• Hire people smarter than you.
  • Face toward the problems.
  • B-level work is bad for your soul.
  • It’s more important to invest in good people than in good ideas.

For me, managing is a creative act. It’s problem solving, and I love doing that.

Give a good idea to a mediocre team, and they’ll find a way to screw it up. Give a mediocre idea to a good team, and they’ll find a way to make it better. The goal needs to be to get the team right, get them moving in the right direction, and get them to see where they are making mistakes and where they are succeeding.

How does he know when a team is succeeding?

Mostly you can feel it in the room. When a team isn’t working, you see defensive body language, or you see people close down. Or there’s just silence. The ideas stop coming, or they can’t see the problems.

Catmull has almost no direct involvement with creative decisions. This is because he realizes that:

  1. The teams are in a better position to solve problems
  2. A suggestion from a powerful person tends to be followed

Priorities:

  1. Colleagues
  2. Guests
  3. Community
  4. Suppliers
  5. Investors

I didn’t know how to read a balance sheet. I didn’t know how to manage flow or running a kitchen. But I did know how I wanted to make people feel. I wanted them to feel like they couldn’t tell if they had stayed home or gone out.

When the service was slow, he placated guests with free wine and gave the staff latitude to provide treats.

This child has unusual potential for intellectual growth.

We’re giving $2k per balloon to the first person to send us the correct coordinates, but we’re also giving $1k to the person who invited them. Then we’re giving $500 to whoever invited the inviter, and $250 to whoever invited them, and so on…

The reason was simple. All other teams used a logical, incentive-based message: Join us on this project, and you might win money. This signal sounds motivating, but it doesn’t really encourage cooperation - in fact, it does the opposite. If you tell others about the search, you are slightly reducing your chances of winning prize money.

I’m giving you these comments because I have very high expectations and I know that you can reach them.

  1. You are part of this group
  2. This group is special; we have high standards here
  3. I believe you can reach those standards

A lot of coaches can yell or be nice, but what Pop does is different. He delivers two things over and over: He’ll tell you the truth, with no bullshit, and then he’ll love you to death.