What I'm about to tell you is a real

story. Yes, a very real story that

actually happened that someone actually

did or at least they are writing on

Twitter claiming that they have done.

And being a CEO of a company, I actually

tend to believe this. Now, I want you to

imagine, okay? I'm going to set the

stage, if you will. A CEO of a company

gets on stage in front of about 50

employees as far as I can tell,

and he presents his slide deck. Now, his

slide deck only has four words on it.

Imagine how intense those four words

must be because obviously being the CEO,

he must be doing a presentation,

especially in today's day and age, those

four words must have been encouragement,

letting them know that the quarter's

actually going super well. What do you

think they could be? Something to make

the the group of people stronger and

want to fight better. But no, that's not

what it was. Instead, the four words

were simple, remember to not smile.

That's right. That's it. The reactions

were about what you would expect,

confused looks. And after a few nervous

laughs and awkward silence, someone

raised their hand and asked, "What does

it mean?" Now, obviously, I'm going to

have to cover this article. This is

absolutely one of the most absurd things

ever written by a CEO, but hey, to be

fair, there's a bit of truth in it all.

So, I want you to sit down and lock in,

and there's no smiling for the rest of

this presentation, okay? We're serious

people from here on out. So, two things

before we begin. First off, you'll

notice that my voice has a bit of vocal

fry to it. I hate vocal fry, but I can't

help it because I literally fried it at

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way, here's a picture of me and Tij on

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video. All right, so let's jump in.

First off, we're going to talk about uh

what is the actual basic premise. What

does the article say? Second, we're

going to find out what this company

does, which actually feels a little

silly. Like, when you look at this, it

feels a little silly what they're

writing about. And then three, I'm going

to get upset and I'm going to yap for a

little bit, and I'm going to tell you

why I think this is ridiculous.

All right, so first off, the premise. A

few months ago, Travis Kalanick

illustrated a simple point on a podcast.

Picture a marathon runner at mile 21.

Are they smiling? No. And if they are,

they're about to get passed by someone

who isn't. Someone who signed up for the

pain. Someone who will go harder and

further because of it. I've lost track

of the number of times we've won over a

customer because I stayed at the office

until 4:00 a.m. shipping a feature I

knew would blow them away the next

morning. I lost track of the number of

times I had to make a hard decision that

were genuinely painful in the moment,

but it turned out to be exactly right in

the long run. I didn't smile through a

single one of them. Damn, that kind of

goes hard, huh? Because I've also been

out there till 4:00 a.m. working on

features. I've also been the one out

there working as hard as I can. So, I

mean, this

This guy is hard. So, you're probably

asking yourself, so what is this company

that this guy is working so hard for?

It's a It's a doc It's a doc docs. It's

docs.

Docs. Docs for you. Docs for your

startup. Docs for your agents and then

enterprises. Yeah.

The doc site. Bro's writing like he's

working at Anduril writing Haskell doing

defense weapons. Like,

what are we doing here? Like, you're a

doc site. Like, why are you writing

you're at war? Now, I get it. I get it

that most products are way more

complicated than you ever really

realize. Like it's super simple to look

on the outside and go, "Oh, yeah. This

is so simple. Why don't you just do X?"

But then really on the inside, there's a

whole bunch of complications you just

will never know about cuz you've never

worked there. And I I totally understand

that. But also, being like, "Bro, don't

smile. We're working hard, staying up

till 4:00 a.m. delivering features to

customers to make sales." Self-hosted

doc site. There's

>> [laughter]

>> something there. I'm just saying doesn't

add up. Sorry for smiling right now, but

it just seems a little ridiculous. So,

not only you writing this kind of makes

you look a little bit like a goofball.

Also, why would anyone want to work at

this company now?

I don't want to work at a place where

I'm told to not to smile. I want to work

at a place that is filled with joy.

People that are actually building with

purpose and happiness because that

encourages me to work harder. This

almost feels like the exact opposite of

anything you want out of a company. In

fact, this was so absurd, my favorite

parody of it is I'm going to punch you

in the stomach. That's right. Someone

else made a single slide CEO stands up

and all he would do is punch you in the

stomach. You should actually read it.

It's It's very, very funny. So, now it's

the time where I I I try not to get too

upset. The reality is this is that I

have also worked many, many, many an

evening. I've been a part of building

startups.

Uh it's been a lot of fun in doing all

of those things, but I would I would

have to say that a fundamental premise

or a thesis that I have is actually

quite the opposite. If you have people

working late and working hard, if

there's not joy before them, if they do

not feel connected, if the camaraderie

isn't there, if they don't actually

smile because they are happy to be there

working hard, I don't think you have a

long-term or sustainable solution. And

it's not something that I expect

employees to do cuz the reality is if

you are an owner of a company, it

totally makes sense. You are working

because you own it and you have to go

way harder than everybody else. But if

you're just an employee, expecting

someone not to smile and give it their

100% all the time to deliver all

features at all times, it just sounds

absurd on its face. Now, I could be

completely misrepresenting what he's

attempting to say here, but that's kind

of what it looks like from the outside.

I most certainly, you know this by now,

am a big fan of going hard in the paint,

okay? I like working kind of hard. I

like learning. I like executing. I like

all those things. But this idea that you

can't smile, that you shouldn't smile,

to remember not to smile, this feels the

opposite of what's going to make

something that actually works for you,

something that actually makes real hard

work. Because when I read this, how I

read this person is he seems like he's

trying not to lose. He's not playing to

win. When you're playing to win, you're

having fun. You're going for gold.

You're going all in. But when you're

playing not to lose, you're looking at

your competition. How am I going to beat

them? How am I going to do better than

them? Like everything is to the side.

It's not forward. It reminds me of Boss

Baby when Boss Baby's like, "If you

focus on hitting the tree, that's what

will happen." Right? Because that's the

thing. If you focus on the bad stuff,

then that's the your destination. I know

that's not always true. That's like a

little bit of manifesting there. I'm not

trying to say that. But you get the

idea. Focus on winning. Don't focus on

not losing. And I would have to say,

waking up every morning

at like 4:50,

streaming

from 5:00 a.m. till 9:00 a.m. every

single day, then working at Netflix from

9:00 to 5:00 every single day for many,

many years until I got to the point

where I could finally retire from

Netflix and give this a real go, this

whole content creation thing. I could

not have done that if I was not smiling

through the whole thing. Because it was

exhausting. 12 hours every single day

just to get off and then also be present

and encouraging with my family and also

love them well. Like all of those things

that make every single day feel like I

woke up at 4:50 and ended at 9:30. There

was just absolutely no breaks for years

on end, and yet I look back at those

years really fondly. I look back at them

because I smiled through the whole

thing, and I ran that race well. And I'm

completely convinced if you don't know

how to smile through the hard times,

they're going to eat you alive. And I

think it's best illustrated by this guy

right here. By the way, thank you, Josh.

Huh? Josh, the J's. This guy right here,

Elliot, is considered the greatest

marathon runner in the world. He was the

one that broke the two-hour barrier, and

how would he run? He would literally run

with a smile on his face. And part of

this is because he had to smile through

it all, because the pain was so great

that he said if he could put a smile on

it, it encouraged him to go harder,

longer, faster. In fact, there's even

been training programs that actually

model themselves after his smiling, and

have found results that actually showed

that if you smile, you can work harder.

Being filled with joy, turns out, is a

secret weapon. And remembering to not

smile is going to destroy you. So,

please, remember to smile. I'm going to

give the opposite. We live in one of the

greatest time periods of all time. You

You don't even have to know how to

program that well anymore to make

something complex, which is shocking.

That was never the case for me as a kid,

okay? When I had to learn how to

program, I had to just read and read and

read and experiment for weeks to get

over some hurdles. Now, I can ask, you

know, magic rocks, "Hey, bro, how do I

do this?" Oh, that's how I do it?

Awesome. That It's just It's It's magic.

So, please,

remember to smile.

It's actually worth it. The name

is the smile-ogen.