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This is a good thread. I like these kinds of threads.
My two cents:
LAUNCH A STARTUP/BUSINESS, FAIL FAST AND OFTEN
If you have an entrepreneurial itch and you think you have a good idea, launch your startup idea NOW whether you think you are ready or not.
Experience is nothing more than learning from a series of calculated risks and temporarily setbacks and failures that you can pivot away from towards success.
Launch a business NOW with as little capital as possible. You will learn a lot.
BUILD A GLOBAL NETWORK, DON'T HANG OUT WITH SCRUBS
Build a network while you travel.
I can't emphasize this enough. I didn't travel aimlessly in my twenties - every place I went to, I made sure that I met the alumni of my university there to gain a foothold of trusted influential contacts in the local scene. I also scoured Linkedin for contacts in my industry and randomly messaged them to see if they were willing to meet up with me. More often than not, especially in emerging markets, they were willing to do so.
This has now provided me with an environment in which I can show up to any major city in East Asia, West Europe, and North America and immediately have a base of contacts to hit up whether I just want to hang out or get something from them.
You have 24 hours in each day and you can choose to spend them with scrubs or with people who will push you forward. Choose to spend your time with people who are better or more skilled than you are and it will automatically improve you because it will push you to be better.
BUILD YOUR UNIQUE VALUE ADDS AND ASSETS
Build useful assets that you can use as a value add to others.
As a result of this, whenever I want to get in touch with someone important in the tech startup scene, literary world, media, etc - I can basically just say to them:
"I'm getting in touch for two reasons. First, I'd like to know if you'd like to promote anything of yours across my social media channels. Second, I'd like to set up a time to skype so I can understand how to best help you promote your stuff and also to discuss (whatever I need to discuss)"
It's a no brainer for whoever that person is to get on a call with me.
I've met dozens of important people by using this method. More importantly, once we get off of our initial call, they owe ME a favor instead of the other way around.
I can replicate this strategy infinite times, as long as the people find value in what I'm offering. Sometimes, even if they don't have a need for my particular assets, they find it so refreshing that I am popping in with a value-add, instead of a value-take, that they want to find out more about me anyway.
Important people usually get hit with lots of emails from people who are trying to extract value from them.
When you come forward offering value, you will be amazed at how very busy and important people will bend over backwards to give you their time of day.
I'm not saying you have to do what I did but make sure that you have some sort of leverage instead of just being another value taker. Setting up these assets now will make life a lot easier for you later on.
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This is a good thread. I like these kinds of threads.
My two cents:
LAUNCH A STARTUP/BUSINESS, FAIL FAST AND OFTEN
If you have an entrepreneurial itch and you think you have a good idea, launch your startup idea NOW whether you think you are ready or not.
Experience is nothing more than learning from a series of calculated risks and temporarily setbacks and failures that you can pivot away from towards success.
Launch a business NOW with as little capital as possible. You will learn a lot.
BUILD A GLOBAL NETWORK, DON'T HANG OUT WITH SCRUBS
Build a network while you travel.
I can't emphasize this enough. I didn't travel aimlessly in my twenties - every place I went to, I made sure that I met the alumni of my university there to gain a foothold of trusted influential contacts in the local scene. I also scoured Linkedin for contacts in my industry and randomly messaged them to see if they were willing to meet up with me. More often than not, especially in emerging markets, they were willing to do so.
This has now provided me with an environment in which I can show up to any major city in East Asia, West Europe, and North America and immediately have a base of contacts to hit up whether I just want to hang out or get something from them.
You have 24 hours in each day and you can choose to spend them with scrubs or with people who will push you forward. Choose to spend your time with people who are better or more skilled than you are and it will automatically improve you because it will push you to be better.
BUILD YOUR UNIQUE VALUE ADDS AND ASSETS
Build useful assets that you can use as a value add to others.
As a result of this, whenever I want to get in touch with someone important in the tech startup scene, literary world, media, etc - I can basically just say to them:
"I'm getting in touch for two reasons. First, I'd like to know if you'd like to promote anything of yours across my social media channels. Second, I'd like to set up a time to skype so I can understand how to best help you promote your stuff and also to discuss (whatever I need to discuss)"
It's a no brainer for whoever that person is to get on a call with me.
I've met dozens of important people by using this method. More importantly, once we get off of our initial call, they owe ME a favor instead of the other way around.
I can replicate this strategy infinite times, as long as the people find value in what I'm offering. Sometimes, even if they don't have a need for my particular assets, they find it so refreshing that I am popping in with a value-add, instead of a value-take, that they want to find out more about me anyway.
Important people usually get hit with lots of emails from people who are trying to extract value from them.
When you come forward offering value, you will be amazed at how very busy and important people will bend over backwards to give you their time of day.
I'm not saying you have to do what I did but make sure that you have some sort of leverage instead of just being another value taker. Setting up these assets now will make life a lot easier for you later on.
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