Learn to Sell, Learn to Build

Learn to Sell, Learn to Build. An essay by Naval, from March 2019.

Two broad skills

This comes from a podcast conversation between Naval and Nivi. Nivi brings up Naval's advice: learn to sell, and learn to build. Master both, and nothing can stop you.

Both skills are broad. Building means making the product: design, engineering, manufacturing, logistics, or even running a service.

Every industry has its builders. In tech, they're the programmers and engineers. At a laundry, it's whoever gets every shirt back to its owner on time.

Selling is just as wide: marketing, PR, recruiting, raising money, inspiring people. Anything that gets others to come along.

A builder and a seller

The classic Silicon Valley startup, Naval says, has two founders: one a world-class builder, the other a world-class seller.

Think Jobs and Wozniak at Apple. Most likely Bill Gates and Paul Allen at Microsoft, too, and Larry and Sergey at Google.

A CEO and a CTO. Investors have learned to look for exactly this pair. Naval calls it the magic combination.

Both in one person

Even better is one person who can do both. That's where real superpowers come from: people who create whole new industries.

Naval's living example: Elon Musk. Musk may not build the rockets himself, but he knows enough to contribute technically, so nobody can bluff him.

And he only promises what he believes he can eventually deliver. His timelines may run optimistic, but the promises stay within reach.

Jobs grew into a product person, too. Larry Ellison began as a programmer on Oracle; Marc Andreessen wrote much of Netscape Navigator. The giants do both.

Selling can come later

Can you add the other skill later? Naval thinks a salesperson rarely learns to build late in life. It takes too much focused time.

The other direction is easier. A builder can learn to sell later, especially with time to spare and a natural knack for people.

Naval quotes Bill Gates: “I'd rather teach an engineer marketing, than a marketer engineering.”

Your own way to sell

And selling needn't be face-to-face. Weak at the pitch, but a good writer? Writing is easier to learn, so sell through your writing online.

Not a writer, and no fan of big audiences, but good one-on-one? Then put your selling skills into recruiting and fundraising.

Caught in between? Don't despair. You won't be the top engineer or the top salesperson, but the pair makes a rare skill stack, an idea from Scott Adams.

Over the long run, people who can build and sell are catnip to investors. With enough energy, there's little they can't get done.

If you can pick only one

If you could only be good at one? Starting out, build. The world is full of hustlers with nothing behind them. Building lifts you above the noise.

But later, building wears you out. It's intense, focused work, and there are always newcomers with newer tools and more time.

Selling ages better. Each new product gets judged on its own merits, but a reputation as someone good to deal with feeds itself.

So Naval's answer: start with building, then shift to selling. He admits it sounds like a cop-out, but he thinks it's the right answer.

In short

Building makes the product. Selling is every kind of persuading: marketing, recruiting, fundraising, writing.

The classic startup pairs a builder with a seller. One person who does both is rarer, and stronger.

A builder can learn to sell later. The reverse is much harder.

Can only pick one? Build first, then shift toward selling.

The original is short, and better than this. Read it: nav.al/build-sell