BRM reposted this
At BRM, we ask for forgiveness, not permission. The "A" in our values (TAPE) stands for Agency. And we only hire high agency teammates. ➝ They see a problem, they fix it. ➝ They see an opportunity, they jump on it. ➝ They hear critical customer feedback, they fix the issue. I'd rather pull someone back than constantly push them forward. And there's something really fascinating about agency in practice: When you make it a core value, you start celebrating different things. Not just people getting their assigned work done (though that matters). You celebrate the work that they weren't supposed to do, that wasn't assigned to them—but they picked up anyways. The greatest winning cultures figure out a way to attract, recruit, and retain high agency people. They celebrate the moments when people act with agency. And the best people, are attracted to these environments, and the culture. Now, imagine you pair high-agency people with tenacity (the "T" in TAPE). You get people to do the best work of their lives. You want to be in an environment that pushes you to do the best work of your life. Otherwise, you are wasting your most precious resource. Time. If you are early in your career, find an environment like BRM. I have always actively sought out these environments. Why? I was given responsibilities that I wasn't qualified for, which enabled me to exponentially grow. At Summit Partners, I was talking to CEOs about their business when I was days out of school––I knew nothing about investing. At RelateIQ (SalesforceIQ) it was figuring out our early GTM motion, I had never sold before. At Sourcegraph it was figuring out how to be a COO, I had never had that role before. And at Carta it was starting our policy org,––I knew nothing about DC or policy. I acted with agency. I asked lots of questions, made even more mistakes, and ended up figuring out what needed to be done. High agency people go take things. And if there is one thing I have learned, nothing is given to you––it must be taken.