In this episode of the Curious Cult, I chat with Yossi Hasson about why connecting with “who” is more important than connecting with “what”, how uncertainty opens up opportunity and how limits can enhance curiosity.

Yossi is a tech entrepreneur born and raised in South Africa and started his first business at 21 years. He has a wealth of experience from building and scaling the tech-focused business and helping tech startups grow and develop through an accelerator while launching a non-profit coding school training Africa’s next coders over the next ten years. Now living in New York, he works in a venture capital field with a focus on the fintech sector, investing in interesting projects.

Key take aways from the episode

Before Covid, uncertainty was unfamiliar, but for entrepreneurs, uncertainty is as normal as a Tuesday

Identity is often linked to certainty - in business, in personality, in relationships. But accepting uncertainty opens up a dynamic world where things can change. Challenges still emerge and it’s not easy, but being open to adaptation makes change slightly easier to accept. 

Immediate thinking is not efficient, but looking down the line puts things into perspective

Zooming out and reflecting on how the day-to-day might impact years down the line is a helpful metric in life. You’ll find that the most important things are linked to connection and the “who”, rather than the “what”. Replacing questions like:

“What are you trying to do?”

“What do title do you want to have?”

“What do you see yourself doing?” 

with

“Who are you connecting with?” 

“Who do you see yourself as?” 

“Who do you want to be?”

can lead to building much more solid scaffolding in life.

Constraints cause creativity

Putting boundaries on creativity can force your mind to think to produce. Yossi puts an hour cap on his writing every day and has found his writing has been far more productive and the compressed timeline forces creativity to the forefront of one’s mind.

(Find Yossi’s writing by signing up to his newsletter.)

If you work with consistency, you’re bound to find some level of success

The more you do something, not only the better you get at it, but the more likely your chances are to find success. It goes hand-in-hand with the age-old adage, don’t try and you will fail. The more you try, the more your odds increase at succeeding. 

Trying something new either gives you a positive or negative result - it’s worthwhile finding out

Yossi dove into the blockchain and cryptocurrency space when it was still a novelty in the tech world. Curiosity drove him to the industry, conviction kept him there. Having the grit to keep ticking with excitement yields a positive outcome. 

Ego hinders progress and reputation risks growth

To be curious, you have to be brave. When you fail, you open yourself up to vulnerability. If you don’t care about ego, you’re more open to failure, which means you’re more open to learning and progress.

To keep updated on Yossi, find him on Twitter and subscribe to his daily-ish newsletter here. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it far and wide and let’s start changing the world with curiosity.