The advice I left my team with

As I wrapped up my last couple of weeks at Brigade before joining Airbnb, I had a lot of good conversations with people asking for advice — and in my final commit message I wrote down some of it. It has been received so well, and I think it applies to many people and situations, so I decided to publish it here.

This may very well be the last commit I author on the Brigade repo (at least until you finally open source the whole thing). Since so many people have asked me for advice as I am heading off to new adventures, I figured I’d record some here.

• Fear is corrosive — confront it head-on and at every turn. Be courageous, be bold, take big swings, move confidently, and trust each other. Tell people the risky things and talk about your shit so we can work through it together. Listen. Breathe deeply and clear your mind. Take care of each other.
• Each of you has a lot more power in the organization than you probably realize. Use it to make this place the place you want it to be and that you know it needs to be in order to succeed. This is your company — own it.
• Make sure that you constantly grow and have fun. Keep your eyes open for the next great things and learn everything about them. Share what you’ve learned with the team and with the world, and learn from all the great things that the smart people are sharing with you. Keep pushing forward and love what you do.
• Find opportunities to empower all of the great, smart, and talented people you are surrounded by. Do amazing things and be humble.

I see so much potential here and I am excited to watch you all knock it the fuck out of the park.

And finally, thank you for being my team.

/Joe