For the next 5 minutes, let’s elevate your career.
In today’s email:
Treat people as unique
Hearing the unsaid
1 to 3
Kill ideas
Dharmesh Shah’s career wisdom
ON YOUR CAREER
Treat people as unique
We want to be treated as unique individuals. Not merely headcount to be managed or a customer persona to be sold to.
Each of us can help people feel seen and heard. Mindfulness at work includes noticing others.
Remember the stories of each person. Acknowledge their wants. This builds trust and collaboration.
No matter how many customers you have, each is unique. The day you start thinking of them as this amorphous ‘collection’ and stop thinking of them as people is the day you start going out of business.
COMMUNICATION
Hearing the unsaid
People often don’t say everything they want to. They may be overly-diplomatic. Or they can’t yet articulate their thoughts.
3 tips to hearing the unsaid:
✅ Pay attention to body language - watch for changes in facial expressions, posture, and eye contact.
✅ Observe how voice is used - notice hesitations and changes in tone, speed, and volume.
✅ Ask clarifying questions - seek examples, strengths of conviction, and ask if there’s anything else we should be considering?
Colleagues appreciate when they have the time and space to express their opinions.
The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn’t said.
PRODUCTIVITY
1 to 3
Katrina Lake, founder of Stitch Fix, said “Every day, I try to focus on the one to three things that, if we achieved them, would make the biggest difference.”
This helps her avoid being distracted by emails and low-value meetings. It gives her permission to say ‘no’. And boosts her productivity and lowers her stress.
What are 1 to 3 things you want to achieve today?
You have to be ruthless about prioritizing what really matters.
1 MINUTE TO LESS STRESS
Kill ideas
The most fun part of my work week is brainstorming ideas with colleagues and clients. Ideas are great. But we need to kill most ideas.
Indulging more and more ideas doesn’t serve us. We’re procrastinating from creating value.
Our power is in thinking hard, choosing the best idea, then getting on with it.
More startups die from idea gluttony than starvation.
CAREER WISDOM
Dharmesh Shah
Dharmesh Shah (1967 — ) was born in Ankleshwar, western India. He completed a BS in Computer Science (Alabama) and Masters in the Management of Technology (MIT). Shah started Pyramid Digital Solutions, a financial services software company in 1994. A decade later he sold it to SunGard.
Shah co-founded HubSpot with Brian Halligan in 2006. HubSpot is a leading Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform. In 2024, its total revenue was $2.63 billion. It offers Marketing, Sales, Service, Content, and Commerce Hubs.
Shah is also a prolific angel investor, startup mentor, and writer. In 2023, he purchased the domain chat.com because of the potential of chat-based AI. Shah sold the domain to OpenAI in 2024 for more than $15 million. He made a smart decision to receive this in OpenAI shares rather than cash. Some of Shah’s career wisdom:
Success is making those who believed in you look brilliant.
Sleep is that time you’re working on startup problems with your eyes closed.
Don’t be afraid to challenge the status quo.