Enjoyment Flywheel

Shaan Puri's philosophy on success: working on things you enjoy creates a flywheel effect that leads to better outcomes than just working hard on the wrong things.

The Enjoyment Flywheel

• When you enjoy the work, you do it all the time
• Because you do it all the time, you get really good at it
• Because you get really good at it, you get results
• The results reinforce the cycle

The opposite (no flywheel):

• If you don't enjoy the thing, you only work on it to the extent you have motivation, willpower, or energy to force yourself
• You only get so good at it
• Because you're only so-so good at it, you get a so-so result
• No flywheel effect

Why "working hard is overrated"

• Working hard is probably the 4th or 5th most important variable for success
• It's not useless, just overrated
• Successful people say "hard work" because it sounds good and gives air cover - makes it seem like everyone had an equal shot

More important variables than hard work:

1. Project selection - what you work on is far more important than how hard you work
   • Example: working in the restaurant industry limits outcomes no matter how hard you work
2. Who you work with - matters a ton
3. Timing and luck - other critical variables
4. Hard work - somewhere around 3rd-5th place

The real value of hard work

• Good at developing skill
• Good at being serious about something
• In your twenties, it's easy to throw hours at the problem when you don't have good judgment yet
• Most projects fail, but the skills stick with you
  • Example: Shaan's sushi restaurant failed, but he learned After Effects, iMovie, Photoshop - skills that served him well later in Silicon Valley
• Once you pick a better project, you still have those skills

The biggest risk

• Spending your life trying to do a really good job at the wrong thing
• Mediocrity is the real risk for any person with high potential
• It will sap your will, time, resources, energy, and belief in yourself

Key insight from experience

• Shaan spent 10 years doing things only for "if this worked it'd be amazing"
• The work has to be the win - not some future hypothetical payoff
• The act of doing it should be the reward, not just the future outcome
• If he had focused on enjoyable work earlier, he believes he would be further ahead
• Would have found the things more enjoyable to him earlier and gotten better results through the flywheel effect

Working smarter as you age

• Early on: don't have good judgment, so spend more time
• As you get older: have less time (kids, less energy), so judgment has to make up for lack of time
• Be intentional with project selection and people selection
• Focus on skill building - the part of hard work that compounds over time