FortyTwo Principles

Things we think about when we build, hire, chat or be

1) Ship like a speedboat 🚤

• Push code!

• Make it quick.

• Test and iterate.

• Failing is learning. Faster we fail, faster we learn.

2) Love your users, they’ll love you

• Users are our most important all. Make time for them.

• Have open lines of communications

• Provide updates on what we’ve pushed - weekly

• Listen to them closely for fundamental needs

• Be real with them

• Be the user!

3) Marathon Thinking

• This is a 7 year play. Next year it may be 7 years again.

• Where are things going in the long-term. That’s where we’re looking.

• Hands build today. Mind thinks the future.

4) Do what’s right, right?

• Have willpower to act with good values/morals

  • Sometimes its hard when different incentives are at play

• Gut check yourself

  • “Am I acting with integrity?”

  • “Am I doing what’s right?”

  • “Is the company acting with integrity?”

• Reversed gratification

  • Get hard things over and done with as quickly as possible

    • Often the suspense / worry is worse than the outcome

  • Delay good things as long as possible

    • Often the anticipation is better / more motivating than the outcome

5) Consistency is key

• Equanimity - ups and downs are part of life. They’re part of nature - sometimes it’s windy, sometimes it’s breezy, sometimes it’s rainy, sometimes sunny, oceans are wild and flat and mountains are big and small and have dips. Keep your cool, dude/dudess!

• Resilience - this ain’t gonna be easy

• Perseverance - “The problem isn’t the problem, the problem is the attitude towards the problem” - Captain Jack Sparrow

6) Honesty, with respect

• When you’re having a hard conversation with someone, and you don’t know how to say something, use that feeling as a trigger to think “I need to cross the honesty bridge”

• Honesty can be brutal and harsh. But it doesn’t need to be. That’s where respect comes in. Understand that you’re dealing with another person, with their own thoughts and perspectives.

• Keep the conversation open-minded, while stating how you feel.

• There is always the right way of handling a situation. Try to find that right way.

• Your sentence should be something along the lines - “Okay, I’m going to tell you how I truly feel about [xyz] and I would love to hear your thoughts and feedback”

7) You can’t make dollars if you can’t make sense

• Think, discuss, think, discuss.

• Be clear in your understanding of topics.

• Don’t be afraid to say you don’t know understand something.

• Strong fundamentals make sound structures.

• The team is here to support in anyway.

8) Be Brave

• Things that are hard:

  • Doing what’s right

  • Being honest

  • Speaking up

  • Working hard

  • Rejection

  • Admitting failure

• We need these hardships. They’re not going to kill us.

• Be brave, put yourself in the firing zone

9) Abundance Mindset

• Don’t be afraid to give.

• We have:

  • Abundant time to create.

  • Abundant abilities to help each other.

  • Abundant expertise for questions.

  • Abundant engineering capacity to build.

  • Abundant money to survive.

  • Abundant resources to thrive.

• Act with abundance. We have more than enough.

10) Try first, failure second, ask third

• The goal is to learn!

  • Trying = learning

  • Failing = learning

  • Asking = learning

• Coming to the team with clear specific thoughts because you had tried and failed keeps the engine oiled and moving.