#623: In Case You Missed It: August 2022 Recap of "The Tim Ferriss Show"

Tim Ferriss (0:00)

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SPEAKER_2 (1:44)

At this altitude, I can run flat out for a half mile before my hands start shaking.

Russ Roberts (1:54)

What if I did the opposite?

Tim Ferriss (2:07)

Hello, boys and girls. This is Tim Ferriss. Welcome to another episode of The Tim Ferriss Show, where it is my job to deconstruct world class performers of all different types to tease out the routines, habits and so on that you can apply to your own life.

This is a special in-between episode, which serves as a recap of the episodes from the last month. Features a short clip from each conversation in one place, so you can jump around, get a feel for both the episode and the guest. And then you can always dig deeper by going to one of those episodes. View this episode as a buffet to whet your appetite. It's a lot of fun. We had fun putting it together. And for the full list of the guests featured today, see the episode's description probably right below where we press play in your podcast app.

Or, as usual, you can head to tim.blog.com/podcast and find all the details there. Please enjoy.

SPEAKER_4 (2:57)

First up, Roelof Botha, who has spent over 20 years building companies in Silicon Valley. He joined Sequoia Capital in 2003 and currently serves as Senior Steward of the Global Sequoia Partnership.

Tim Ferriss (3:17)

I have, and you can't believe everything that you read on the internet, but something in front of me that says you used to have 10 to the ninth power written in the corner of your notepad, I guess every week when you started at Sequoia. Is that accurate?

And if so, could you explain why that's the case?

Roelof Botha (3:34)

That is accurate. When I joined Sequoia, it was clear that if I wanted to make it as a partner, you needed to produce meaningful gains.

And I'd set myself the goal of producing a billion dollars in gains for the partnership, because that would mean that I had made it at some level. And so 10 to the nine, which is a billion, was my shorthand of reminding myself what I was striving for.

Tim Ferriss (3:58)

Now, what was the notepad used for otherwise? And was this on the top of every page or something you saw on a weekly basis? I'm wondering on the frequency with which you saw this and also what the notepad was used for otherwise.

Roelof Botha (4:14)

This notepad was used generally for note taking, but it was really on Mondays in particular when we had a partner meeting, where we would review all the decisions for a particular day.

And that would be the notepad where I'd make notes about the companies that we were listening to, my own views on companies, what did I worry about, what did I think was interesting. And so that was the most important day at some level. We referred to it as the Olympic finals at Sequoia. It was the Monday partner meeting and the importance of getting those decisions right. And so that was the day where I needed to remember very acutely what was I striving for.