It may be a bit too early to write a piece like ‘How to be successful’ like Sam Altman, but I’ve always made important decisions by myself and achieved auspicious outcomes. In this article, I want to share some of my learnings in the process.
1) Get out and meet people.
Thoughts are inspired by surroundings, and most of them come from people around you. If you just keep meeting the same friends, it’s highly likely that you’ll keep talking about the same things. This makes it hard for your thoughts to go beyond the limited agendas. But if you meet a broader range of people who are older and more experienced enough to be decision makers, you can learn the way they think.
Therefore, you should get out there, meet diverse people, and try to catch what it is that successful people have.
2) Follow the right person.
Many of my friends think about career in terms of company’s name value the name value of a company, position, and pay. But person who you will work with is the most important factor to consider when choosing. Especially if it’s your first job, your immediate supervisor will be critical in forming the basics such as your work style, ethic, and mindset. So I recommend that you check the reference about the person who will work with you. that you check the person’s reference before deciding to work with him/her.
And your role model is not only limited to work but can also be applied to your personal life. As the saying goes, “5 people that you often meet is the equivalent to who you are.”
3) There are hints.
Maybe you have goals, but you don’t know how to achieve the goals. You should be reminded that there are always going to be hints somewhere because the world is big. In my case, If I get set a new goal, I search the people who have taken similar paths, read all of the interviews or books about them, then I imitate their mind, behavior, and habit. It’s like human-hacking. It’s like hacking their brain.
Of course, in the long term, thinking independently is the most important to success. It’s okay to imitate someone at first, then you must update your playbook to your own style.
4) Leverage.
Many people use their own money, network, time, and etc. However you can make better results early faster if you can use others’ as your own. The earlier you recognize the power of leveraging, the bigger your outcomes will be, because life is compound interest. To use this magic, I tried to find something to leverage, and as a result, started my blog and newsletter that works even when I’m sleeping. And now, I’m working as a venture capitalist who leverages others’ money.
So you must find something to leverage like money, network, and product.
5) Take risks.
Humans tend to follow the behavior of the majority because of our past ancestor’s survival instincts; however, it’s not bad to be on the side of the minority. The probability of success may be lower than the majority, but if you look deeper, it’s also likely that there is higher expected value in choices that the majority doesn’t make. Especially if you are young, there is low risk because if your choice turns out to be wrong, you skill have chances left to bet on others.
I had many options to change my career, among them well-recognized companies, but I chose a company that no one else had ever heard of. I think my choice is right so far.
