#55: The Best Lessons From 50+ Divot Conversations | Special Recap

**James Dumoulin** (0:00)
Whether you want to believe it or not, at the end of the day, a closed mouth does not get fed. So you just have to understand that if you talk to any of the most successful people, rejection is inevitable. Even to this day, I still have people that reject me and whatnot, but I still use it as fuel, I still use it as motivation.

**Derek Andersen** (0:14)
Why do you think people crave community so much today?

**Tina Roth Eisenberg** (0:18)
Because we have lost the art of being a human.

**Derek Andersen** (0:21)
How so?

**Tina Roth Eisenberg** (0:21)
I mean, everything has become transactional, everything.

**Derek Andersen** (0:24)
So if I can't be the next Steve Jobs, then who should I be?

**Guy Kawasaki** (0:27)
People should have higher aspirations than being the next anybody. They should be the first of themselves, not the next Steve Jobs or the next Elon Musk.

**Tim Draper** (0:37)
Is an idea is like a keepsake. If you hide it, it disappears and you forget where it was. Same thing with an idea. So the best ideas are the ones you start spreading to the world.

**Marc Randolph** (0:50)
And so for me, as an entrepreneur of 40 years of it, the first times you do it, you think, why does anyone want to do this? And all of a sudden you get the break and it works. And little by little, those things add up to the same thing, where you go, this too shall pass. And in the long haul, I know I'm going to look back fondly. And I tell other early entrepreneurs all the time, gosh, I know what you're doing right now is really hard, but please look around, enjoy the experience. You're doing something that very few people get to experience.

**Tim Draper** (1:28)
Divot, this episode is brought to you by Google for Startup.

**Derek Andersen** (1:31)
Today, we're celebrating more than 50 episodes of Divot by looking back at the conversations that helped define what this show has become. Over the past year, we sat down with builders, investors, creators and storytellers whose work has shaped the world. What stands out most is not only what they've built, it's the wisdom behind the journey, the discipline to show up before anyone is watching, the courage to take risks before the outcome is clear, the humility to keep learning, the faith to keep going, and the choice to keep values, family, and purpose at the center. These are the moments that stayed with us and the lessons that capture the heart of Divot so far. Hope you enjoy this recap episode.

**Doug Leone** (2:09)
Being a young man means being open to new ideas, learning from everybody, including your kids, staying fresh, making mistakes, and learning from them. I think that's what keeps you alive. I think the moment you have the answers and you've made it, that to me is equivalent to being dead.
I'm not quite there yet.

**Derek Andersen** (2:37)
Do you feel like you miss things with your kids? Do you feel like that was okay? Do you feel like today we have to be at everything, everywhere, like you're saying, pre-programmed, but that's not how we were raised and we turned out okay?

**Doug Leone** (2:51)
So I was very lucky because when my kids were growing up until my last child pressed the send button in the last application on December 15, I never traveled. I was a venture capitalist, local venture capitalist. In the old days, Don Valentine didn't think that if you couldn't get to a bicycle, you wouldn't make the investment.
And so I used to coach my kids teams at four, maybe come back to work at 5.30. I was home for dinner, I would say, three out of five nights a week. We had family dinners and my traveling, the growth fund business that took us nationally in the US, the international business that took us to India, China, Southeast Asia, South America, that came a lot later. So I was very fortunate. I was there with my children. I was able to show up.

**Justin Kan** (3:50)
No matter who you are, the human brain is such that no matter who you are, you will experience things that are relatively difficult. Some days will be good, some days will be difficult. Like anyone who has kids know that being rich doesn't solve your kids being difficult or having trouble.

**Derek Andersen** (4:04)
So in many ways, it increases the difficulty, right?

**Justin Kan** (4:06)
Yeah, I'm at the young age, so I probably haven't seen that yet, so for me, it's like just reminding myself, like I can weather whatever happens. I was a CEO of a company that didn't end up being successful. Years after Twitch, I'm the CEO of a company, and I flipped over the handlebars of my bike, biking an e-bike around the city and broke both my elbows.