Sam Altman is the person I admire most at present, the chairman of Y Combinator, YC is the most famous incubator in Silicon Valley, with companies like Dropbox, Airbnb, Stripe, Reddit and Docker. YC now invests in companies with a total valuation of over $65 billion. He is only 33 years old now.
This is an article he wrote recently, which is very touching after reading it. Before his 30th birthday, he wrote a summary of his life before his 30th birthday. It's very emotional. I will take it out every once in a while. This is no worse than the last one.
Although I saw someone translate it, I translated it according to my own understanding in order to leave a deeper impression on myself.
The following is the translation
How to succeed
I have observed thousands of founders, and I have thought a lot about how these people made so much money and created important things. Usually, they want to make a lot of money at first, and then they want to create something important.
I finally summed up the following 13, about how to create achievements that ordinary people can't reach. If you have achieved some success (through talent or hard work) and want to extend this basic success to achievements that ordinary people can't achieve, the following words will be much easier for you. But most of them apply to everyone.
1. Make yourself profitable.
Rolling interest is a miracle. You need to pay attention everywhere. Exponential curve growth is the key to creating wealth.
Medium-sized enterprises with an annual growth rate of 50% will become huge in a short time. Few enterprises in the world have real network effect and high scalability. But with the development of technology, more and more enterprises will have this possibility. It is worthwhile to find an enterprise that can realize the rolling interests, or even to create such an enterprise.
You should pursue exponential growth yourself-you should take the growing upward and correct trajectory as your life goal. It is very important to choose a career that can realize compound interest-most occupations grow linearly.
You shouldn't enter a career where people who have worked for two years can be as efficient as those who have worked for 20 years-you should keep learning continuously and efficiently. With the development of your career, every unit work you complete should produce more results than before. There are many ways to obtain this leverage, such as capital, technology, brand, network effect, personnel management and so on.
No matter how you define success-money, status, influence on the world or others, you should focus on how to double your own definition of success 10 times. I am willing to spend as much time as possible looking for the next project between projects. But I always hoped that it would be such a project: if successful, it would make my future career worthless.
Most people will fall into the search for linear opportunities. Pay attention to the potential changes in by going up one flight of stairs, even if it means losing some small opportunities.
In my opinion, the biggest competitive advantage, whether for a company or an individual's career, is a long-term decision based on how different systems around the world will be integrated. With regard to compound interest growth, it is worth noting that the farthest future will be the most important. In such a world where few people really take a long-term view, the market will bring rich returns to those who do.
Believe in exponential growth, wait patiently, and surprises will wait for you.
2. Extremely confident
Confidence is very powerful. Almost all the most successful people I know are paranoid about themselves.
Cultivate this as soon as possible. As you get more data points that can prove your good judgment, you can continue to achieve ideal results. Please believe in yourself.
If you don't believe in yourself, it's hard to make yourself think differently about the future. But having different ideas from others is the place to create value.
I remember many years ago, elon musk showed me around the factory of Space Exploration Technology Company. He talked about every step of making rockets in detail, but what impressed me most was the absolute confidence on his face when he talked about launching large rockets to Mars. I left because I thought, "Well, this is the benchmark of having faith."
Managing the morale of yourself and your team is one of the biggest challenges in most jobs. Without great confidence, it is almost impossible. Unfortunately, the more ambitious you are, the more the world will try to disappoint you.
Most very successful people are right about the future at least once, when people think they are wrong. If they are not considered wrong, they are likely to face more fierce competition.
Self-confidence needs to be balanced by self-knowledge. I used to hate any form of criticism and actively avoided them. Now, I am trying to decide whether I should take action against these criticisms on the assumption that they are true. Seeking truth is difficult and often painful, but it is the reason that separates self-confidence from self-deception.
This balance can help you avoid becoming arrogant and impractical.
3. Learn to think independently
Entrepreneurship is difficult to teach because original thinking is difficult to teach. Schools are not set up to teach this-in fact, schools usually reward imitation. So you need to cultivate it yourself.
It's interesting to think in essence and try to generate new ideas. Talking to people can make you better at it. The next step is to find a simple and quick way to test these ideas in the real world.
"I will fail many times, but I will be right once", which is the correct way for entrepreneurs to open. You must give yourself many chances to get lucky.
The most important lesson you need to learn is that when there seems to be no solution to this problem, you can figure out what to do. The more times you do this, the more you will believe it. Perseverance (enthusiastic perseverance) comes from knowing that you can stand up again after being knocked down.
4. Be good at "sales"
Self-confidence is not enough-you must also be able to convince others of your beliefs.
To some extent, all successful enterprises are ultimately sales jobs. You must publicize your plan to customers, potential employees, media, investors, etc. This requires inspiring vision, strong communication skills, certain charm and proof of execution.
Good communication-especially written communication-is worth investing. My advice to clear communication is to make sure your thoughts are clear first, and then use concise and clear language.
The best way to be good at selling is to really believe in the products you sell. It feels great to sell what you really believe, but it feels bad to try to sell a panacea.
Improving sales skills is just like improving other skills-anyone can improve it through deliberate practice. But for some reason, perhaps because it is aggressive, many people think that sales skills are innate and can't be learned.
My other suggestion for sales is to have an interview at an important time. When I started my career, I always wanted to be on the road. This is usually unnecessary, but on three occasions, the interview led to a turning point in my career, otherwise I would have gone the other way.
5. Make the risk more bearable
Most people overestimate risks and underestimate returns. Taking risks is important because it can't always be right-you have to try many things, and when you know more, you have to adapt quickly.
Early in the career, it is often easier to take risks; You have little to lose, but you may gain a lot.
Once we have to bear the basic obligations, we should try our best to reduce the loss of taking risks. Make it clear that if you make a mistake, you will lose 1 time, but if you succeed, you can turn over a small bet of 100 times. Then after making a profit, make a bigger bet in that direction.
But don't keep it for too long. At YC, we often notice that founders have this problem. They spend a lot of time working on Google or Facebook. When people are used to a comfortable life, a predictable future job and the reputation of success in what they do, it is difficult to leave them (and, magically, people can always match their lifestyle with next year's salary). Even if they leave, the temptation to come back is great. Due to human nature, people tend to put short-term interests and convenience above long-term achievements.
But when you are not led on the treadmill, you can follow your inspiration and spend time doing something that may be very interesting. It is a powerful way to keep the cost and flexibility of life as long as possible, but obviously there will be gains and losses.
be concentrated
Focus can make you get twice the result with half the effort.
Almost everyone I meet will get better results if they spend more time thinking about what to pay attention to. Doing the right thing is more important than spending more time doing things. Most people waste most of their time on unimportant things.
Once you have figured out what to do, put everything aside and finish the highest priority task quickly. I haven't met a person who is very successful and slow.
Work hard
Through cleverness or hard work, you can surpass 90% people in your field, which is a great achievement. But to be more than 99%, you need both-your competitors will be very talented people, they have good ideas and are willing to make a lot of efforts.
Unusual people get unusual results. Working long hours means that it is completely rational to decide not to do so for the huge trade-offs in life. But it has many advantages. In most cases, progress will accumulate, and success will bring more success.
Usually this process is very interesting. One of the greatest pleasures in life is to find your own goal, work hard for it, and then find that you can have a greater impact. After leaving a big company, the founder of YC was very surprised at the pleasure and satisfaction he got when he realized the biggest impact he could bring. It is very worthwhile to work hard for it.
I'm not entirely sure why hard work has become a bad thing in some parts of the United States, but it is certainly not the case in other parts of the world-the energy and motivation displayed by entrepreneurs outside the United States will soon become new role models.
You must figure out how to work hard without overdrawing. Different people have their own different methods, but it is almost always effective to find a job you like and a person you are willing to work with for a long time.
I think it is harmful to those who pretend that they don't spend most of their time at work, but they can be very successful in their field. In fact, in the long run, the persistence of work may be one of the most important reasons for success.
Another idea about hard work: work hard at the beginning of your career. Hard work is like usury. The sooner you do it, the more time you have to make a profit. When you are young, you have less other responsibilities (often, but not always) and it is easier to work hard.
8. Be bold
I think it is easier to be a difficult startup than a simple startup. People want to be part of something exciting and think their work is important.
If you make progress on an important issue, there will always be people who want to help you. Make yourself more ambitious and don't be afraid to work hard for the job you really want.
If everyone else is starting a meme company, but you want to start a gene editing company, then do it, don't think too much.
Follow your curiosity. What is exciting for you is exciting for others.
9. Perseverance and flexibility
A big secret is that in a proportion that will surprise you, the world will be turned by your will-most people will not even try, just accept the way the world works now.
People have great ability to achieve their goals. The combination of self-doubt, giving up prematurely, not pushing hard and various reasons prevents most people from fully tapping their potential.
Ask yourself what you want. You are usually unhappy, and rejection is often painful. But when this method is effective, the effect is very good.
Almost all the time, those who say "I will continue until I succeed, and I will solve any challenges I face" and seriously say so will become successful people. Their perseverance will always meet with a good luck.
Airbnb is my benchmark. They told me many stories, although I don't advise people to imitate them (maxed out a lot of credit cards, ate a dollar of cereal at the store every meal, constantly struggled with deep-rooted thinking, and so on). ), they managed to survive long enough, and luck found them.
To have perseverance, you must remain optimistic-this is a personality trait that can be improved through practice. I have never met a very successful pessimist.
10. Make it difficult for others to compete with you.
Most people understand that if it is difficult for everyone to compete with a company, then this company is more valuable. This is very important, obviously.
But it's also true for you personally. If others can do what you do, it will eventually become who wants less money to do it.
The best way to become difficult to compete with it is to establish the right to speak. For example, you can achieve personal relationships by building a strong personal brand or being good at the intersection of many different fields. There are many other strategies, but you must find some ways to do it.
Most people do what people who play with them do. This imitation is usually a mistake-if you are doing what others are doing, it is not difficult to compete with you.
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A good job requires a team. Building a talent network-sometimes tight, sometimes loose-is an important part of career success. The network size of the truly talented people you know is usually the limiting factor of what you can achieve.
The effective way to establish contact is to help others as much as possible. Doing this for a long time has given me the best career opportunities and three of the four best investments. To my constant surprise, many good things happened to me because I helped some founders ten years ago.
One of the best ways to build relationships is to build a reputation that your colleagues will not be abused. Generosity and even excessive sharing of benefits; Will bring you a return of 10 times. In addition, learn how to evaluate people's strengths and let them do what they are good at. This is the most important thing I have learned about management. I haven't read many books about it. You want to push employees to exceed their expectations, but at the same time, you won't let employees feel overdrawn.
Everyone has something better than others. Define yourself by your strengths rather than your weaknesses. Admit your weaknesses and try to solve them, but don't let them stop you from doing what you want to do. I'm surprised to often hear entrepreneurs say "I can't do A because I'm not good at B", which almost reflects the entrepreneur's lack of creativity. The best way to make up for your weakness is to hire complementary team members, not people who are good at the same things as you.
A particularly useful way to establish contacts is to be good at discovering undiscovered talents. Through practice, it will be easier and easier to quickly find talents with high IQ, high motivation and high creativity. The easiest way to learn is to meet more people and record who impressed you and who made you feel that you would not leave any impression. Remember, your goal is to find the person who makes the fastest progress, and don't overestimate your experience and current achievements.
When I meet a new person, I always ask myself, "Does this person have extraordinary abilities?" This is a very good way to find people who are likely to achieve great things.
A special way to build relationships is to find people who are willing to bet on you, preferably early in your career. Undoubtedly, the best way to do this is to do our best. And remember, at some point in the future, you have to pay back! Finally, remember to spend time with positive people who support your ambitions.
You get rich by owning things.
When I was a child, my biggest misunderstanding about the economy was that people got rich with high salaries. Although there are some exceptions-such as artists-in the history of Forbes list, almost no one is on the list by salary.
You become very rich by owning something whose value can increase rapidly.
This can be part of business, real estate, natural resources, intellectual property or other similar things. But anyway, you need to own shares in these things, not just sell your time. Time can only grow linearly.
The best way to quickly increase the value of things is to create what people want on a large scale.
13. Self-driven
Most people are mainly driven by the outside world; They do things because they want others to admire them. There are many bad reasons for doing this, but the most important ones are two.
First of all, you will do a career to realize the idea of * * * knowledge and realize * * * knowledge. You will be very worried-much more than you realize-whether others think you are doing the right thing. This may prevent you from doing some really interesting work, even if you do, others have already done it.
Secondly, you usually misjudge the risk. Even in the short-term competition with others, you will be so focused on keeping up with others that you will not fall behind.
Smart people seem to be particularly susceptible to external driving behavior. It is helpful to realize this, but it is extremely limited. You may have to work extra hard to avoid falling into the trap of imitating others.
The most successful people I know are mainly self-driven; They do what they do in order to be admired, because they feel it is their responsibility to make a little change in the world. When you earn enough money, you can buy anything you want and gain enough social status. It is no longer interesting to have more. Self-drive is the only force I know that can continuously push you to by going up one flight of stairs.
This is why one's motivation is very important. This is the first thing I try to know about a person. It's hard to define the right motivation with a set of rules, but you'll know it when you see it.
In this matter, Jessica Livingston and paul graham are my benchmarks. In the first few years, YC was laughed at by many people. When they first started, few people thought they would succeed. But they think it will be very beneficial to the world if it is done. They like to help others, and they believe their new model is better than the existing one.
In the end, your definition of success will be doing excellent work in areas that are important to you. The sooner you start working in this direction, the farther you can go. If what you do can't fascinate you, it's hard for you to achieve great success.