The Tim Ferriss Show #334: Drew Houston — The Billionaire Founder of Dropbox
Read Classics To Build Management Mental Models
- Study classics to build mental models for management and judgment rather than relying only on ad-hoc tactics.
- Drew recommends High Output Management and The Effective Executive to learn measurable management mechanics and effectiveness.
Protect Your Time With An OPP Folder
- Do limit time spent on other people's priorities by using an OPP (Other People's Priorities) folder to capture nonurgent requests.
- Drew filters cold emails, prioritizes requests from known relationships, and delegates routine replies to his team to protect focus.
Time Audits Reveal Hidden Priorities
- Measure your time to reveal mismatches between stated priorities and real work habits.
- Drew logged his activities and discovered he spent far more time on reactive OPP tasks than product and recruiting.
"Write an interesting story, not a perfect story." — Drew Houston
Drew Houston (@DrewHouston) is co-founder and CEO of Dropbox. Since founding the company in 2007 with Arash Ferdowsi, Drew has led the company's growth from a simple idea to a service used by 500 million people around the world.
Drew received his bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT in 2006. After graduating, he turned his frustration with carrying USB drives and emailing files to himself into a demo for what became Dropbox. Today Dropbox is one of the world's leading business collaboration platforms, with 11 million paying subscribers and 1,800 employees across 12 global offices.
Enjoy!
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