In my recent blog post Productize Yourself, I referenced Naval Ravikant‘s tweetstorm and audio series called “How to Get Rich Without Getting Lucky”.
I’ve listened to Naval’s audio series more times than I can count. It’s several hours long, making it easy to pick a random starting spot and soak in different topics.
One topic he covers extensively is the concept of Builders and Sellers. He says: “learn to sell, learn to build, if you can do both, you will be unstoppable.”
I’ve thought a lot about the Builder-Seller relationship throughout my business career. These two balancing forces, intertwining to create momentum behind an idea.
I see it visually as a Yin Yang, which is described by Wikipedia as opposite but interconnected forces that create a self-perpetuating cycle.
The Builder-Seller Yin Yang
In the business setting, I often see this dynamic play out in two-person teams – 1 Builder, 1 Seller. They join forces to cover for each other’s weaknesses.
There’s a saying: “steel sharpens steel.” These two-person teams generate friction, pushing both individuals towards a higher level of collective performance.
These two-person teams are often annoying the hell out of each other, too. Side note: Sometimes it’s good to have a third person – whether a co-founder, investor, or advisor – to play referee in times of peak agitation.
There are numerous successful examples of this two-person Builder-Seller dynamic; a few of my favorites:
Howard Marks and Bruce Karsh of Oaktree Capital Management
Phenomenally successful two-person teams – each teammate complimenting the other to max out the two sides of the Builder-Seller Yin Yang.
But these are describing two-person teams. Naval says: “if you can do both, you will be unstoppable.” He’s talking about how to develop both sides of the Yin Yang within yourself.
How does one person do that?
Let’s look at the two sides of the Yin Yang:
BUILDER
The Builder is someone who gets into the details.
Someone who loves spreadsheets. Someone who naturally catches typos when reading a newspaper.
These are the grinder-types filling the back office of many a law firm, accountancy shop or investment bank.
A Builder is someone with the temperament of your accountant. Your banker. Your CFO.
The “ops guy”.
SELLER
The Seller hates details. They want to spread their wings and fly, unconcerned with those pesky little things called details.
These are the visionary types. The big picture people.
Sellers are the creatives. The natural networkers.
They’re good at speaking extemporaneously.
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Naval is impressing upon us that we each individually need to learn how to do both – Build and Sell – in order to really take off.
I’ve found that learning both Building and Selling is totally possible. In examining both, we find they are both built upon skills that can be developed by routine practice.
Consider the following:
BUILDING SKILLS
| Skill | Thoughts | How to Acquire |
| Reading | Reading forms the basis for learning, and continuous learning is required to be a good builder (Cheers, Charlie Munger). | Learning – nearly all of us learn how to read at present day. Practicing – easy to practice, with discipline. |
| Visual & Digital Design | Developing a sense for visual appeal is a learned skill that can be accessed through patience and willingness to go through details over numerous iterations. | Learning – comparison, then trial-and-error Practicing – comparison, then trial-and-error |
| Reading Financial Statements & Financial Modeling | A basic knowledge of financial accounting is a prerequisite for running a business and climbing out of the mom-and-pop phase. Modeling starts with basic budget forecasting and extends to complicated pro forma forecasts. | Learning – there are lots of resources to learn the basics. Practicing – sit in with your CPA more, or in financial meetings at your business, and let it wash over you. |
| Software Development | Even if you’re not a coder, you can learn how to lead a team of developers to create a product; Naval focuses on this skill being one that’s required to become a good Builder in modern times. | Learning – harder to learn by yourself, need a project or a team to shadow to start to understand it. Practicing – once you’ve done it once, easy to iterate. |
| Crafting Pitch Materials | This combines your visual design perspective with being able to communicate the knowledge you’ve obtained from the other Builder skills. | Learning – simple to learn, with a multitude of examples; piggy backs on design. Practicing – once you’ve done it once, easy to iterate. |
| WRITING | WRITING IS THE BEDROCK BUILDER SKILL. All of the other Builder skills are based on one’s ability to write. | Learning – nearly all of us learn how to read at present day. Practicing – easy to practice, with discipline. (Note: mirrors Reading.) |
SELLING SKILLS
| Skill | Thoughts | How to Acquire |
| Making Compelling Content | Making content is the new branding mechanism, spawned from the explosion of social media. | Learning – wide array of tools available to get started with little/no cost; trial-and-error. Practicing – path to steady improvement through iteration. |
| Customer Sales | The basic skills of selling to potential customers, in the more traditional sense, are still relevant and timely. Widespread branding through content (per above) makes it easier to sell, but the traditional selling function is ever present. | Learning – plenty of resources to learn quickly; trial-and-error. Practicing – path to steady improvement through iteration. |
| Interviewing & Hiring Employees | Finding other highly-talented people who believe in your vision and want to join your team is paramount and required in order to scale any venture. | Learning – there are readily-available resources on best practices for this skill. Practicing – path to steady improvement through iteration. |
| Pitching Investors | Once your idea is set, your target customers are engaged, and your team is built; it’ll be time to attract capital to your venture, which requires pitching investors effectively. | Learning – not as easy to learn, more nuanced. Requires some of the Builder skills around understanding financial statements (or having someone trustworthy on your team who does). Practicing – path to steady improvement through iteration. |
| PUBLIC SPEAKING | PUBLIC SPEAKING IS THE BEDROOM SELLER SKILL. All of the other Seller skills are based on one’s ability to explain yourself in a thoughtful & organized way, in front of other people. | Learning – there are courses one can take to break them out of their shell, assuming they’re in one, and big break-throughs can happen through mock speeches to family/friends. Practicing – path to steady improvement through iteration. |
Notably, anyone can practice any of the Builder and Seller skills listed above and improve them without any innate talent. It simply takes the will to learn and practice. Sure, innate talent can serve as an accelerant for someone for particular skills, but it’s not required to get started or improve.
Similarly, none of the above skills require someone to have a particular personality type in order to acquire them.
Let’s take the example personality types of introverts and extroverts. One would assume that introverts are better natural Builders and extroverts are better natural Sellers. And based on my experience, this assumption is largely true.
But having a particular personality type – here, introvert or extrovert – doesn’t lock you into your natural skill set and therefore preclude you from developing the unnatural skills.
It just means that you have a tendency towards either starting as a Builder or Seller, not that you have to finish there. In this way, personality type – like innate talent – serves as an accelerant for certain skills, but not a requirement.
Side note: my friend Itamar Marini helped me understand the danger of self-labeling as either an introvert or extrovert, thereby placing a limitation on your psyche.
So one person – any person, however innately talented, introverted or extroverted – can learn the skills on both sides of the Builder-Seller Yin Yang.
The best starting point for anyone is to focus on the bedrock skills of your weakest side:
- The natural Builder should focus on the bedrock of Selling skills: Public Speaking.
- The natural Seller should focus on the bedrock of Builder skills: Writing.
And what happens when you bring it all together? Per Naval, you become “unstoppable.”
You tap into your superhuman level of joyful output.
What does it look like when it all comes together?
Here are two examples of modern day gentlemen who, from the outside looking in, seem to have pulled off powerful versions of the Builder-Seller Yin Yang:
Buffett was admittedly awkward and shy for much of his younger life. He’s clearly a natural Builder.
Buffett has repeatedly mentioned that some of the best money he ever spent in his life was on a Dale Carnegie speaking course. Early on, he smartly focused on the bedrock Seller skill. He then went on to teach at a local university, to further sharpen his Seller sword.
Now he speaks in front of tens of thousands each year at the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting, is frequently seen on national television broadcasts, and has met with heads of state and titans of industry. Not bad for a natural Builder.
Oh, and he’s a pretty good investor, too.
Musk is another natural Builder – he was also admittedly awkward and socially shy for much of his younger life. He also talks about being a voracious reader as a kid (Builder skill).
But he clearly figured out his own alchemy when it comes to combining his Builder and Seller skillsets.
As a Builder, his success as an engineer is other-worldly. He’s arguably the greatest modern engineer in history. This is a man who loves details and isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty, a prerequisite to (a) creating the electric car market from scratch by focusing on product experience first, and (b) revitalizing the space industry and leap-frogging well-entrenched competitors by building the most futuristic rockets imaginable.
As a Seller, he has mastered the art of PR, sharing updates about his companies’ plans in a way that investors, governments, and consumers hang on his every word. All without spending any meaningful money on traditional marketing and advertising. He learned to be a Seller and mastered the art of selling his vision to the entire globe.
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These two are examples of what’s possible when Building combines with Selling and the Yin Yang spins at warp speed.