C5 Master Doc

Curriculum

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Curriculum

Founder Traits

Improvements for Traits

We’ll teach them

The essential traits of a great founder

What a 10/10 looks like for each trait (what does excellence look like? What to strive for?)

How to identify and overcome what might be stopping them from living up to these traits/pursuing their company

How and when to live up to these traits daily

Tools, resources, frameworks to dial these up

V1 5050 Founder Traits:

Study the greats / growth machines

Just don’t stop / relentless

Work is life

Against the grain / think different

Full effort, always, everywhere

Need for speed / intolerant of slowness

Boldness

Problems as opportunities / relentlessly optimistic

Risk taking

High expectations

V2 5050 Founder Traits:

Select for these 4 traits and dial up:

Agency

100% responsibility

Extreme ownership

All rules are made up, like Neo

Source security, control and approval from within (commitment 11)

Intensity

Just don’t stop / relentless

Work is life

Full effort, always, everywhere

Need for speed / intolerant of slowness (Speed session)

High expectations

Enthusiasm

Technical excellence

Intellectual horsepower

Depth and breadth of knowledge

Uniqueness of knowledge

Growth machines

Study the greats

Seek and iterate on feedback

See all ppl and circumstances as allies (Commitment 13)

Dial up:

Integrity:

Makes clear agreements (part of commitment 6)

Doesn’t bullshit self or others

Vision for the future

Audacity

Risk taking

Against the grain / think different

Relentlessly optimistic / Problems as opportunities

Resilience

Feeling All Feelings (commitment 3)

Fact vs story: Find opposite of story

Communication ability

How efficiently can you sync someone else’s mind with yours (eg story of self)

Pitching

Commercial intuition

Progress / what to build session from Scott, Rubric

Customer Discovery, Great Biz, Choose What to Build

Candor (commitment 4)

how much of your truth do you reveal to others?

10 Traits with explanation:

Study the greats / growth machines

All great founders voraciously consumed information about their industries and, in particular, information about the great founders/leaders that came before them.

They’re also growth machines, always learning, always looking to improve

Just don’t stop / relentless

The best founders just keep going, even when others would consider things lost. They take "no" to mean "not now". They come back again and again until they find success.

Work is life

All great founders put their mission first -- above friendships, above hobbies, and even above families. It's an unfortunate reality that building a startup requires sacrifice -- a bunch of really hard decisions that add incrementally to the chance of success. 2% higher chance here, 5% there. Maybe you get a 10% better. No one decision seems "necessary" or "required" because they're all small, but they add up to something essential for great success.

Against the grain / think different

All great founders challenge status quo thinking and the norms of their industries. The worst answer you can give to a question about why you're doing something a certain way is "this is how it's always been done".

Full effort, always, everywhere

All great founders are unreasonably intense -- in their enthusiasms, their work ethic, and their expectations of others. They push constantly and are relentless.

Need for speed / intolerant of slowness

All great founders are intolerant of slowness. They set expectations around timelines that others consider unreasonable (or even impossible) and often hit them. They approach everything with a "why not today?" attitude. No delay, no matter how small, is acceptable unless unavoidable.

Always more audacity

All great founders have unreasonable ambition and audacity. They set goals others consider impossible and make big bets to get there.

Problems as opportunities / relentlessly optimistic

All the great founders had a relentless optimism. They believed without doubt that they would achieve success over the long term. They saw even problems as mere opportunities to become better, smarter, more resilient.

Risk taking

All great founders are comfortable with extreme risk. They're comfortable with "bet it all" strategies when that's what great success requires. They're willing to fail big in the hopes of succeeding big.

High expectations

All great founders expect exceptional performance from those around them. They push their teams to achieve the apparently impossible. They don't tolerate poor performance or excuses.

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