Why Does Vlad Tenev Say to Grow Thick Skin?

Vlad Tenev says leaders should grow thick skin. Struggle and endurance still matter, and he tries to create that environment even though he has not fully figured it out.

A good part of the difference, he says, is nature versus nurture. He may simply have been born that way, and he does not know how much of it comes from the environment. The hopeful view for other leaders is that a challenge now makes a person more level later. He credits Bezos with saying the way through these challenges is to grow thick skin.

You can control that about yourself, and you cannot control the outside world. Growing thick skin, as he puts it, is a superpower that not everyone is capable of.