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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hello, Action Catalyst listeners. This is Adam Outland with Overtime with Outland. Today, we're talking about Episode 499 with Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation. We learned a lot from Jimmy. That should be obvious because of what he's accomplished in life by building the Wikipedia that we're all so familiar with.
So here are a few consolidated lessons from my interview with Jimmy. Number one, scaling is a double edged sword. Jimmy tells the story of when Wikipedia first began growing, they kept having to add servers. First one, then two, then four, then soon 16 and 32 servers. The more servers they added, the faster the site ran.
the more people wanted to use it, the more servers they needed to add, and so forth. The growth was both the blessing and the challenge. So what was the lesson? Try and be prepared to be a huge success on a scale that you didn't even expect. Just as much as you might plan for something to fail, both can be a headache if you're not ready.
Number two, in business and in relationships, trust is fundamental to actually getting things done. Trust between individuals, trust between the rank and file and management, trust between equals in different areas of the company. You need to trust to gain clarity and you need clarity to make progress.
Jimmy Shear is a cautionary tale from Uber at a time in that company's history when the erosion of trust almost cost them big time. He also identifies purpose is a big part of trust. that having a predictable purpose can help you gain trust from others. As an example, he mentions working with for-profit boards versus non-profit boards.
For-profit company boards have an easily identifiable and shareable purpose. You need to be profitable to be sustainable. That clarifies a lot of questions right away for their motives. However, in non-profits, there's often a shared goal, but a million different ways to reach that goal when profit isn't the controlling factor.
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Chapter 2: What insights does Jimmy Wales share about scaling Wikipedia?
It opens up space for creativity, but it also for confusion and unpredictability. And being predictable is part of building trust. Number three, and finally, Jimmy's best advice for up-and-comers is simple. Just get started on whatever it is that you think you'd like to do. Give things an experiment. Give things a try. He says the next five years will go by no matter what you do.
And when you look back in five years, you'll be happier if you tried something and it didn't work out than if you never tried it at all. He says a lot of people are wantrepreneurs instead of entrepreneurs, someone who's constantly writing a business plan but never quite does something. It's more important to just get the wheels in motion than over plan.
Lastly, he says to do the thing you find most interesting, not the thing that'll make you the most money, Because if you do the thing that will make the most money, but you kind of hate it, you're probably not going to make that much money doing it anyway, because you're going to be bad at it.
So don't make money your North Star in the first place. For these insights and so many more, check out the full interview in Action Catalyst episode 499 with Jimmy Wales.