Scott Duffy tells how MC Hammer solved every clue at a Hawaii obstacle competition by taking the simplest path first. He uses that story to explain why founders should do the same when launching and growing businesses.
So when Eric and I first talked about this conference, here's what he said to me. He said, you have to teach every single thing that you know about launching and growing great businesses. And you got 20 minutes. And I'm like, oh, my God. So how are we going to do that? And on the way over, I was thinking, well, here's how we're going to start reminding me of a story. See, a few years ago, I had this opportunity to go to this awesome investor conference. And the conference was on the big island of Hawaii. And I remembered that when I first got there on the first day and I was checking in, here's what happened. They gave me a T shirt, and it was a certain color. And here's what they said. They said, we want you to find every single person who is here that has the same color T shirt because you guys are going to make up a team and you're going to spend the entire day going around the big island of Hawaii on this obstacle course, like this crazy competition. Sounds cool, right? So I start to look around for the people on my team, and I see the first person. It's Dick Costello, the CEO of Twitter. And I look around and I see the second person. It's Sarah Lacey. Sarah Lacy is probably the most influential person ever when it comes to Silicon Everything in Silicon Valley and news and media. And then I look over here and here's Bill Tai, the famous venture capitalist. And I'm like, oh, my God, with all of this brain power, there is absolutely no way that we can't win. But there was one person, one person left, and none of us could find him. And then I turned around and there he was, MC Hammer.
You know MC Hammer, like the rapper? What's the song he does Touch this. That's right. So anyway, we get. We all pile in this van and we head out to our first clue. And I remember we get to the first clue and it's like these sticks and these rocks and all this stuff in this pile. And then there's the sheet of paper. And so we read the clue, and I remember that me and Dick and Sarah, we're sitting, we're trying to figure this thing out. And we're like 15, 20 minutes in now. Hammer, he's over here. Hammer's over here. He's talking on his cell phone, like, having a great time, looking at the ocean, talking to his boys. So I'm like, hammer, would you come over and help us out? And he says, no problem. So he walks over, he says, let me see that piece of paper. He takes it, he reads it one time he says, do this, this, this and this. Takes the paper, drops the mic, and he walks away. And guess what? He was right. So we go to the second clue and the same thing happened. It was like me and Dick and Bill said, we're looking at this thing. We can't figure it out. Hammer, would you come help us? So over here, he says, no problem. He takes the sheet of paper, the clue, he reads it one time, and he gets it right.
So that day, we had eight clues, and guess what? MC Hammer solved every single one. It was incredible. And I remember that night I asked him, I saw him in the hotel. I said, dude, that was amazing. I said, how did you do that? And he started to laugh. And he said this. He said, you know, you entrepreneurs, he said, you're all the same. He said, you start here. This is where you start. And your goal is over here. And he said, somehow you figure out a way to make everything so complicated in the middle. And he said, I live my life with one very simple philosophy. He said, I always find a way to the simplest path first. And so that's what we're going to do. In the short time that we have together today, I'm going to share with you a few simple ideas that you, I'm telling you, can apply them today, you can apply them right now to get amazing results for your business. Does that sound good?
Business & Burgers-Sequence Collection bracelet for National Entrepreneurship Week
