Who we take our cues from

He counted, by God, greetings. I think we're recording, and hopefully we're in a place where we're not streaming. Let me check around to see if we're being featured anywhere, like LinkedIn or Mtind. Hello everyone. I don't think so . No, right ? My voice seems to be coming through with a significant delay. Your image froze too, but it'll probably recover as we work on it during the broadcast .

It will recover perfectly. The engine will recover as it warms up. Greetings everyone. What's up, Barış? What are you doing? How's it going? That's great. You should be asked about yourself. We're together again after a while. Well, it's like we've been talking about this more often on podcasts anyway, but I think we've finally opened it up. We see each other regularly on weekends too . Yes. Yes.

We contact each other via WhatsApp. I don't know where this is going to lead. Exactly. I don't know. It feels strange when we don't call each other even once . Yes. Something remains. I was going to do something like that. I was going to do something, but what was it I was talking about ? It ends when I call you. Does n't that feel like being burned?

Ok . I spoke to Barış, and he said something like, you know how shops have Z reports, right? You know how they make an end-of-day report at the cash register? So when I search like this, it happens. Exactly. We make ketchup like this and keep it like this all day . Yes. I think it's a good thing. It's great. It's like a kind of think-aloud activity. What's the emergency?

We're having a long conversation, by the way. I check these records every time we call. For example, sometimes it only lasts about a minute . Sometimes it takes 20 minutes. There's no in- between. Yes. Yes. One topic leads to another, too. So we're starting somewhere. For example, I might call you to tell you something . I'm talking about 35 different topics before I even get to that one.

Then I say, "Aha," and sometimes I do something like that again . I'm calling you to tell you something . Instead of saying it, we talk for 20 minutes. Then I forget and we hang up. A minute later I call again and say, "Actually, this is what I was going to tell you ." Then we talk for another 10 minutes. Yes. So, what was our topic today?

What were we going to talk about today? Today we said... So, in this journey of ours, our journey of establishing and growing Hardal, etc., we were going to talk about the people and organizations that influenced, inspired, and provided a sense of purpose. The list is actually quite long, but we thought we'd mention it. I think there's one person among them who's in the same industry as us .

Apart from that, most of the people we talked to are in completely unrelated sectors to us. Who's that? Let's start with one, if you like. Let's start with the one in our industry. Exactly. In our industry, I think we should start with what's missing. Be very relevant. For us, I think for both of us, Rick Rubin is a really good source of inspiration, exactly. He's also a music producer.

I don't know how many Grammys he has, but he's a book author, you know, from Johnny Cash to Chili Peppers, System of a Down, and I do n't know, he's done a lot of different albums, maybe with Ed Sheiren too. huh. He's a really secretive guy, a really cool type. So why is it inspiring? Would you like to talk about it a little? So, from a point of view, or rather, the part that inspired me was this...

Like, a long, long time ago, in the darker corners of YouTube, about 11 or 12 years ago, there was a YouTube video, something that was published. But I didn't know that the person I was watching was actually Rick Rubin, or that Rick Rubin was the persona of someone who both writes books and publishes, and also works with such famous groups and so on. It was something like a home visit .

This is an interview they conducted in their garden . The topics he covered in the interview were excellent, and I was practically trying to follow his every word. And as we talk, he'll say things like, "I do a podcast here," or " I'm doing something related to this here," and so on. He was saying so many things at once, and the things he was saying were so creative, and the atmosphere really captivated me.

So, the man had something outside the house, like, well, like he'd brought some stones there, something really beautiful . He had interior design skills, and his type was... you know, bald, with long beard and all that, it really drew me in, and that's where I started, and then I read his book. he included me from here . your brother. Yes. I think, well, the thing that impressed me most about this guy is the title of his book, by the way, it's called The Creative Act of Being.

Huh. huh. So, it's more of a book about being creative, actually. What I like most about it is this slightly different perspective on creativity and making things happen . He approaches the subject from such a very self-assured and humble perspective Let's show this book over here, by the way. Those who want to buy it can find it at all music stores. That's not an advertisement. I'm leaving the link below.

His perspective impressed me greatly. I'm leaving the link below. Swipe up ya. For example, there's this perspective that says being creative isn't something special, that inspiration isn't something special, that it comes to all of us, that we can all be creative, that we all create. I've always thought of myself as a very engineering-oriented person, and honestly, this kind of perspective has really put my mind at ease .

That's one of the things I like most about it. And for example, this is something that's always being asked. So how did you feel when you won the Gram'y award? I don't know what happened, how you felt, or anything like that . You can clearly see the man's penis. That's not the man's problem. Adam just wants to make music and create things . And I think his approach and perspective to his work...

It really opened my mind. And I can say that this is also the case on my side. Very good. Are there any others? Oh yes, someone from the same industry or someone who does that "brotherly thing". Exactly. For us, I think he's a character we talk about a lot now. Who? DHH and Jason Freud, the duo. Exactly. Especially DHH. Who are they? Would you like to talk about it?

These two older brothers of ours. DHH. And Jason already owns the company, which is spelled Signal 37. These are the owners of hey.com, Basecamp, on.com, etc., their biggest assets are Basecamp products. DH is a bit more... that part... the part that inspires me, you know, because he's the developer of the Ruby programming language. This in itself requires tremendous community leadership. It requires something else. So, developing a programming language...

The balance between work and family, that the father figure, and everything else he does, it really fascinates me . Was it at Nascard? I think it was at NASCAR . Or Le Mans. It should be Le Mans . The thing competes in races at Le Mans. That was his purpose. I think he said something like, "I'm going to be the fastest E-Text developer in the world," or something like that.

That was one of his principles . He literally does that, and... and along with that, he's constantly supporting all sorts of initiatives and so on. I had actually started following this quite closely, both in terms of perspective and especially after this Cloud Exit strategy. Whether it's books or something else. I really like it. Our brother DH. Greetings to anyone watching from here. You said yes, bro. No, I agree 100%.

And they also have a few books, you know, reworked ones. Written by both of them. Yes. It doesn't have to be crazy at work. And there was one more thing. I don't remember the third one. Remote work again ? It's the same thing, man. To be honest, the places I've worked in have always been a bit chaotic, and because of the kind of crisis-on-crisis approach to doing business in Türkiye, I really liked their "it doesn't have to be crazy at work" attitude .

Take Rick Rubin, for example; they have a little bit of the same thing there too. So, beyond just a survivalist, "I have to survive and get through today" mentality, there are much more content-oriented, calm, step-by-step approaches. It's always a bit more self-focused, like what I want to do, where I want the company to go, and so on . They also want to achieve something good, you know, like when we went to San Francisco, people were talking about 99 9 6.

Things like working from 9 am to 9 pm, six days a week. Instead, they offer a perspective like, "Okay, this is one way to be successful, but it's not the only way." But as you said, I really like that they're also dealing with 100,000 different things, and it's one of the few podcasts I regularly follow; their perspective on the startup world is also very interesting. I like it very much.

For example, for them, it's not about selling Base Camp, not about founding a startup and then selling it, it's about playing for profitability, and so on, or their approach to promoting the product, you know the concept of that. Old-fashioned way of traveling. Yes. And you only pay once. It used to be like when I bought Windows 95; I paid the license fee once and that was it.

Huh. They have similar approaches, like SaaS Product , etc. That's why it's a little bit disruptive. I actually like those guys a lot too. Yeah, yeah, and they already have this product-led approach, you know, like whatever those guys do will be a hit. So, which product, which product would be a good choice for them to bring to the market? But the thing is, they're feeding it so well that when they're gauging people's pulse, or getting their opinions, or doing anything else, they're launching that strategy, the go-to-market strategy, very effectively .

And also, amidst all this intensity, the fact that they're writing books, expressing their own ideas and so on, honestly, really impresses me. I love them very much. the next inspirer, besides the companies or people who inspire us, there weren't really anyone like DHH or Jason, I know. Here's a recent one, and here's a linear one. This is a bit about startup culture and all that, but we can also talk about, for example, other things.

What draws me in more is... hey, Shakil Onal, what do you think? This was added recently, bro. By the way, do you think Shakaroni had any influence on the addition of this? Shakaroni is a pizza brand. Yes. Shakaron, by the way, context... Yes. To give the context, Papa Jones's Shaky, the pizza model he partnered with for years, is the Shakaroni pepperoni pizza, a pizza with lots of pepperoni .

Meanwhile, in America, there are only ten jokes, I mean, the joke is Ron, and I don't think they're partners or anything, man. Maybe he bought the rights to the name or something, I don't know, maybe he bought the "shak shak" part, but there was also the silo nation and all that... beyond that, the part that affected me the most was... This person completed their master's, or rather, doctorate, in leadership and humor.

You know, like in a PhD program, the level of basketball he plays is a bit colorful, he's famous for breaking the backboard . He's a funny character, constantly elbowing people and doing all sorts of other things. In fact, recently they've been constantly urging people to eat hot peppers and do this and that . their reactions and all that are over the top, and their family lives are really good too.

And there's also this... They call it Şak Palas or something like that, it's really fun. I'll find him now. What attracted me most to this was how he combined leadership and humor so skillfully . There's even a documentary they did about this, with Ribak and Iverson and all that . He also shows many good things in that. So the guy's motto is something like 20% to 80%, 20% seriousness, 20% leadership, 20%...

Well, 80% leadership, 20% humor, and so on. Well, that's an approach that really draws me in. This is an approach I like, even when I'm working normally . So, he's one of the people outside of our industry who inspires me . Isn't he currently in charge of something related to Rebak ? I don't know exactly either, but... the president of basketball, Ribak is the president of basketball.

Yeah, I think that guy is a good example of someone who started as an athlete and then managed to break into many different channels. He does both his own thing and his own marketing very well, by the way, in my opinion. So, it's very good at staying current and relevant . But I had no idea about that . So you already know that the guy has a doctorate and all that, I think it's really, really good.

By the way, getting a doctorate isn't something you can just do overnight. It takes quite a long time. The fact that he put in the effort is very impressive, I think so too. Yeah, absolutely, and... well, they're trying to tackle such interesting things, I mean, there's the investment aspect of it, it has a lot of money, and they're focusing on just taking the Rebug brand to number 2, and while doing that, they're also taking that culture with them, and all that...

I think it's some really great stuff. The same thing happens with Michael Jordan, by the way, with those things in The Last Dance and all that. That's the whole transition to baseball thing. Well, that's why it seems so impressive to me. Definitely. I couldn't find the name of the house, by the way, but it was something funny . Is this a joke? It's something like that, you know, it's really funny, it combines funny things like that.

That's why it's so much fun, man. Yes. I think there are many inspiring points related to the athletic side of things . So you can break it. So you can change it to tennis, or to football , or to golf. Well, when you add to all of that an incredible amount of multitasking, discipline, physical and mental strength, etc., then I think a lot of people are added to the list of people who want to be a "pire".

But these are a bit like names that we carefully choose and regularly mention, like we occasionally think to ourselves, " What would they have done?" I even have one such thing, a cloud project, you know. Rick Rubin is a character whose name is a combination of DHH and a few other names . Well, when we're discussing and brainstorming, I sometimes get ideas from him too. These are key figures for us .

And those companies you mentioned earlier, I think they're somewhat like that, maybe we can talk about them in another session . We like the poster reun. But I think we can say these things without dragging it out too much. We sometimes find ourselves thinking, " What would Rick Rubin do if he were here?" Oh, not at all. That project sounds great, by the way. So it makes sense for multiple people to upload their work to the Cloud.

It creates conflict, by the way, I think at some point, taking something from different people's perspectives, like, yes, it's not offering you just one person's point of view anyway. For example, let's say, the names I use, especially DHHH , RC Ruben, and who is it? I use a couple of other names as well. So, again, it's a couple of names from our industry, and this is what they're actually doing.

I wanted them to adopt their key characteristics. So, there's Ruby's perspective, which is more focused on creativity, and on the other hand, there's a slightly more action-oriented perspective , and then there's the CEO of Hubspot, who has a more structural perspective. That's why when you answer me, I give examples from the topics I've discussed. How should I approach rebuilding our partnership strategy, for example? That's why their mixture provides an answer there.

So you can think of it as being divided into sections or topics. Things like creativity, action, and building structures. Therefore, the answers I'm receiving are frankly very satisfying. But you can also reduce this to just one person, by the way. You could also say... For example, do you know Rick Rubin? Yes. Here's the book, blah blah blah . Now you're Rick Rubin, and if you say, "Be my coach," he'll coach you—well, partially, of course—but I like it, it's a nice concept, by the way.

Yes. Yes, it's a great concept, by the way. I do the same thing with frameworks, for example, but like, what if a problem I've solved had a corresponding entry in this framework, or what if it were written like this, and how much would that add to my knowledge? But a humanized version of this, for example in the cloud, would be great, I think. That's how you upload the entire PDF.

Only from that perspective could such answers make sense. Yes. For example, you can also do this with books, if you have two or three books that you like. Exactly. Because either I didn't come up with this idea myself, or she conveyed it to me with her eyes . I read it somewhere, but... well, the topic got sidetracked, man. The idea of doing this to books appealed to me.

Because I don't know what it's like for you, but for example, the book you showed me earlier is very good. Yes. But you forget, whether you like it or not. So it's impossible to remember the whole book. But the idea of combining a few books that I consider my cornerstones, that I keep by my bedside every night and refer to from time to time, with something like Cloud, for example, seemed like it might be nice.

Actually, that's partly why I developed this too. Then they transformed into humans. Wow, that's a really good concept. We can really try. So we can create something good there. Meanwhile, something occurred to me. You know those notes where we jot down our thoughts? At the end of the day, I just put that note there and offered this perspective, and don't deviate from it; it can direct you in the right direction.

It's a really great concept, by the way. And as I said earlier, I wanted to add one final comment . For example, when you read the whole book, it might be a completely unrelated topic, but... putting in little notes, like sticky notes, underlining things, really helps you remember them . I'll also mention this as an extra point, as my own method . Instead of the whole book, for example, in a talk, I usually just throw in a page from a PDF.

I also come up with page numbers that would resonate with it, like, for example, that topic was covered in the first 50 pages or something like that . Since I wrote this note, I can recommend it to everyone. It actually messes up the book and everything, but... in terms of it being memorable, it makes much more sense. Maybe there's something else going on here. No, no, I think, I think the book is better that way, man.

For example, I much prefer reading books that someone else has underlined . I like it, actually. Someone read it, extracted some meaning from it, underlined it, made a note of it, and so on. It's like I've underlined everything, absolutely everything, okay? You know how there were 300 pages of gold back then? Even the people who worked there would underline everything. It looks like it worked. And also, did you fall for it when someone drew it with a highlighter ?

The page is not showing. The whole page, though. Well, it's not that bad, of course, but it's nice. I'll give it a try too. Great, excellent. So, without spending too much time – and by the way, we do n't really have much time – but I don't know why we limited it to 20. We usually do it in half an hour. So of course, it's entirely up to us, I mean, if we want to, we can close it or not close it.

If you want, it can stay open all day, like, you know, while I go to the kitchen or something, we talk, we do something, etc. Exactly. They're having meetings and so on. Then we should be very grateful to ourselves. Then to those who were watching us. Yes. I hope to see you next week to discuss another related topic. See you later. Bye bye . Yes. Should I turn it off?

What should I do? Close it, of course. Come on . Bye bye. Bye bye . House.