Ronnie Coleman, Product Manager

This blog post isn't actually about bodybuilding. In fact, I happen to have no aspirations in this department. Yet I find most extreme and endurance sports fascinating for what they can teach us about winning mindsets. This blog post is not about Ronnie Coleman either, even though he is a truly fascinating person: failed accountant, serving police officer, linebacker and eight-time winner of Mr. Olympia. But first, watch this incredible video where Ronnie lifts a lot of weights while saying something deeply profound:

The absolute freaking joy in this man's face as he takes on this incredible task is moving. Ronnie is saying: "Everybody wants to be a bodybuilder, nobody wants to lift heavy-ass weights!". This blog is about lifting metaphorical heavy-ass weights to get further in your career as a product manager.

So what's Ronnie talking about? Ronnie is saying that everybody wants to be amazing. I certainly do. Chances are you do as well. These are actual quotes of people I've met who want to be amazing:

• "I've been at Company X for 5 years, my next move is as Chief Product Officer."
• "I'm L6 at Google, I'm only going to take an L7 or L8 position."
• "I can't believe you made Person Y my manager, I could do their job."
• "I've shipped N features this year, how come I'm not promoted?"

As Ronnie would say, "Don't nobody want to lift heavy-ass weights". Here's what Ronnie means - getting ahead in your endeavors requires the following:

• Do the hard work. There's no other way to say it. You will have to do things that are taxing. Chances are these things will push you to some limit. This will not be a cakewalk.
• Embrace the grind. It's not exciting, unique new work. Some of it is a grind, at points mind-numbing.
• Make sacrifices. Ronnie talks about how he missed family gatherings, chances at following other dreams and so much more. At the very least, you will sacrifice chances to do (seemingly) more interesting work.

As for me, finding amazing people for Databricks is the equivalent of lifting heavy-ass weights. It's hour after hour of sourcing on LinkedIn, personally reaching out to incredibly talented people who are probably happy at their jobs and highly valued by their peers. It's taking them through a highly selective interview process. The end result is incredibly rewarding but I would by lying if I said I enjoy the process of sourcing and hiring. It's just lifting heavy-ass weights.

There are many equivalents to lifting heavy-ass weights outside of hiring, and outside of product management. All of these people are lifting heavy-ass weights:

• I know a senior executive who reviews every design doc that flies by.
• I know a senior product leaders who writes their own PRDs. These are not the cool awesome features that are announced at our Summit, but small features nobody else has time to work on.
• I know a senior engineer who goes digging around in logs, finding customers who are having problems and chasing these issues down.

So here's the hard-won lesson for your product management career: think through what weights you have to lift to get the growth you want. It may not always be fun, but the end result will be incredibly rewarding.