The Gift of almost Infinite Choice can be our greatest Barrier in our Search for Purpose. Whurley talks about purpose, and the greatest challenge to that being almost infinite choice. Jean-Paul Sartre, who also wrestled with apprehending what it means to confront the burden of quasi-infinite choice, said “Nous sommes nos choix” or we are our choices. In Japan they have long recognised the importance of having clarity of purpose and refer to it as ikigai, a reason for being. One old Japanese proverb says ‘Suki koso mono no jouzu nare’ which basically means that there’s a direct relationship between how much you love something and how good you become at it. “It’s like what I’m working for is … easy ..summed up in one word ‘excitement ..I believe you should wake up every day and you cannot wait to get going, go do what you’re doing – at all! Completely passionate and enthralled with it to the point where you wake up in the morning and you’re like “ooh I gotta go to work .. you should quit, you should be done! … Making people not afraid of the physics behind the computing, making them inspired by it, making people not afraid of the fact that there’s no app, there’s no killer app for this, there’s no this or that, making them inspired by it, I should play with it more, not less.”
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Transcript:
WHURLEY
It’s like what do you work for? It’s like what I’m working for is easily summed up in one word …. excitement. Yeah, I want to wake up every day that way … I believe you should wake up every day and you cannot wait to get going, go do what you’re doing – at all! Completely passionate and enthralled with it to the point where you wake up in the morning and you’re like “ooh I gotta go to work .. you should quit, you should be done!
Stephen Cummins
Welcome to 14 minutes of SaaS, the show where you can listen to the stories and opinions of founders of the world’s most remarkable SaaS ScaleUps.
In this episode Whurley talks about how we need to really clarify our purpose and find out what that is in this for us in this world despite almost infinite options. Only then can we feel real passion for what we do when we get up in the morning. One old Japanese proverb says ‘Suki koso mono no jouzu nare’ which basically means that there’s a direct relationship between how much you love something and how good you become at it.
WHURLEY
No evil plot. We just want to build really kickass software that enables everybody to play with this stuff and we’re coming at it from a very different perspective – we’re coming at it from a perspective of the hackers and painters, not the business end and the computer scientist …. and so, you know, I believe we live in the most amazing time ever. …. You need to build something now, you know, the kids can use their mom and dad’s credit card and they can go on the internet and… and Amazon will, you know, through prime will deliver everything in 2 hours … a soldering iron and everything. But what much like that… that spirit of just like, you know, Making people not afraid of the physics behind the computing, making them inspired by it, making people not afraid of the fact that there’s no app, there’s no killer app for this, there’s no this or that, making them inspired by it, I should play with it more, not less.
Stephen Cummins
It’s interesting how you’ve set the model up because I would have intuitively thought that given your low boredom threshold that because quantum doesn’t move at a rate of knots, in terms of how it’s evolving, there’s a danger that you get bored after a couple of years. But actually just listening to you and looking at how you’re going to collaborate with so many cool people all over the planet … I get the impression you’re going to spend much longer with this than even your six year gig … that you could actually be involved in this maybe for the rest of your life.
WHURLEY
As far as you know, my investors are concerned, and potential acquirers of course, it’s a lifelong commitment. No. I’m just kidding. Yeah.
Stephen Cummins
Feels like something that could always be part of you. Almost all the way through.
WHURLEY
It’s why I picked it. Yeah, I had three things. I was looking at bio-hacking robotics and quantum. So I always know what my next three startups will be. I always do research. I buy some domains and do a little investment and maybe find some patents … whatever the case may be. Yeah, but I picked it because of exactly what you said. This is… this is potentially for me the big one. Not just the financial gain the… the visibility and all of that again. I am very simple … like how much money do you need? Like you get to a point where like, you know, like everything is fine. The kids are fine. You have a house you’ve made investments you’ve done it, you know, it’s like what do you work for? It’s like what I’m working for is easy summed up in one word. Excitement!
I believe you should wake up every day and you cannot wait to get going, go do what you’re doing – at all! Completely passionate and enthralled with it to the point where you wake up in the morning and you’re like “ooh I gotta go to work .. you should quit, you should be done!
Stephen Cummins
There’s this guy called Dan Buetner from California who does these Blue zones and he goes around the world and looks at populations that live the longest that are verifiably living longest by reliable data. And one thing they all have in common is this Japanese concept of ‘Ikigai’ …. knowing what you want to do when you wake up in the morning. And that might just be a, grandmother wanting to do stuff for her grandkids, you know, or someone waking up in the morning to grow Strangeworks into a world changing entity.
TO BE FINISHED …
Stephen Cummins
You’ve been listening to 14 minutes of SaaS. Thanks to Mike Quill for his creativity and problem solving skills and to Ketsu for the music. This episode was brought to you by me, Stephen Cummins. If you enjoy the podcast, please don’t forget to share it with your network, subscribe to the series, and give the show a rating.