Cut the Lifeboats

Chris Larsen

08.12.21

Chris Larsen has been a mentor to many. But who are his mentors? In his words, it's the people who said "the key words at the key moments."

Summary:

Chris Larsen has been a mentor to many. But who are his mentors? In his words, it’s the people who said “the key words at the key moments.”

Thuy

As you went on your journey as an entrepreneur, how important has mentorship been in that?
Chris_Larsen

Chris Larsen

Yeah, I think super important, and that's one thing I've kind of learned, I've tried to be a mentor to some other entrepreneurs because I think there were some key people that really inspired me and said the right thing. I just remember a friend at Stanford Business School, he said like three words to me that changed my lifeÉ "Don't go get a job, just start your own business." It's somebody I respected. If he hadn't said that, I don't think I would've started it, right? And, like, Jim Collins who's our business school professor, just the way he talked, how passionate he was about starting businesses. He'd say, "Cut the lifeboats," and he always said, "You business school graduates, you're way too risk-averse. What's the worst that's going to happen to you? Come on, cut the lifeboats." So, yeah, I think having mentors or not even mentors, even just somebody who will say those key words at a key moment can make all the difference in the world, so that kind of taught me, like, try to be like that to others as much as you can at those right moments, you can really change a lot of things in the world just by helping others see their way through. It's always good, of course, it's imperfect but I think we should all try to do that as much as we can.