David Senra: Why the Best Are Not just 10% Better

Sometimes I think I should shut up and

not say the things I say on podcasts.

>> David Senra.

>> David Senra.

>> The guy's name is David Senra. He's got

a podcast called Founders. To even get

on Founders Podcast, you have to be so

good at your job. Somebody wrote a book

about it. That's an insanely high bar.

>> It's almost like it's an obsession.

>> 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.

>> 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. 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. 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. Are you a happy

person? I don't think you're happy. I

>> Okay. So, you have to look this guy up.

Elude Kipoki. You have to see what he

looks like. He looks more like a gazelle

than a human being. Cuz the thing about

uh world class athletes and runners is

you see them like when they're uh

exerting themselves and like wearing

their like running gear or whatever. And

so they like, "Yeah, he looks amazing."

But then you see him in real close 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

elude. And so he he runs the marathon I

think like 2011, 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?

>> Yeah. I mean, you asked me like, "What

am I think Right before we started

recording, you saw what I was doing 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 um

one of the best pieces of advice I ever

got uh 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 um I just finished, we were

talking upstairs. I just finished

reading Bruce Springsteen's

autobiography and there's a great line.

and he talks about his deep friendship

that he has with Jimmy Ivine and he's

like you want Jimmy in the room cuz

he'll tell you the truth. Like everybody

around Bruce is kissing his ass and like

Jimmy's just like this album sucks or

this is great. Like 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 like

hey that 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 concept 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 like people that

are casual the way they push their work

or the 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

>> Were you like that or did you become

like that because you've studied 400

biographies of greatness? That's a great

question. I don't know. Michael Dell has

this great line in his autobiography

where, you know, he at the time he's 19

years old. He's in his dorm room at the

University of Texas. He's got $1,000 and

he's like, "I'm going to compete with

IBM." That is delusional. IBM at the

time is the most valuable valuable

company in the world. It was the first

company, I didn't even know. I had to go

back and research this. The first

company to get to a hundred billion

dollar market cap in history was IBM.

And you have this kid that's like, I'm

going to compete head-to-head with them.

And the next line when he's talking

about this is, "Was I a little full of

myself at 19?" Sure, I was. I think you

have to be to do anything special. So, I

always had this like deep uh just like

delusional self-confidence

and like default optimism that like if I

focus on something, I will figure it

out. I will figure out how to do this.

But I also think it's impossible. Like

I've obviously changed. I've been doing

the other I've been doing founders

podcast for almost 10 years. It's like I

think I'm like I don't know 407 of these

books by far. That's hundreds of

thousands of pages. That is People are

like, "Oh, 10,000 hours. I'm way past

that." So, of course, I've changed. I'm

not doing this to stay the same.

>> Well, I've known you now for I don't

know four or five years and I've

listened to you for longer than that. I

think you are crazier now than you were.

I think you are more obsessed now than

you were.

>> Sometimes I think I should shut up and

not say the things I say on podcasts

because I like I don't like having a

filter. I don't like having two

different sides of me. It makes me

fundamentally uncomfortable. And so I

then I'm like, you know what? I'm just

not going to hold back. I'm just going

to say this. I just did this when I went

on Tim Ferris's podcast and I talked

about Tim didn't tell me what we were

going to talk about other than he told

my team. He's like, please tell David

not to curse so much.

>> That's what I told you 5 years ago.

>> And I don't think that came from Tim. I

think they came from Tim's team. And I

think we did. We we accomplished that

goal. But he started asking questions

and I like hesitated for a half a second

in my mind or half a minute. I'm like,

man, I should not say this stuff. I

don't this is going to be bad. and I

just let it go. And since then, I was

just on the phone. I won't say who I was

talking to, but it's a founder of a

public company. Uh he's relatively

young, wildly successful, and he was

just like, "Hey, I listened to your Tim

Ferrris uh interview." And he's like, "I

know exactly what you're talking about

because like I went through that, too."

And you hear that over and over again.

So, to answer your question, like, "Am I

crazier? Is that the term that you use

or like more intense?" I think I was

lying to myself for a while. And if you

look at episode 222 of Founders Podcast

says Ed Thorp and in parenthesis it says