Stephen Witt

Probably most people in this room have an easier kind of internal mental monologue than Jensen has for himself.

I mean, in some sense, he truly is almost uncomfortable

in his own skin.

He almost like hates himself.

He's beating himself up constantly.

I find this in some ways relatable.

I remember I was talking to Jimmy Iovine once.

This is on a separate story I wrote about music.

Jimmy Iovine is a music producer.

He worked with Dr. Dre.

But early in his career, he worked with Bruce Springsteen.

And he's like, yeah, I'll never forget when Bruce Springsteen came into the studio and he was like, God, I'm washed up.

All of these younger artists are doing better work than me.

And it's all over for me.

It's all over for me.

And then he writes Born in the USA.

And it comes from a place of feeling like he's washed up after 10 years in the music business, right?

It comes from fear.

And Jimmy Iovine was, you can't believe how powerful motivator fear can be for an artist.

I guess it's true for a CEO, too.