Unleash Potential: Runnin’ Down a Dream with Bill Gurley

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0:31You're listening to Mick Unplugged, hosted by the one and only Mick Hunt.

0:35Mick:This is where purpose meets power and stories spark transformation. Mick takes you beyond the motivation and into meaning, helping you discover your because and becoming unstoppable. I'm Rudy Rush, and trust me, you're in the right place. Let's get unplugged.

0:57Mick:Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another exciting episode of Mick Unplugged. And today we have an amazing guest. I'm talking about being joined by a titan of Silicon Valley, a visionary investor, and the author of one of the greatest books that's about to hit the newsstands today. I am talking to none other than the influential, the trailblazing, the brilliant Bill Gurley. Bill, how are you doing today, brother?

1:24Bill Gurley:I'm doing great. That introduction made me blush, though, I have to tell you.

1:28Mick:I don't know about blushing. You know, I left out the Florida Gator part. Yeah. I left out some of those things so that it could stand on its own. Yes, fair enough. Fair enough. Bill, man, there's so many things that we can and should talk about. You are one of the best minds that I know when it comes to investment. Your track record speaks for itself. As the kids say, you've got all the receipts, Bill, so we don't have to go through the receipts, right? But then this book came to my doorstep, Running Down a Dream. And I said, I did not know this Bill Gurley, right? I knew a lot of things that I've researched about you, read about you, been a huge fan of.

2:05Mick:But this book, man, I love how it's set up with principles and you've got stories in here. You've got the profiles. It's an easy read. It's one of the things where you give me someone that's a sports guy and we can talk sports and I can learn something. I'm hooked. So I have to give you kudos for that. And I want to start, I guess, the episode by just asking you the why behind the why, or as I like to call it, the because of this book and now.

2:35Bill Gurley:Yeah. So I will tell you that throughout my careers of venture capitalists, I was a blogger, you know, and some people in some fields differentiate themselves by sharing externally. And so I'd always done that. I kept notes when ideas popped in my head in case they were to become a blog post. And one day I was finishing a biography and it clicked in my brain that it connected to another one and another one. And I scribbled these notes down as if it might be a blog post one day. It really was different. It wasn't about technology or investing the way I had normally done. And then one day, someone at the University of Texas asked me to come speak to the MBA class.

3:17Bill Gurley:And I thought about this little seed I had planted. And I went in and worked on it a little bit, and it became a presentation. And that presentation got posted on YouTube, and a few people noticed it. Most notably, James Clear, who wrote Atomic Habits, started prodding me, you should make this a book one day. I think to get to the real because the way you like to use the word, I was finishing my venture career thinking about how I was going to hang up the boots, thinking about what I wanted to do with what's left of my life. I read this great book by Arthur Brooks called Strength to Strength, where he gives advice to people at that precise station in life.

3:59Bill Gurley:And he does a great job of making clear that in this window, you want to have as much impact as you can possibly have. And so I could have written a book about investing or venture capital or any of those things, but it wouldn't touch as many people as I hope this one can touch. And so I spent five years turning the presentation into a book. There's way more in the book than in the video. I had a co-writer that did research with me. We went through all the academic work in the category. We met some of the best nonfiction writers. We spent a lot of time purposely designing the book to be readable the way that you talk about.

4:39Bill Gurley:Like there's a lot of hooks and there's a lot of intentionality behind why it's structured the way it is and so that it would be consumable and influential. Like there's a lot of great writers that highlight that stories are more, they penetrate the brain in a different way than if I just give you a list of things to do. And no one loves reading a textbook, right? So you want it to be something that people can read and get a hold of. But the intent is precisely, and this may be part of the cause too, the intent is to unlock human potential that may be latent and under the surface or that doesn't have the confidence or permission to kind of go chase your dream.

5:25Bill Gurley:And I want to convince you that you can chase your dream. You can chase it in fields that many people might tell you you can't. And I want to give people the toolbox that they need to be successful. So the motivation, but also the methodology and the combination of those two should breathe confidence. I want to put wind in people's sails and say, go do this thing. Go do this thing. You know, life's short. And you start to figure out life's short about 42, something around there, I think, is where you start to figure that out.

6:00Mick:Amazing, man. And again, this book is, I mean, you said it is structured so perfectly. And now understanding kind of what the science that went behind that, I'm going to appreciate it even more. There's a couple of things in here. You know, we talk about the principles. We talk about the profile. So when you say no matter what career, no matter what niche or industry you're in, you've got something there. You know, we talk about restaurants. We talk about stylists. We talk about music. One of the profiles that I personally resonated with, and I'd love for you to elaborate because I have the guru here with me, is learning from the legend.

6:35Mick:That touched me because when I look at my life, when I look at my business life and the success, it starts with that, right? And then you go into some principles that kind of tied to that as well. So I'd love to give you the floor and talk about learning from the legends a little bit.

6:51Bill Gurley:Yes. One of, there were three original biographies that I pieced together. And one was a restaurateur, and one was a folk singer, and one was a basketball coach. And I think you'll notice in almost every story in the book, I chose industries that were non-traditional, non-safe, and precisely the kind that I think a parent might feel a little nervous if their child was going to go ahead at. And that was very intentional. Like, I think I want everyone to understand that if you are truly passionate about something, you can find a career in it. And you shouldn't shy away from it just because society maybe says you shouldn't.

7:35Bill Gurley:But the chapter you're talking about is Bobby Knight. And what really impressed me about Bobby Knight, his intensity of mentor pursuit is, I think, unprecedented. Like, the things he did, I just don't know that other people have even considered. And he did it in a time where getting in front of someone was way harder. You can get in. I want to get into the AI thing and all this. But like for people that have agency and want to go learn and connect, today's world's way easier. Bobby Knight did it in the 50s and 60s. It was hard, you know. And he would drive five hours to go to a conference just to hope he might be able to meet someone.

8:16Bill Gurley:Like it was very aggressive. And there's a scene in the book where he shows up at Pete Newell's house with 100 basketball plays on index cards and says, let's sit down and go through these. The audacity of that is just nuts. But one thing that clicks in Bobby Knight's mind early in that journey is all of these great people who are at the top of their field are sharing with him. And there's even a scene where one great shares with his coach something, and he has this experience where he feels like his coach takes advantage of that and wins the game against this guy that shared with him. But then he reflects on it and decides that, and I think believes that sharing has this kind of exponentially positive impact on your own success.

9:11Bill Gurley:and he kind of dedicates his life to that. And I think a lot of humans get stuck in this idea that it's a zero-sum game and I'm competing with everybody and it causes them to not connect, to not have real human relationships, to not build peer groups. And it's way harder to climb that ladder by yourself. You know, it's just way harder. I think the most positive reflection people should have on Bobby Knight, and I know there's a controversy about some of his tactics along the way, is his coaching tree. He touched and influenced more people in basketball through the people he mentored and advised and then championed to go do their own thing.

9:58Bill Gurley:It's remarkable. I think it's on his Wikipedia page. You can go look through it, but it's just like the number of people that hold interesting roles in the basketball coaching industry right now, that worse, a descendant of either Bobby or one of his descendants is prolific. It's prolific.

10:16Mick:Yeah, I mean, you're spot on in everything that you said and what the book goes through. And you know, the principle that follows that is to always give back, right? And so one of the things that I tell people to get in front of the right people, to invest in yourself, sometimes financially, but a lot of times the time. I'd love to get your take on that before we get into AI. I think more people limit themselves because they're not willing to invest. Again, I don't just mean financially, but, you know, like Damon John's a mentor of mine. Robert Irvine's a mentor of mine. I follow a Bill Gurley because you're available, right?

10:56Mick:You have teachings. You give away much more than you probably should. But I think people who don't try to go get that information or, hey, Bill has a mastermind and it might cost X thousands of dollars to be in it. But the information you're going to get, the peer group you're going to get out of that is amazing. I love to get your take on.

11:14Bill Gurley:Yeah, no, I'm a, well, one, I'm just, you know, and after, after 30 years of doing what I love, I, I, I think the general rule, which echoes what I just said about Bobby Knight is sharing and giving information and not feeling like you have some kind of proprietary knowledge that you have to keep from your competition. is just going to lead to more success and a more fulfilled, more fulfillment and a happier life. Like you'll develop all these amazing relationships. And so it's a mindset. And then in terms of like, in terms of like finding mentors, like it's never been easier to look people up to study who's great at something.

11:56Bill Gurley:I think you can adopt mentors aspirationally. There's so many, so many podcasts, so many ways to learn. You know, people do long YouTube interviews. Like, just make a list of 10 people in the industry you want to go thrive in that you highly respect and start studying them. Like, keep a Google Doc or keep a folder on them. Like, make a list of all the podcasts they've done. Listen to them all. You know, write down what you think they're great at and why. Like just even that exercise is going to put you in a place you wouldn't have been otherwise. And if doing that sounds uninteresting or tedious, you are tilted at the wrong windmill.

12:39Bill Gurley:That's not your passion. You need to go find something else. It should feel like fun doing that kind of work.

12:45Mick:And now to segue to AI a little bit, if you can take that information and use it the right way, I've got Bill Gurley accessible 24-7 almost, right? Like I can talk to Bill Gurley, get Bill Gurley's insights and know that it's as if I'm talking to him or at least learning like Bill learned. So I thought -

13:05Bill Gurley:More than ever before. And then you could even ask AI, pretend you're so-and-so and let me talk to him. And I mean, it's not perfect, but compared to what you had access to back in Bobby Knight's day, it's night and day difference. Like the thing I would say about AI, If your career is crafted by the educational industrial complex and you're one of 100 people doing the exact same thing and you come out of academia like a widget and you're not someone who's passionate or not someone who self-learns, you are a sitting duck for what AI may do. If you have kind of a custom career path where you're chasing something you're really, really fascinated by, AI is like a jetpack, jet fuel superpower.

13:57Bill Gurley:Like you can go learn at a rate that is faster than any part of any time in history at all. This is the premier time to learn as fast as you could in all of history. But you need agency to do that. You have to want to be thriving in something to recognize, well, this is going to let me run even faster as opposed to being afraid of it.

14:25Mick:How has AI impacted what you do, especially when you look at the career or the receipts that you've had? Where do you see AI taking that place?

14:36Bill Gurley:Well, I mean, the history of technology is such that when automation comes along, certain jobs go away and other jobs pop up. And, you know, this goes, there's a word called Luddite for people that are afraid of technology. And it relates to a point in history in Europe when the loom was invented and people tried to outlaw it. And the truth of the matter is there's no technology that's been outlawed ever. It's very unlikely that the government's going to tell all the AI companies to go away. Like these technologies become new realities. And, you know, we used to be 98 percent of Americans used to be in agriculture.

15:17Bill Gurley:And I think most of us are pretty happy that's not true anymore. And the tractor came along and the number of people that need to be in agriculture fell to like two percent of the workforce. And so it's a reality that these technologies come along. If you feel threatened by it, I'd recommend you run at it. Yeah. You need to understand what it's capable of in your industry. And if you can harness it, and if you can be known in your industry or in your office as a person that understands AI the most, you're golden. They want those people around.

15:55Mick:Right, right. Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. Bill, I want to, I want to, before I get you out of here, go back to the book one more time. Just because, bro, like, this book is amazing. I appreciate that. Like, genuinely amazing. I mean, you talk about Sam Hinckley a little bit. You talk about Sarkeesian a little bit. Like, you have a lot of coaching, and I know what sports means to you like it does to me. What's one thing that you want to make sure people get out of this book?

16:27Bill Gurley:You know, it's interesting you bring up athletics. I've been talking to both. There's an amazing chapter on athletic directors, which is just so fascinating. I'll let people find that on their own. But I was talking to the athletic director here at Texas, and Chris was telling me, you know, 90 % of the kids that show up, when they show up, believe they're going to either be a pro athlete or go to the Olympics. And so they think there's a lot of future in front of them and athletics. And I've also talked to Andre Iguodala and TJ Ford about some of the players union stuff in the NBA. The average length of an NBA career is two years, you know, the average from the number of people that come in.

17:14Bill Gurley:And, you know, in both those stories, a group of people who have taught themselves to train, who are really good at motivation and are used to excellence who now find themselves facing the fact that they're going to have to go find a different career for the rest of their life. And I'm going to make sure we get a bunch of books in front of that particular cohort because they're so driven and they've learned how to be so disciplined that I think this book's going to really be helpful for them because they just need to go in a different direction, right? They know how to be motivated and they know how to be disciplined and know how to work hard and they need to find the thing to go tilt against.

17:55Bill Gurley:But the main thing I want people to understand is that you do have agency in life and you can go do these things. And I want you to believe that you can. There's this great story in Matthew McConaughey's book, Greenlight, where he's told his father he wants to be a lawyer his whole life. And his father's told his friends. And so it's like, oh, yeah, Matthew's going to be a lawyer. And he's at the University of Texas and meets some people in film school and gets enamored and is frightful that he has to call his father and tell him, you know, oh, I'm going to go to film school. And he finally gets the call set up and he gets his father on the phone, very nervous.

18:34Bill Gurley:And he tells him, Dad, I don't think I want to be a lawyer anymore. I'm going to go to film school. And there's a pause. And then his dad says, well, don't half-ass it. And Matthew says that in the book that it's the last thing he expected his father to say and the best possible thing he could have said because he took away any fear of guilt or anger. He showed immense levels of support and even add a little bit of responsibility, you know, on top of it. Like, go do this. If you're going to do it, go do it. Great. And I want to do what McConaughey's father did for him for as many people as possible.

19:13Bill Gurley:Like, you think you want to go do something? I want to make you believe you can do it. I want to help you believe you can do it. I want to give you permission to do it. And I want to give you the tools to maximize your success.

19:23Mick:That is amazing, brother.

19:25Bill Gurley:That is amazing.

19:26Mick:So here's what I'm going to do to pay things forward and to live some of the principles of this book. I'm going to purchase 20 copies. I'm going to purchase 21 copies. But the first 20 people that message me dream, you're going to get a copy of this book. Awesome. From me through Bill Gurley. Got it. So Bill, have your team. Matthew, reach out to me. I want, I'm going to buy 20 copies. So however you want me to do that, I'm going to do that. The first 20 people that do, I've got you. The reason I want an extra one, like I have one, but Bill, I'm going to come see you in person. I need one signed by you.

20:03Mick:So when I see you, I want that one just for me.