Morning Walk #55
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Morning Walk #55
The question that does wonders for expanding your network
Hi. I’m Stepa Mitaki. I’m a product person and an entrepreneur. I’ve been working in 🏙 govtech for eight years and currently work at a UK-based 🏦 fintech startup Silverbird while building a new company in 👩🏼⚕️ healthtech on the side.
Morning Walk is a personal weekly newsletter where I share some musings on tech, digital healthcare, working on startups, productivity, some nerdy stuff and an occasional share of reflections on the Ukraine war and how it feels being Russian at this moment in history.
This issue was sent out to 240 subscriber (+2 from the previous week). Last week’s issue received 440 views.
💬 The question that does wonders for expanding your network
Who do you think I should also talk to about it?
Yeap. That simple.
Okay, let me explain. Bear with me here. One of the lessons I learned in my career is the importance of connections. Exposing yourself to as many talented people as possible always goes a long way and could benefit you in the most surprising ways. Because of that, I'm always trying to meet and talk to new people. My personal objective for each week – talk to at least two new people in my field. And the range of them is as wide as possible. VCs, startup founders, product managers, healthcare experts, medical professionals, you name it. As diverse of a group as possible.
Sometimes I have a specific objective in mind; sometimes, it's just a connection for a connection's sake (if both parties are fine with that). Sometimes these talks can lead nowhere. Other times they could lead to something new and incredible. That's the beauty of it. Embrace the unknown and trust the universe.
Before that, I used to live in my own little shell, protecting my worldview and not being honestly interested in others. I used to have brainstorming sessions with myself, thinking through complex problems and figuring out solutions, honestly believing I could do it on my own. And yes, sometimes that does work. Sometimes you can spark a great idea by yourself in the shower or while reading something.
But I found that most insights emerge in conversations. I talk to a person, and something just snaps. It snaps only in my head, but that is fine. I have just been exposed to another person's worldview, their unique opinion, something I couldn't even have considered before. And it sparks an idea.
Several months ago, in a conversation with one expert, when we were about to wrap our conversation, I asked him just out of the blue something I hadn't used before:
Who do you think I should also talk to about it?
He started thinking and introduced me to his former colleague. Fast forward a few months, and this person joined our team as a co-founder. Without that question, he wouldn't bring that person up. He genuinely had to think of someone for a minute or so, but the outcome was spot-on.
Now, I ask this question almost all the time at the end of a meeting with someone new. Try it a couple of times, you'd be amazed what kind of wonders it can do.
Best finds of the week
😜 Fun thing of the week: Lesser Known Apple Watch Workouts
These workouts are way more relevant to my life than Tai Chi, Australian Football, or Lacrosse.
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🎧 Cool new product: AirPods Pro 2 (11-minute video review)
Okay, my first impression of the second-generation AirPods Pro wasn’t that great, but this review made me curious to try them out. The key thing – the new H2 chip makes a huge difference to allow for better noise cancellation, and a new thing called adaptive transparency. I’m a big fan of the “transparency” mode in AirPods Pro, so this new feature got me excited immediately.
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😍 Inspirational quote: Bad ideas build momentum for good work
I once read that anything worth doing is worth doing poorly. Giving yourself permission to stink will make it easier to begin. And starting is often one of the biggest hurdles of all. A crappy first draft of an email newsletter is far better than no draft at all.
Seth Godin wrote that “the only path to amazing runs directly through not-yet-amazing. But not-yet-amazing is a great place to start, because that’s where you are. For now.”
I’m trying this new manta whenever I want to procrastinate now – just do this very poorly instead of not doing it at all.
That’s it for today. Thanks for reading. Until next week 👋🏻
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