Lessons from my time at Goldman Sachs
I'm not lying about the title, by the way
Yes, I was at Goldman Sachs for a bit…where “a bit” means 4 days it took for me to read Money and Power: How Goldman Sachs Came to Rule the World. Please tell me that made you chuckle or say “this boy is not serious” at least 😂😂. Okay good. Now, I feel the eye-rolls. Now, leave me alone 😂😂. Anyway, I wrote this quote on a piece of paper and have kept it in my wallet ever since.
“But one secret of our success is to be consistent, and one way to be consistent is to make calls, do your job and be constantly in touch with current and prospective customers. I’ve never heard of anyone complain of over work here.” - Gus Levy
This is my constant reminder to remain CONSISTENT. Consistency is what will get you from Point A to Point B. No one ever became great without being consistent *ahem day 7 of writing this newsletter*. 😉
You want to be productive? There’s only one thing that will get you there: consistency. (Read Deep Work or listen to this episode on Hidden Brain about Deep Work).
Adebola Williams (@debolalagos) talks about consistency: “You need to understand the power of the tongue. when you say something so consistently, it comes to you. you can believe something an believe it into reality”.
Vusi Themebekwayo says it, while talking about customer service: “Offer convenience— give the customer choice (not too much), give it to him/her when he needs it and most importantly, be consistent.”
James Clear says it: “Deliberate practice is necessary for success, but it is not sufficient. The people at the top of any competitive field are both well-suited and well-trained. To maximize your potential, you need to not only engage in consistent and purposeful practice, but also to align your ambitions with your natural abilities.”
Reid Hoffman talks about it in his book, Startup of You (I have the PDF so if you want it, message me): “Jack Dorsey’s aspirations are to make complex things simple and his value for design are what have made his companies so successful: they clarify product priorities, ensure a consistent customer experience and make it easier to recruit employees who are attracted to similar ideas. Build a compelling vision that acts as a pole star.”
Robert Smith says this: “Act on your intentions- make sure that beyond the intention, you have the actions. don’t say you want to be a millionaire but don’t act like you want to be one. put consistent actin behind that vision. and it has to be consistent. the importance of knowing that its your intentions that can lead to the outcome you want to manifest.”
Hope this convinces you to be consistent with whatever you’re working on/ hope to be. And BTW, most of these are from my Notes so forgive the lack of sources.
FYI: Please share + subscribe. Got 54 views on the last post. HUUUUUGE (<— open this) milestone 🙏🏾
Article List—Articles I’ve read in the past 24 hours or so
Why is My Laptop On? : “Reading this article for the second time and I just realized something else. I should’ve realized this after reading A More Beautiful Question. But honestly, if you want to make sure you’re pitching your company right to investors, talk to a 4 year old like George about it. Make it as easy to understand that a 4 year old would get it. If George keeps asking “why?” and you can’t answer (refer to first principles thinking in my “Elon Musk is my president” post), then you probably have some work to do. Try it and let’s know what happens. As an aside, every time I even turn on a light, I visualize what must happening at Akosombo Dam for my phone battery sign to go from red to green⚡️. I’m weird.”
Jumia pain may not be over as shares slump below IPO price: “I told y’all to short Jumia the second I heard about this IPO. I wasn’t part of the #JumiaIsNotAfrican debate but honestly, their model for e-commerce is not built for Africa in my opinion. Growing Africa middle class a myth? I think so. Citron is wilding for that report lol. But they’re making bank on their massive short. Good for them.”
Nigerian officials on FBI fraud list: “😣 😣 😣 not the content i signed up for. But these guys too…what exactly are you doing with 200m$+ in cash? …Actually… scratch that question. I know what i’d do with 200m$”
Peloton files publicly for IPO: “I listened to their podcast episode on How I Built This With Guy Raz and honestly this is a very resilient company. I don’t think I’d ever buy a Peloton but they have pretty good fundamentals in my opinion. Not sure where their other growth markets are but I’m bullish on the general amateur athlete type market.”
Rwanda to phase out gas motorcycle taxis for e-motos: “This is the content I signed up for. This country is seriously moving. Their okada 🏍 system is well-regulated and safe! Had the chance to visit around this time last year. Kigali is a beautiful place.”
Autonomous Vehicles on Quartz : “Perfect article following yesterday’s post on Artificial Intelligence. See the way these articles are intertwining with previous posts sha. My God is alive. After thought: how do you think these will fare in Lagos? Yet to find out if any have been tested in other cities like Mumbai but drivers in these places actually move mad.”
A decade after a split, the Marlboro men seek a reunion: “When I read this, first quote that came to mind was—If you like don’t make money and see. This is crazy capitalism at its finest. Hope you understand that this would put some of the biggest players tobacco, e-cigarettes and cannabis under the same roof. They’re gonna be making money either way the pendulum swings. Honestly, monopolies like this are the way to go 🤔 but I prefer to build monopolies in silence. PS. look into companies growing cannabis in Africa. In my personal opinion, they’re good investments *includes disclaimer on not peddling investment advice*”
Podcast— A podcast channel listened to this morning
Started listening to 20 Minute VC some weeks back, because you know *looks at the title of this newsletter* and I’m learning some new things. A couple of terms I learnt from the episode I listened to today: True Ventures' Puneet Agarwal on Why EQ Is Going To Separate The Best Firms In Venture Over The Next Decade, The Negatives of Attribution in Venture & What Makes A Truly Efficient Venture Partnership
Loss aversion: This refers to people's tendency to prefer avoiding losses to acquiring equivalent gains: it is better to not lose $5 than to find $5.
Escape velocity: In physics, escape velocity is the minimum speed needed for an object to “break free” from the gravitational attraction of a massive body. In VC, this happens when you’ve built up enough momentum to 🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀…🚀🚀🚀. You get?
“Mango seed round” or “avocado seed round”: this is essentially a big seed round so think $3-5m. I think in Africa Tastemakers Africa’s recent seed of 1.4m$ counts as a mango seed round. Thoughts? And congratulations @sasyrae.
Elite quote from this episode: “Only a person that risks is free.” Deep that for a minute. 🙇🏾🙇🏾🙇🏾
Book—What I’m reading now or in the recent past or want to read…my book list is nearing 1000 books 🌚
Another 30 pages of AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order. Still losing hope for Africa in this AI game, unless Gamor has some crazy insights
Remember folks: “Until the lion learns to write, every story will glorify the hunter.”
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