The High Flyers Podcast with Vidit Agarwal
01:06:14 · Vidit Agarwal
[01:06:14] S0: I completely hear you and I'm nodding furiously because one of the chats me and my wife have, I met her just starting my company and I've been doing it for almost seven years now full time. She used to say to me that at the start you were paranoid and now you're still paranoid. It's in different ways. It's exactly what you said at the start, I was starting the company with my own life savings, I had no brand, no profile, nothing to lose, when now it's like, there's a lot to lose. And that creates a level of paranoia where it's like there's expectations and there's reputation and there's feedback. And someone said it to me really well the other day, we were looking at when I said the other day, a couple of months ago, we were looking at launching a new product. And I reached out to a few people for their opinions. And one of them said to me, they said, Vidit, you seem to be looking for a safe landing here. Did you do that early on when you were launching new things? I said, No, I just launched it because I believed in it. And they're like, Well, maybe that's why it worked, was now you're looking for the world to approve it before you put it out there. And this person actually said to me, he said, As you get more successful, you should have more risk appetite. And I said, That is funny, like it's easy for you to say that, but I also have more to lose internally and externally where there's more paranoia. And you see this in big companies, right? Why do small companies innovate things more than big companies? Because big companies, not that my company is big in terms of Google or anything, is there's a lot more downside risk, right? Whereas a small company has less of that, so they come in and eat the big company's lunch metaphorically. You see this all the time in life, like you've seen this for decades and centuries where this has happened every five, ten years. It's something I often think about is exactly what he said that story we tell ourselves and kind of also why you and I are founders, right? Like I always say it's because I got a huge chip in my shoulder. And that chip in the shoulder only gets bigger in some ways, it never really disappears. So, no, it's a long answer to your comment, but I... Not an answer. Long, like, reflection to your comment, but I agree. Yeah.
01:08:14 · Grace Brown, Vidit Agarwal
[01:08:14] S1: And this actually reminds me of one thing that currently makes no sense to me, and maybe it will in two months. Maybe it will by the time this comes out, and I'll be like, you know... But, like, I've been thinking recently, what am I so scared of? Like, why am I paranoid? What am I scared of losing? What... Let's say the worst thing happened. Like, what what is it that that's... That I'm so fearful of? And when I look around at other robotics companies that are my peers that I've shut down, like, I'm like, okay. Maybe is it losing the company and the company having to go under, which I've seen more commonly in San Francisco. And then what happens to the founders is, like, they they end up just becoming, like, robotics engineers at Google DeepMind or OpenAI or somewhere, and they pay... They're paid, like, 1 to $2,000,000. And to me, it's nothing wrong with that path at all, but I'm like... To me, it's like, objectively on paper, that actually sounds like a much better path than the founder path. If you think about it, you're paid, like, a 1 to $2,000,000 salary. You're far less stressed. Like, these founders that I know, they're not stressed like they were when they were running their companies. But to me, it's like, I don't want that. I want this. I don't know why, even though objectively, this might not even seem [01:09:15] S0: Yeah.
01:09:15 · Vidit Agarwal, Grace Brown
[01:09:15] S0: Yeah. [01:09:16] S1: Better. Like, stress free, much more lucrative path, much more secure, and they have so much freedom to be creative and do what they wanna do. But for whatever reason, I still don't wanna lose this. Mhmm. I don't know if that makes any sense. [01:09:30] S0: I've got someone in my door. Give me ten seconds. I'm just gonna tell them to come back once. [01:09:34] S1: All good. Good. [01:09:36] S0: Yeah. This is such an interesting reflection. I I almost wanna do this reflection with you in six months and twelve months and eighteen months. Right? Because your thought process is gonna evolve. I wanna move to RapidFi Sprint to wrap this up. Before I do, is there anything I haven't asked that you wanna touch on? [01:09:54] S1: Oh, I don't think so. Nothing really comes to mind. Yeah. I think... Yeah. We've covered a lot of real estate. [01:10:00] S0: We we have. Yeah. Cool. So is there one non work investment that you consider the best in your lifetime investment of time and energy? Is there a hobby or a course or a holiday? [01:10:13] S1: I'd say recently, in the philosophy that I'm reading, I think it's got... I won't get into it too much, but just coming up with my own beliefs for what does it mean to live well. I think that exercise and that kind of endeavor has helped me just show up even better in myself as a job in in being CEO, in... For my friends, for, you know, my dating life. Yeah. So I think that that's actually been quite, yeah, quite significant for me recently.
01:10:13 · Grace Brown, Vidit Agarwal
[01:10:13] S1: I'd say recently, in the philosophy that I'm reading, I think it's got... I won't get into it too much, but just coming up with my own beliefs for what does it mean to live well. I think that exercise and that kind of endeavor has helped me just show up even better in myself as a job in in being CEO, in... For my friends, for, you know, my dating life. Yeah. So I think that that's actually been quite, yeah, quite significant for me recently. [01:10:42] S0: Is there one thing you wanna learn in the next six months in in work or outside work? [01:10:48] S1: I think self growth self growth is not absolute or complete. There's always gonna be areas to work on, and even the areas that you work on, there's it's never gonna be like... You never reach an end to it. But I'd say the thing I'm focused on right now, or definitely for this next chapter, is being a lot less avoidant of hard conversations. Depends on who you ask. Some people think I'm direct, but then, you know, a lot of you know, more kind of, like, powerhouse women who have been in business much longer than I have are like, you're avoidant of hard conversations. Not just women, but, you know, my advice as well. [01:11:20] S0: How do you learn something like that? [01:11:23] S1: How do I learn to be more direct and less avoidant of hard conversations? [01:11:27] S0: Yes.
01:11:27 · Vidit Agarwal, Grace Brown
[01:11:27] S0: Yes. [01:11:28] S1: I... Well, my plan is to... What is my plan to learn that? I think by just trying to do it more... I don't think it'll ever be easy. Even the people who I think are, quote, really good at it, it's not, like, an easy thing for them. I've seen, like, Jennifer, my COO, if you meet her, like, she intimidates some men who are in their forties, and she... You she's five feet tall. Right? Because she's just so direct and clear cut, and she's not rude. She's assertive. She stands her ground. She doesn't take shit from anyone. And, you know, and I see her, like, even she doesn't have... I've seen her let go of people. I've seen her... Or heard of her giving feedback to people, and she doesn't enjoy it. So I don't think anyone ever really gets good at it or it gets easy. But I think by doing it more and more, you learn the practices and the tools that get you to do it in a way that's effective. But I don't think it'll ever be comfortable. So may...
01:12:18 · Vidit Agarwal, Grace Brown
[01:12:18] S0: I also think it's a correlation of success where the more successful you get, the more direct you can be. Not in a rude way, but in a just in a direct matter of fact way where people just take it. I've seen this in my own journey where the more and when I say success, credibility and respect. I don't mean success in terms of like money and status because there's a lot of people that are direct and no one likes them and they're billionaires. But I mean in terms of credibility and respect and that is a huge part of success in my view, I have noticed like that allows me and probably trust as well, but I think there's a level of trust there where someone's like, okay cool, that person is saying this, maybe it helps me because my people tend to have a parasocial relationship with me thanks to the podcast in some ways. So they're like, oh, he maybe didn't mean it in a bad way. But I firmly believe there's a correlation there between like certain forms of success with some form of directness. [01:13:09] S1: Mine's also come from just having less time. Like, I think with my employees, I've noticed I don't have time to think through how to soften something. I do... I I try all the time to not say things disrespectfully. And sometimes I even just say upfront, I haven't had time to think about how to say this, you know, perhaps as gently as I can, but I jet... And... But then I just tell them what I think and say. So it also comes down from not having time and just needing to be able to get the information out as quick as possible.