The Missing Radio
Michael Moritz was working on a story about Microsoft in the early 1980s. Bill Gates gave him a ride to the airport. There was a big gaping hole in the dashboard where the radio should be.
Moritz: "I said, Bill, what happened here? Did you get ripped off? And he said, no, I had it taken out. I drive from my home to the office, which is 7 minutes and 32 seconds. If I've got the radio, I'm afraid that I'll switch it on and I won't be thinking about Microsoft. That's obsession."
If I've got the radio, I'm afraid that I'll switch it on and I won't be thinking about Microsoft.
The Instacart Test
Moritz tells another story about Apoorva Mehta, the founder of Instacart. Before investing, Moritz asked him how he'd landed on grocery delivery.
Moritz: "He said he'd played around with a variety of other businesses. But he realized Instacart was the one for him when it was the last thing he thought about when he went to sleep and the first thing he thought about when he woke up in the morning."
He realized Instacart was the one for him when it was the last thing he thought about when he went to sleep and the first thing when he woke up.
That's Obsession
Moritz: "To me, that was as good a definition of obsession as any I've heard. It's that sort of full-on experience that you can never stop thinking about. And you don't switch off."
Two stories, decades apart, same lesson. The founders who win are the ones who can't turn it off -- not because someone told them to work harder, but because their brain won't let them stop.
It's that sort of full-on experience that you can never stop thinking about. And you don't switch off.