Doug Leone

You got to want to learn anything about the role, who you're going to be reporting to, what you're going to be doing every day. If you succeed, why will you succeed if you fail? But the last question's, Doug, let me understand about journey. That's a made-up question. Who cares? That's certainly a question I wouldn't ask somebody if I had 10, 15 minutes to ask about a new job.

You got to want to learn anything about the role, who you're going to be reporting to, what you're going to be doing every day. If you succeed, why will you succeed if you fail? But the last question's, Doug, let me understand about journey. That's a made-up question. Who cares? That's certainly a question I wouldn't ask somebody if I had 10, 15 minutes to ask about a new job.

So I think maybe the answer to your question is maybe one or two meetings and a dinner.

So I think maybe the answer to your question is maybe one or two meetings and a dinner.

So I remember when I had my first job at Hewlett Packard, and two guys, they looked like they were 60 years old, maybe they were 40, and I was 22. They said, we'll split Manhattan into thirds, and you don't have to be in the median when we split. And, you know, as a naive young guy, oh, I'm going to get a third of Manhattan. Well, I got north of 96th Street in Manhattan.

So I remember when I had my first job at Hewlett Packard, and two guys, they looked like they were 60 years old, maybe they were 40, and I was 22. They said, we'll split Manhattan into thirds, and you don't have to be in the median when we split. And, you know, as a naive young guy, oh, I'm going to get a third of Manhattan. Well, I got north of 96th Street in Manhattan.

North of 9th Street now is cool. Let me just tell you, North of 9th Street in 1979 was not cool. It was downright unsafe. And the formative part is that for me, I didn't give up. And you always ask yourself, how do you turn a negative into a positive? And I was lucky. You know, luck does play a little bit of a role. I was lucky that there was Columbia, the university up there.

North of 9th Street now is cool. Let me just tell you, North of 9th Street in 1979 was not cool. It was downright unsafe. And the formative part is that for me, I didn't give up. And you always ask yourself, how do you turn a negative into a positive? And I was lucky. You know, luck does play a little bit of a role. I was lucky that there was Columbia, the university up there.

And there was a head of computer science called Traub that just came from Carnegie Mellon. And he was big in open systems and Unix. And he drew me a graph of the ARPANET. I never knew what the ARPANET was, which was a predecessor of the internet. So a little negative turned into a little positive, and with a little bit of success.

And there was a head of computer science called Traub that just came from Carnegie Mellon. And he was big in open systems and Unix. And he drew me a graph of the ARPANET. I never knew what the ARPANET was, which was a predecessor of the internet. So a little negative turned into a little positive, and with a little bit of success.

And then joining Sun Microsystems, or in some ways was shooting ducks in a barrel. And just coming up with a business plan that we could be successful on Wall Street, one of the biggest market segments for Sun. It's all the trading stations. and breaking that market down, and learning to use the we pronoun.

And then joining Sun Microsystems, or in some ways was shooting ducks in a barrel. And just coming up with a business plan that we could be successful on Wall Street, one of the biggest market segments for Sun. It's all the trading stations. and breaking that market down, and learning to use the we pronoun.

Here's what being smart and not greedy, whenever I sold something and somebody helped, I insisted on commission splits and those things, and I understood management took an eye of that. Well, not only is this kid selling, But look, everybody loves it. It's taking care of other people. And next thing you know, they had an eye on me. And boy, I took note of that, right? Okay.

Here's what being smart and not greedy, whenever I sold something and somebody helped, I insisted on commission splits and those things, and I understood management took an eye of that. Well, not only is this kid selling, But look, everybody loves it. It's taking care of other people. And next thing you know, they had an eye on me. And boy, I took note of that, right? Okay.

Ooh, that's how you do things. And the other thing is the mistakes that you make. when you're too aggressive, when you're too hardcore, and you say, boy, I don't want to do that. And the people that you meet, you meet two kind of people that teach you. The one that teach you what to do and the ones that teach you what not to do.

Ooh, that's how you do things. And the other thing is the mistakes that you make. when you're too aggressive, when you're too hardcore, and you say, boy, I don't want to do that. And the people that you meet, you meet two kind of people that teach you. The one that teach you what to do and the ones that teach you what not to do.

And the trick for me, I never understood when the father is an alcoholic or is an abuser and the son becomes an abuser because I have to tell you, I've had some tough rides, but I made a promise to myself that if I ever became someone, I would not do one to others as I was done to. I thought that was disgusting. I thought it was very upsetting.

And the trick for me, I never understood when the father is an alcoholic or is an abuser and the son becomes an abuser because I have to tell you, I've had some tough rides, but I made a promise to myself that if I ever became someone, I would not do one to others as I was done to. I thought that was disgusting. I thought it was very upsetting.

And when you've come to Sequoia, when I was running it, I made sure everybody respected the people that feed us. You better put your plate away. You better say thank you and so on because it starts at the foundational layer. And if you do that right, then the culture starts being right. And if you share your winnings and if you just don't talk the talk, we are a team, we are this,

And when you've come to Sequoia, when I was running it, I made sure everybody respected the people that feed us. You better put your plate away. You better say thank you and so on because it starts at the foundational layer. And if you do that right, then the culture starts being right. And if you share your winnings and if you just don't talk the talk, we are a team, we are this,