Money in Your Pocket, Never on Your Mind

What I learned working for one of the most successful tech startups in history

An exquisite apple crumble dessert for six dollars after a long walk around a cold winter Paris. Photo: Per Håkansson.

Financial wealth is not an end in itself but a means to achieving goals like personal freedom, growth, and happiness. And reaching these goals with less resources is like running a startup with the potential to turn into a successful long-lasting corporation.

The best school I ever attended was the early web days at startups in Silicon Valley, specifically one: Yahoo!. I learned how to make something out of nothing, and how to appreciate scarcity and constraints as part of the creative process.

A few days ago I ran into David Filo, one of the two founders of Yahoo!, in the grocery store and we talked about the early days. Afterwards I kept thinking about what made us so successful then as a David among the world’s Goliaths.