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Back to Garry Tan — Building the world you want to live in, with Garry Tan.

What Advice Did Garry Tan Get at Sixteen From a San Francisco Agency Founder?

The best advice Garry Tan remembers came at sixteen, interning at an early digital agency in San Francisco. The founder later sold the company, Tan thinks for about fifty or eighty million dollars, and had worked on the first Apple online store. Tan learned Perl and database applications there, then asked how one person got everyone else to follow. The founder said counselors, professors, and parents would all push him to put a single title on a résumé, and that he should refuse the box. Learn design, front-end engineering, marketing, sales, psychology, media, and finance. A chief executive does not have to be the best at each of those. He does have to understand them well enough to lead.

Transcript

Garry Tan — Building the world you want to live in ·

Paradox Podcast

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