Doers Run Circles Around Box Checkers

Commencement speaking has generated several gem videos over the years (here’s Time Magazine’s list). Today, Drew Houston of Dropbox gave a speech at MIT’s commencement. Here are some excerpts that stood out to me from his talk:

“I was going to say work on what you love, but that’s not really it. It’s so easy to convince yourself that you love what you’re doing — who wants to admit that they don’t? When I think about it, the happiest and most successful people I know don’t just love what they do, they’re obsessed with solving an important problem, something that matters to them. They remind me of a dog chasing a tennis ball: their eyes go a little crazy, the leash snaps and they go bounding off, plowing through anything that gets in the way. I have some other friends who also work hard and get paid well in their jobs, but they complain as if they were shackled to a desk.”

Parts I like: I agree with Drew that it is better to chase important problems than shiny-flashy-shallow things. I also agree that people can choose to love what they do; and most of us are biased towards making the best of our situations.

Parts I don’t like: I don’t like the word “obsessed.” I think it is great to be consumed by pushing forward a startup. However, I don’t think it is great to pin your primary hopes in life on your startup. Building a family plays that role in a way that makes building a business pale in comparison. It’s all semantics I know, but I have never liked the word “obsessed.”

“The last trap you might fall into after school is “getting ready.” So far, getting ready has been a good strategy: you go to high school to get ready for college. But now that changes. If you have a dream, be careful that you don’t let reading about it or writing papers about it get in the way of actually doing it. Don’t get me wrong: learning is your top priority, but now it can happen on the job. The best learning is doing. Otherwise, if you spend all your time checking boxes and “getting ready” to follow your dream, chances are you’ll end up working for the people who just went out and did it. So what you should be doing is not getting ready but getting started.”

Love this advice. I think the value of a traditional college education is declining rapidly, as Clay Christensen points out. Doers run circles around box checkers.

“Fortunately, it doesn’t matter. No one has a 5.0 in real life. In fact, when you finish school, the whole notion of a GPA just goes away. When you’re in school, every little mistake is a permanent scratch in your windshield. But in the real world, if you’re not swerving around and hitting the guard rails every now and then, you’re not going fast enough. Your biggest risk isn’t failing, it’s being too comfortable.”

That’s a great way to end this post, “Your biggest risk isn’t failing, it’s being too comfortable.”

What thoughts do have on Drew Houston’s remarks?

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