How to become Pavel Durov: we’ve collected the life principles of the Telegram founder from his latest interview.

Remember:

– Do a lot of sports. Every morning Pavel does 300 push-ups and squats, plus he goes to the gym 5–6 times a week. Sports build stress resistance and boost productivity.

– Give up the phone. Durov tries not to overload his brain with unnecessary information, so he only picks up a smartphone to test new Telegram features.

– Stick to a strict diet. Pavel completely gave up sugar — it causes addiction and an even stronger feeling of hunger, and the more you chew, the less time you have for business.

– Read dystopian novels. You can start with “1984,” “Animal Farm,” “Brave New World,” “The Castle,” “The Plague.” They help you remember what the future should not look like.

– Be born in a family with a genius brother. Nikolai Durov learned to read at the age of three, earned two PhDs in mathematics, and developed Telegram’s encryption algorithm. He was a walking “Wikipedia” for Pavel.

– Buy Bitcoin in 2013. Durov doesn’t make money from Telegram. All his income comes from the bitcoins he bought before the crypto hype. Durov believes the price will rise to $1 million.

You can watch the full interview here: https://youtu.be/qjPH9njnaVU

good morning ☀

YouTube started as a dating site.
Slack was a failed video game.
Instagram a location check-in app.

The most iconic companies didn’t win with their first idea. They won when they pivoted.

Here are 17 epic pivots 👇

• Amplitude: Texting → Analytics
• Box: Consumer file sharing → Cloud storage
• Brex: VR headsets → Business credit cards
• Coinbase: Bitcoin wallet → Crypto exchange
• Discord: Mobile game → Group messaging
• Flickr: Role-playing game → Photo sharing
• Hugging Face: AI Tamagotchi → Dev tool
• Hubble: City discovery → Expert marketplace
• Instagram: Location app → Photo sharing
• Lattice: OKR tracking → Performance mgmt
• Loom: Marketplace → Screen recording
• Lyft: Carpooling (Zimride) → Ridesharing
• Notion: Website builder → Workspace
• Pinterest: Digital catalogs → Visual discovery
• Slack: Video game → Team communication
• WhatsApp: Status updates → Messaging
• YouTube: Dating site → Online video

The market always tells you what’s working.

The best founders?
They listen.
They adapt.
They pivot.

It takes courage to change course...
but that’s usually where the magic happens.

original post: here

I build apps for the iPhone @XCYohannes

Curiosity is loud. Ego is dumb. Choose curiosity.

Morning lovelies <3

You can allow yourself a happiness if you are a grateful. Have a wonderful day