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The Coinbase CEO's Superpower: Not Caring What You Think

By Brian Armstrong · Startup Growth · 1 min read

Armstrong says every founder doing important things has developed the same muscle: high disagreeableness. They've made peace with the fact that someone will be pissed no matter what.

Key Points

Founders doing important things have developed a high disagreeableness muscle
Whether you do the popular thing or the authentic thing, someone will be angry
Listen to people who have your best interest at heart, ignore the rest

It's a real superpower to care less what other people think. At least people who don't have your best interest at heart.

The Disagreeableness Muscle

Armstrong: If you think about companies that have gotten to a really big scale, it makes all your problems look small by comparison. Look at Mark Zuckerberg. The amount of negative news coming out on that guy on a daily basis.

What I've realized about a lot of people who are building important things in the world is that they've developed this high disagreeableness muscle. They've recognized they're not going to make everybody happy. And they've made peace with it.

They've developed this high disagreeableness muscle. They've recognized they're not going to make everybody happy.

Authenticity Over Performance

Armstrong: They realized at a certain point — whether I do the thing that I think everyone's going to like, or the thing that is more authentic to me, someone's going to be pissed no matter what.

So at the end of the day, I'm just going to do the thing that I think is the right thing. They've leaned more into authenticity instead of trying to say what they think people want to hear. And then they can actually do even more interesting stuff because they're being themselves instead of trying to be liked.

Someone's going to be pissed no matter what. So I'm just going to do the thing I think is the right thing.

Don't Become Isolated

Armstrong: You don't want to become isolated to a place where you're not listening to anybody, because that's also really bad. You need people who can keep you grounded — your family, your friends, people around you who will tell you when you're being an idiot or you're just wrong.

You don't ever want to get to a place where you listen to nobody. You want to be around people who have your best interest at heart, then listen to them. Or people who have already done what you're trying to do — that's good advice.

But a lot of the people who are just trying to take shots at you to build their own whatever in life — you need to build the ability to ignore them. It's a real superpower to care less what other people think. At least people who don't have your best interest at heart.

It's a real superpower to care less what other people think. At least people who don't have your best interest at heart.