I Want Faster Horses

"If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses."

Henry Ford said that.

Smart dude.

I think a lot about the balance between creating something new (an automobile) vs improving on something that already exists ( a faster horse).

You can make money doing both!

One of the hardest things about creating something new - is very very smart people disagree with you!

Case in point.

I circulated my idea for Sagan Passport to a few people prior to launch.

Some people

• Loved it immediately (Justin & Derek… I officially forgive that you went to Stanford)

• Send me an email auto response because he doesn’t check correspondence before 12pm (Peter)

• Provided great feedback (Josh is the reason 6 hires are free, not $99 each)

• Thought it was a terrible idea (I won’t blow up their spots - but both are very smart and I respect them!)

  Screenshots below:

  
  

Ouch, right?

But here's the thing - I'd been talking to business owners about global talent for YEARS, and I knew this was something they needed.

It was also something that I WANTED (I was building it for myself… to solve my own pain).

I didn’t want to pay $3,000/month for someone in the Philippines a middleman was paying $900.

I didn’t want to pay 35% of year one salary per hire.

I didn’t want to DIY.

So, despite the take down, I (alongside the rest of the team) decided to trust our instincts and launch it anyway.

Flash forward 60 days.

It’s a rocket ship.

We are knocking on the door of 200 folks in our community.

The lesson here?

Well shit, I’m not sure!

I guess if you have a strong gut instinct…just launch the dang thing…even when super intelligent people are telling you it’s a stupid idea.

To be clear… I'm not saying you should ignore all feedback and just YOLO your way through business.

But be selective on who and how you get feedback!

When you've put in the work, talked to your customers, and have a deep-down feeling that you're onto something big - it's okay to take a calculated risk and take a swing.

Worst case scenario, you strike out and learn a valuable lesson.

Best case scenario, you hit a fucking home run and change the game for your customers and your industry (which we are doing).

Yallah Habibi,

Jon

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