Failure

You can only learn if you've designed the right test and you failed conclusively, because otherwise I think many of us have been in situations where there's intuition that something might work and it doesn't work, and then you end up doing it over and over for years because every time a new executive or somebody else has the same idea, you try it again.

We are very encouraged in our lives, especially professionally, to talk about our A side all the time because that's what impresses people... But between all of those highlights, there were so many B moments that get shoved under the rug.

I think we don't recognize how much opportunity we have in front of us. And as a 26-year-old, I definitely thought my career was over. I was like, 'I blew it.' And looking back, it's funny.

A lot of the motivation for those projects came from a place of fear. It didn't come from a place of let's make a great product for people, let's really understand the things people struggle with when communicating with family and friends.

We are very encouraged in our lives, especially professionally, to talk about our A side all the time because that's what impresses people... But between all of those highlights, there were so many B moments that get shoved under the rug.

Context: The speaker is discussing challenges in the vacation rental/hospitality platform space, where "the homes" refers to rental properties listed on platforms.

The real problem is people want to know what they're getting themselves into. We need to represent the homes a lot better... What's in your wheelhouse? So for example, Airbnb, we weren't that strong in operations.

For me, failure is not that you didn't drive revenue, failure is not learning. So it's really important that you learn when you fail.

The missing piece, the theme that was across all of that is that I hadn't earned their trust. So whether how right or how wrong what I was doing was is the key piece is that I wasn't bringing the team along with me.

Instead of coming in swinging, come in listening, so that you can really set out to make change that actually has true positive impact on the folks around you and you bring along with you.

I think something that is really hard to untrain, but I think every human does it, is you jump to solutions. And so one of the biggest things I see, not just in my course, but also just as a PM and some of the mistakes that you make as a PM is the idea of you get really attached to a solution.

I think we don't recognize how much opportunity we have in front of us. And as a 26-year-old, I definitely thought my career was over. I was like, 'I blew it.' And looking back, it's funny.

For me, failure is not that you didn't drive revenue, failure is not learning. So it's really important that you learn when you fail.