, channel, or team is inseparable from everything around it. Optimize for global, not local, maximums.
Most problems aren’t new problems. They’re the same problems seen before, just dressed in different clothes. The person who reads + learns from areas outside their discipline will always have an advantage over the person who only learns from their own.
Common sense ≠ common practice. Somewhere along the way, our intuitive understanding of how buyers actually behave when making purchase decisions (AKA non-linear, messy, multiple people involved) got buried under the accumulated weight of common practice (AKA linear funnels, sequenced campaigns, decisionmaker is also the end user).
Brand is a force multiplier. It changes the effectiveness of everything downstream, but it doesn’t show up in dashboards + that’s exactly why most people underinvest in it.
Leads are not goals. Revenue is the goal. Never confuse a leading indicator for the goal itself. Remember Goodhart’s Law: “when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure."
Before giving answers, ask the questions. When someone arrives at the conclusion on their own, they’ll own it in a way that explanation never produces.
The work is the answer. Do it because your standard demands it, not because anyone is watching. The outcomes + any recognition of those is an output of doing this at your standard, they aren’t goals themselves.
To do, not to be. There's a speech John Boyd used to give his proteges: you can be somebody, or you can do something. The 2 paths rarely run together for long before you have to make a choice. You can be someone + get the title, or you can do the work that makes a difference.
The greatest competitive advantage available right now is quality and execution. AI makes low-quality content infinite + genuine craft rarer, so it stands out.
Data tells you what happened, but rarely tells you why. The person who triangulates data + uses pattern recognition will always outperform the one who only trusts the dashboard.
Move before you have every answer. The next step reveals what the preparation couldn’t. One thing I’ve learned over the years is that knowing your direction means NOTHING without VELOCITY behind it. Velocity is the action. It’s taking the first step + making progress toward the plan we created.
Teams are the most accurate reflection of your standards. Hire slowly, develop relentlessly, + never tolerate what you wouldn’t do yourself.
Prepare before you need to. Don’t get on the field already winded. The time to build the capability is before we need to use it, not during.
Rest is not the absence of work. Going for walks, taking time to read, + enjoying the quiet mornings are part of the work. We need time + space for our brain to make connections - if it’s constantly flooded with inputs those won’t happen.
Avoiding a hard truth doesn’t make it go away. It just keeps growing. Whether it’s a bad hire, the assumption you don’t challenge, or a conversation you keep postponing, deferring it only makes it worse.
A small circle of honest people who push you to be better > a large circle of people who only tell you what you want to hear. Always seek out the former.
Nobody is going to give you permission. The only thing between you + the next chapter is your decision.
Writing is structured thinking. Write to understand what you actually believe or are trying to learn, then share it.
Find the problem that feels like play to you but is “work” to everyone else. You’ll outcompete anyone who’s doing it for the outcome because you’re doing it for the thing itself. You escape competition through obsession — and obsession can’t be faked.
I've sat in rooms where the questions being asked told me everything I needed to know. When the conversation around you no longer matches the level you're operating at, stop trying to fit. Build a different room.
Calculated risk is not the same as zero risk. At some point the foundation is built + the move is just a decision. Recognize + be honest in differentiating between preparation and delay.
We have 4 burners on our stovetop: work, family, health, + friends, but we can’t run them all at full capacity at the same time. Every season of life has a cost. The goal isn’t trying to perfectly balance all 4, it’s knowing which ones you’re turning up/down intentionally + making sure it’s actually a choice.
Being physically present and actually being there are two different things. The ones who matter most to you can tell the difference immediately. So can you.
Consistency is the compound interest on everything that matters. Whether it’s in the gym, work skills, relationships, learning a new language, etc., nothing significant gets built in a single effort.
Know your ultimate why. If we’re lucky, the work we find is something we love, but that work is there to make the larger life (family, financial/time freedom, etc.) we want possible, not the other way around.
The work you do when nobody is watching, for a standard only you set, toward a goal nobody else understands yet - that’s the kind of work worth doing.
This was a fun exercise to go through. Was a good way to zoom out and re-orient around what’s important + the manner in which to go about pursuing those.
Any of these land well with you? Or take it a step further + go through this yourself and let me know what you come up with. I see every reply that comes back to this :)
Book quote of the week
“Success is not a straight line up. It’s fail, learn, try again, then (you hope) succeed. How successful you are is really a function of how well you deal with failure - and how much you learn from it. Many people don’t reach their greatest potential because they fear failure. In avoiding failure, they deprive themselves of a great teacher. Many others fall short because of lack of opportunity, capital, knowledge, or skills. Persistence is an all-important quality on the road to success. (And success presents its own challenges, avoiding complacency being the first and biggest. Which is why, along with kaizen, PBNS - pleased but never satisfied - has been part of our culture since the beginning.)
- Play Nice But Win, by Michael Dell
See you next Saturday,
Sam