Investors should view a founder's desire to learn skills like etiquette not as a weakness, but as a strong positive signal. It demonstrates humility, introspection, and a drive for self-improvement—key traits for a coachable and successful leader. The capacity for growth can be more valuable than pre-existing polish, identifying them as better long-term partners.

While technical qualifications are a baseline requirement in procurement, they are not the differentiator for success. Advanced professionals separate themselves with superior soft skills—the ability to build trust, communicate effectively, and align diverse stakeholders is what enables true strategic impact and career advancement.

In collaborative fields, being a pleasant person to work with—a "good hang"—can advance your career further than exceptional talent alone. People actively avoid working with difficult personalities, regardless of their skill, which ultimately limits opportunities.

Miscommunication with non-technical stakeholders (finance, sales) is a common failure point. Engineers should take negotiation courses to frame technical problems in terms of business needs, do their research, and present a case effectively to get buy-in.

As AI handles analytical and data-driven tasks, the critical skills for salespeople shift. Emotional intelligence, listening, communication, and influencing decisions are no longer secondary 'soft' skills but have become the essential 'hard' skills that drive success and cannot be replicated by machines.

Successful execution of a pharmaceutical launch strategy relies more on soft skills like communication, listening, and team alignment than on purely analytical skills. These behavioral skills are essential for creating cohesive cross-functional teams and ensuring buy-in from those executing the plan.

Technical skills and methodologies are commodities that can be easily learned. The skills that truly separate exceptional PMs from average ones are soft skills like storytelling, influencing without authority, and presenting effectively. These are the real force multipliers for a PM's career.

Elite incubators like YC train founders on pitching but neglect crucial "etiquette" and soft skills for business. This gap in founder education—covering basics like professional communication, attire, and simple courtesies—creates an opportunity for specialized finishing schools to add value.

In regulated industries where projects "take a village," the most crucial skill is not raw engineering talent, but communication. The ability to align a team, share ideas, and ensure mutual understanding is paramount, as a single dropped ball in communication can derail an entire product launch.