- most people start wanting money
- many end up wanting to build something meaningful
- outlier success usually comes after baseline success
- these ideas still apply to almost everyone
1. compound yourself
- compounding is magic
- look for exponential growth, not linear progress
- choose careers and projects where learning and impact accelerate over time
- avoid paths where 2 years = 20 years of experience
- use leverage: capital, technology, brand, networks, people
- aim to add another zero to your definition of success
- let go of small opportunities for step-change ones
- think long-term when others don’t
- trust the exponential, be patient
2. have almost too much self-belief
- self-belief is a force multiplier
- most successful people believe in themselves almost to delusion
- strong conviction enables contrarian thinking
- managing morale requires confidence
- ambition attracts resistance
- balance self-belief with self-awareness
- treat criticism as potentially true, then decide
- truth-seeking separates confidence from delusion
3. learn to think independently
- original thinking is rarely taught
- schools reward conformity, not creativity
- think from first principles
- generate ideas and test them quickly in the real world
- failure is expected; being right once matters
- grit comes from solving “unsolvable” problems repeatedly
4. get good at sales
- belief alone is not enough
- all great careers involve persuasion
- you must sell to customers, hires, investors, media
- clear thinking leads to clear communication
- written communication is especially valuable
- selling what you believe in feels right
- sales is learnable with practice
- show up in person when it matters
5. make it easy to take risks
- people overestimate risk and underestimate reward
- early career is the best time to take risks
- aim for asymmetric bets: lose 1x, win 100x
- comfort makes risk-taking harder
- avoid lifestyle inflation
- keep life cheap and flexible when possible
6. focus
- focus multiplies effort
- choosing the right problem matters more than hours worked
- most work people do doesn’t matter
- once priorities are clear, execute aggressively
- speed correlates strongly with success
7. work hard
- smart or hard gets you to top 10%
- smart and hard gets you to top 1%
- extreme effort produces extreme results
- momentum compounds
- meaningful work is often energizing
- working hard is not shameful
- stamina predicts long-term success
- work hardest early when compounding is strongest
- avoid burnout by liking the work and the people
8. be bold
- hard problems attract better people
- ambition creates tailwinds
- don’t downscale your goals to match trends
- follow curiosity
- exciting problems attract support
9. be willful
- the world bends more than people expect
- most people don’t push hard enough
- ask for what you want
- rejection is normal
- persistence creates room for luck
- optimism is required
- pessimists rarely achieve extreme success
10. be hard to compete with
- scarcity creates value
- if others can do what you do, they eventually will
- build leverage through:
- personal relationships
- personal brand
- cross-domain expertise
- avoid mimetic behavior
- differentiation matters
11. build a network
- great work requires teams
- networks limit or expand what you can do
- help people generously over time
- take care of collaborators
- share upside generously
- push people to grow, not to burn out
- define yourself by strengths, not weaknesses
- hire complementary people
- look for rate of improvement, not credentials
- ask: is this person a force of nature?
- spend time with people who support your ambitions
12. you get rich by owning things
- salaries rarely create extreme wealth
- ownership creates upside
- equity scales; time does not
- own things that grow rapidly in value
- build things people want at scale
13. be internally driven
- external validation leads to safe, consensus paths
- it distorts risk assessment
- smart people are especially vulnerable
- internal motivation sustains long-term excellence
- the best people aim to impress themselves
- obsession is required for extreme success
- success eventually becomes doing excellent work that matters to you
closing thought
- opportunity is unevenly distributed
- luck matters more than people admit
- progress is still possible without privilege
- long-term belief, effort, and persistence matter
- start as early as you can