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  • - So one of the hardest things

  • when you are starting as an entrepreneur,

  • when you're trying to start some type of anything,

  • whether it's a business or a nonprofit or an organization,

  • is you're going to wanna share your idea

  • and what you're working on with a lot of folks,

  • and you're going to get different reactions.

  • And it's not unlikely that you're going

  • to get a lot of folks who will tell you things like,

  • "Well, this is already done before.

  • "Why do you think you're going to be able to do it?"

  • or "This has never been done before.

  • "Why do you think you're going to be able to do it?"

  • And it's very hard to judge whether,

  • okay, are they just being naysayers and just being negative

  • and I should just power through it,

  • or should I listen seriously to what they have to say?

  • And like all things, take this all with a grain of salt,

  • it's hard to know for sure, but I like to think about

  • whether people are coming from a point of view

  • of that they really want you to succeed.

  • And if there are people in your life

  • that you know at the end of the day have got your back

  • and really want you to succeed,

  • I would listen to what they're saying.

  • Now, it doesn't mean what they're saying is absolutely true.

  • It's completely possible that they might have

  • a different tolerance for risk than you do,

  • but it's worth processing.

  • It's worth at least listening.

  • And sometimes when people say,

  • "Oh, well, this has been tried before.

  • "Why do you think you doing it is going to work?"

  • Well, the answer to that is sometimes

  • how you do it matters a lot more than the idea itself.

  • Khan Academy is an example of that.

  • I wasn't the first person to think

  • that online could be a way to disseminate information.

  • I wasn't the first person to think

  • that software could personalize education for folks.

  • I wasn't the first person to make content on YouTube

  • or to help teach people through video.

  • But there was something about how it all came together

  • and also the time and space

  • and how accessible it was that things caught on.

  • And that would've been very hard to predict

  • had I not at least tried.

  • And the way that I protected myself

  • from both the positive and negative,

  • positive and negative feedback (laughs) was I told myself,

  • "You know what?

  • "This is all good information.

  • "I'm going to listen to what people have to say,

  • "but I'm also going to try it.

  • "And I'm gonna try it in a way that I can start to learn

  • "what is actually working and what's not working."

  • And if you can work on your day job, so to speak,

  • while you start to fiddle and you can start

  • to build those data points and points of confirmation

  • that you might be on to something,

  • well, then it makes you a little bit more resilient

  • to what folks might tell you.

  • And you should keep listening,

  • but you shouldn't rest everything

  • on necessarily what everyone tells you.

- So one of the hardest things

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