CEO Lessons: Bulls**t Mission Statements, Firing People & Saying ‘NO'

**Shaan Puri** (0:00)
When Moyes was selling Native Deodorant, he didn't own the trademark.

**Sam Parr** (0:03)
And it was an issue?

**Shaan Puri** (0:04)
He's got the deal done, and they're like, wait, you don't have the trademark? He's like, yeah, but there's no other Native Deodorant. They're like, okay, Junior, what are you talking about? That's not how this works. Um, you know.
So we've been running companies for, like, I don't know, 10, 15 years now. And like many people out there, at the beginning, we did a bunch of dumb stuff. And so we're going to admit and confess to some of the dumbest things that we did running our companies. And then talk about what we do now that's actually, like, we found that works. So the stuff that didn't work and the stuff that works. And this is around, you know, everything from, like, you know, mission statements, how we used to think that these were, like, super important and how we treated them versus what we do now, or branding and naming our companies, or goal setting.
These are kind of like the shortcuts that we use now. So what actually that we found works through the painful process of making embarrassing mistakes. That's what I think we're going to do today.

**Sam Parr** (1:11)
Yeah, we got about, like, five or eight categories of, like, on hiring, on creating comp plans, on having boundaries with staff. These actually sound, like, boring when we're, like, just when I'm just reading that off. But I promise you, it's actually, we have, like, interesting stories behind each one and stuff we wish we would have done earlier that I deeply regret that I didn't do now or that I didn't do then.
But, yeah, we'll go through all the stuff that we actually use on a day-to-day basis to run our companies. The touchy-feely stuff is actually really important.

**Shaan Puri** (1:39)
We're gonna be back in a second, but first, let me tell you about something magical happens when the third quarter ends and the fourth quarter begins. It's where the sales teams become legends.
That's why HubShop built its Sales Hub to give sales reps the deal-making tools that they need to win in Q4 and close the year strong. Sales Hub's prospecting workplace organizes your schedule, goals, a to-do list in one place, and saves your team precious time in the fourth quarter. And with an easy-to-use deal management tool, reps can find, track, and close deals all in one place. Plus, AI forecasting helps you accurately predict future success. So, put your sales team on the fast track into winning in Q4 with Sales Hub. Learn more at hubshop.com/sales. All right, let's get back to the pod.
So, I thought it'd be fun for us to share shit we do when we run our companies. What are our almost like management hacks or shortcuts or like the methods that we use, which as a disclaimer, probably not the best. Probably not what they teach you at Harvard Business School or what, you know, like very polished, you know, seasoned executives would do.

**Sam Parr** (2:39)
I remember when I started one of my early companies, it was my internal mission statement was to hire 10,000 people. And then I hired like two people and I was like, shit.

**Shaan Puri** (2:54)
Hey, does anybody got an eraser?

**Sam Parr** (2:56)
Yeah, yeah, like how do I make this 10?
It was horrible.
And then it was like, and then the mission statement for the employees is like, look, like we're going to change whatever, like right now the word is democratize. We're democratizing the financial markets or whatever. It's like, whatever that is, is what I said. Like we're going to change the world one newsletter at a time. And so my mission statement, Did you really say that? No, but it was probably like as lame.
That would be the worst if I said that. But no, they're pretty lame. Now they're way more.
So here's what I tell people. I go, here's the mission for the business. This first one is very selfish, which is I want to work on cool shit with cool people and have a dope life. That's just what I tell people. I go, so it's very selfish. I just want to work with cool people on interesting things. And that's more so the mission than anything. And then it's like, and if we are able to do this, this and this, that will also be cool versus a far more grand thing. My mission statements aren't nearly as grand. Are yours?

**Shaan Puri** (3:57)
I am in the exact same bucket. So definitely used to be like changing the status quo, you know, on my Steve Jobs shit. And, you know, because that's who you looked up to, looked up to Steve Jobs, looked up to Elon Musk. And he's like, you know, create an interplanetary species. It's like, oh, OK, cool.