Why Balance Is the Enemy of Greatness | David Senra

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
Sometimes, I think I should shut up and not say the things I say on podcasts. David Senra, David Senra.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:05)
The guy's name is David Senra. He's got a podcast called Founders.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:09)
To even get on Founders' podcast, you have to be so good at your job. Somebody wrote a fucking book about it. That's an insanely high ball. It's almost like it's an obsession.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:18)
It is, I'm addicted. I've known you now for, I don't know, four or five years. I think you are crazier now than you were.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:24)
I'm not balanced. I don't think I can be balanced. I don't think I want to be balanced. I want to be the best in the world at what I do. People are like, oh, 10,000 hours. I'm way past that, like way past that. So of course I've changed. I'm not doing this to stay the same.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:38)
The difference between the world's greatest and pretty good, it's not a little bit better. It's not 20% better. It's like thousand times better. And that is hard to grasp.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:46)
Mediocrity is invisible until passion shows up and exposes it. I've become intolerable for people that are casual and I don't even know why I'm like that. I think I was lying to myself for a while that I don't need anybody else. I wanted professional success to say I was born in the wrong environment. And I will prove to you that I am not like the rest of these people. It's almost like a revenge for being born.

**SPEAKER_2** (1:11)
Are you a happy person? I don't think you're happy. I...
You have to look this guy up. Ilud Kipchoge. You have to see what he looks like. He looks more like a gazelle than a human being. Because the thing about world-class athletes and runners is you see them when they're exerting themselves and wearing their running gear or whatever. And so they're like, yeah, he looks amazing. But then you see him in real clothes and you're like, oh my God, that person is so much skinnier, has so much less body fat than the average Joe. How on earth are these two human beings both human beings? Like a normal person versus elute. And so he runs the marathon, I think, of like 201, which is like 436, I think, for the mile, crazy fast. And what we were saying was the difference between the world's greatest or the best there ever was and pretty good, you know, it's not a little bit better. It's not 20% better. It's like 10 times better or 100 times better. Or a thousand times better. And that is hard to grasp. Do you agree?

**SPEAKER_1** (2:12)
Yeah. I mean, you asked me, you're like, what am I think right before we start recording, you saw what I was doing, you're like, what are you thinking about? And I was like, I'm thinking about how this looks. And he's like, but does that matter? I was like, everything matters. Like we're trying to be the best in the world at what we're doing. So like we have to take everything very, very seriously. I think the only thing I'm obsessed with, there's actually one of the best pieces of advice I ever got, that I won't shut up about, and I think about literally probably every day now, is this idea of constant refinement of association, that my friend Jared Kushner told me.
And Jared is unbelievably honest. There's a great line in, I just finished, we were talking upstairs, I just finished reading Bruce Springsteen's Autobiography. And there's a great line, he talks about his deep friendship that he has with Jimmy Ivey. And he's like, you want Jimmy in the room? Because he'll tell you the truth. Like, everybody around Bruce is kissing his ass, and like Jimmy's just like, this album sucks, so this is great, you trust his judgment. And Jared's like that too, where he's just like, if he's your friend and he likes you, he's very kind, but he will like, hey, what you're doing is not good enough for you. This person is not good enough for you. Be careful with this. And so this concert of friendly association is important because as you keep getting better at what you do, you get access to people that are great at what they do too. And there's a lot of commonalities between them. And then once you're exposed to that, I always have this line that mediocrity is invisible until passion shows up and exposes it. I've become intolerable for people that are casual, the way they push their work, or the friends they choose to hang out with, or just anything that is not them striving for excellence. And I don't even know why I'm like that. It's just I have to be, I want to be, I have to be the best in the world at what I'm doing. And so that is where I'm starting.