Instead of posting my top recommendations for sessions and events on each day of SXSW, I decided to post my top lessons learned/ lessons remembered for each day. My hope is that this will create more value you for you, dear reader, especially if you weren’t able to make it to ATX for SXSW 2019. Day 1 of SXSW 2019 was energy-charged and filled with various lessons learned. Happy reading! And, please, email me (jenn@jennifergallegos.tech) if you have any comments about any of these lessons learned or lessons you learned during SXSW 2019.
- Session: Opening Session w/Brené Brown
- We can build a brain trust of our favorite authors, thinkers, entrepreneurs, etc. without needing to know or even meet them. We can read their works, listen to their podcasts, etc. to learn from them and how they think.
- We always have power. No comment or situation (especially from a stranger) can undo us unless we allow it.
- When we share “collective joy” or “collective sorrow”, we can truly connect with others on a human level. We can truly say “I see you.” In this age of loneliness, human connection is more important now than ever.
- Session: Featured Speaker w/Esther Perel
- People at work want to be treated like human beings, not like robots (that they may, in fact, be building).
- “It isn’t what’s being talked about it’s what’s being evoked.”
- We need to re-learn and re-think how we create, build, and maintain relationships.
- 7 Non-Obvious Trends Changing the Future in 2019 w/Rohit Bhargava
- It’s important for us to ask ourselves, why can’t I be creative? What’s preventing me from being creative?
- Build products that people want to talk about (e.g., top selling and highly rated banana slicer on Amazon).
- Ask yourself: who can I collaborate with that’s not from my generation?
- The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley (film)
- Side note: This is a fantastic film. I highly recommend you go see this film if you are at SXSW 2019. It’s a must see even if you aren’t attending. There are so many lessons learned from this film but I’ll need to post about them in a longer form essay in the future. I’ll leave you with a couple.
- We need to challenge stories that we want to believe and that we want to be true. We need to demand facts and data when our gut may be telling us otherwise. We need to question business practices that may not seem completely true. This conspiracy-theory mindset actually helps us build better businesses. It’s also healthy for our society.
- Elizabeth Holmes used various techniques from Robert Greene’s The Art of Seduction to persuade highly connected and powerful people to believe her compelling story.
- Confidence can be mostly a great thing except when taken to the extreme (i.e., delusion in eat your own b.s.).