The concept of “mentorship” has become too formal.
Asking someone to be your mentor feels like a big commitment.
Instead, build a Personal Board of Advisors.
A diverse group of 5-10 people you can go to for questions, advice, or feedback.
If you’re building your career…
Prioritize these core principles:
The concept of “mentorship” has become too formal.
Asking someone to be your mentor feels like a big commitment.
Instead, build a Personal Board of Advisors.
A diverse group of 5-10 people you can go to for questions, advice, or feedback.
One of the single greatest hacks to getting ahead early in your career:
(1) Observe your boss
(2) Figure out what they hate doing
(3) Learn to do it
(4) Take it off their plate
It's a clear way to add value, put up a win, and build momentum.
Having a decentralized friend group to grow with is a real competitive advantage.
• Unconnected to other groups
• Different backgrounds
• Range of experience sets
• Novel perspectives
Call it your Growth Tribe. It’s a huge value unlock.
To be successful, you either need to learn how to build or you need to learn how to sell.
Most of us aren't technically-gifted—so just learn to sell.
The more you progress in any field, the more of your job becomes sales.
If you can sell, you'll always make it.
Early in your career, it's tempting to compare yourself and your progress to those around you.
This person made X dollars last year. That person got Forbes 30 Under 30.
It's natural, but dangerous—learn to turn it off.
Focus on what you can control.
A 10x better foundation-building experience compounds much more effectively than that extra $5K in salary.
You should be compensated fairly, but not all compensation is monetary.
Think long-term. Build the strongest foundation.
When you're starting out, you're going to suck at most things.
You're going to make mistakes—that's ok.
What's not ok:
• Not owning your mistakes
• Making the same mistake twice
When you screw up, own it.
Then build a system so it never happens again.
In every company, there are certain rooms where the big stuff happens.
The negotiations, the decisions, the conflicts.
Identify them and find a way to be in there. Sit quietly, listen, and observe.
It'll be an insanely high leverage learning experience.
T-Shaped knowledge has breadth & depth.
Breadth allows you to be thoughtful and constructive across a range of areas—to contextualize broadly.
Depth allows you to be world-class in a specific area of expertise.
The most successful people have both.
The difference between moderately-successful people and extremely-successful people is that the latter legitimately enjoy being wrong.
They embrace new information that forces them to change their viewpoints.
Open mindsets rule the world.
Everything in life comes down to people and relationships.
Cultivate deep relationships, but also learn to appreciate the power of weak ties.
You can go far in life by just being someone that people enjoy having around.
Your 20s are a time to say yes to *almost* everything.
Saying yes puts you into new and uncomfortable situations professionally.
These situations are where you learn, grow, and expand your luck surface area.
You'll become a magnet for new opportunities.
It's in vogue to say that working smart is all that matters.
I disagree.
If you want to accomplish anything, you have to work hard.
Early in your career, build a reputation for hard work. Take pride in it.
Then find ways to get leverage and work smart.
Your Zone of Genius is where your interests, passions and skills align.
Early in your career, your goal should be to identify it.
Once you do, you can stop playing *their* games and start playing *yours*.
Play games you're uniquely well-suited to win.
It's easy to optimize for the skills required today, but a lot of people do so at the expense of building the skills required for your future role.
The partner has a different skillset than the analyst.
Win in the present, but build for the future.
You’ll never make it if the prize at the end is the only thing motivating you to move.
You've got to love the hunt.
Prioritize process, not outcomes.
Lay one brick each day—and lay each new brick 1% better than the last one.
The most successful are:
(1) Self-aware
(2) Strategic
(3) Ruthless
Self-aware to determine their unique edge relative to the world.
Strategic to set the table in a way that favors that edge.
Ruthless to exploit that edge.
Early in your career, find your edge.
Multitasking is fake productivity. You're just running around churning out a bunch of C+ work.
Instead, build a focused work habit.
Create an environment where you can get dialed in.
Learn to compartmentalize and focus on the one key task at hand.
Show deference to your bosses, but not at the expense of confidence.
Early career power dynamics are nuanced. Blending deference and confidence is how you manage them effectively.
If you've put in the work on something, stand up and say it.
Follow me @SahilBloom for more threads on business, growth, and technology.
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More from Sahil Bloom
Lifelong learning is a competitive advantage.
But contrary to what you’ve been told, lifelong learners are built, not born.
THREAD: 20 lifelong learning habits you can start developing today.
Stimulate Dynamically
The mind is a muscle - it needs to be stimulated dynamically to continue to grow.
Don’t rely on one “exercise” - develop a menu of options.
Write, read, listen, watch. Solve puzzles, play games. Enjoy it!
Stimulate dynamically, learn dynamically.
Build Learning Circles
The most powerful learning is communal, not individual.
Build learning circles with other intellectually curious minds.
Engage regularly with no set intention or goal.
Community is everything. Embrace it.
Keep Asking Why
“Why?” is the most useful tool in our learning toolkit.
But somewhere along the line, we are told to stop asking why and just accept “facts” as we are told them.
Reject the norm.
If you want to understand the world, take a cue from our kids - keep asking why!
Adopt a Process Orientation
Prioritize process.
Learn for the sake of learning, not always for a specific goal.
When you prioritize process, you become flexible in where you are headed.
Life is a winding, confusing journey - forward progress is all that matters.
But contrary to what you’ve been told, lifelong learners are built, not born.
THREAD: 20 lifelong learning habits you can start developing today.
Stimulate Dynamically
The mind is a muscle - it needs to be stimulated dynamically to continue to grow.
Don’t rely on one “exercise” - develop a menu of options.
Write, read, listen, watch. Solve puzzles, play games. Enjoy it!
Stimulate dynamically, learn dynamically.
Build Learning Circles
The most powerful learning is communal, not individual.
Build learning circles with other intellectually curious minds.
Engage regularly with no set intention or goal.
Community is everything. Embrace it.
Keep Asking Why
“Why?” is the most useful tool in our learning toolkit.
But somewhere along the line, we are told to stop asking why and just accept “facts” as we are told them.
Reject the norm.
If you want to understand the world, take a cue from our kids - keep asking why!
First principles thinking is a powerful mental model for driving non-linear outcomes. It also requires a willingness to ask difficult, uncomfortable questions.
— Sahil Bloom (@SahilBloom) March 14, 2021
Here are a few to help you get started: pic.twitter.com/KyuAr7IUf7
Adopt a Process Orientation
Prioritize process.
Learn for the sake of learning, not always for a specific goal.
When you prioritize process, you become flexible in where you are headed.
Life is a winding, confusing journey - forward progress is all that matters.
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The first area to focus on is diversity. This has become a dogma in the tech world, and despite the fact that tech is one of the most meritocratic industries in the world, there are constant efforts to promote diversity at the expense of fairness, merit and competency. Examples:
USC's Interactive Media & Games Division cancels all-star panel that included top-tier game developers who were invited to share their experiences with students. Why? Because there were no women on the
ElectronConf is a conf which chooses presenters based on blind auditions; the identity, gender, and race of the speaker is not known to the selection team. The results of that merit-based approach was an all-male panel. So they cancelled the conference.
Apple's head of diversity (a black woman) got in trouble for promoting a vision of diversity that is at odds with contemporary progressive dogma. (She left the company shortly after this
Also in the name of diversity, there is unabashed discrimination against men (especially white men) in tech, in both hiring policies and in other arenas. One such example is this, a developer workshop that specifically excluded men: https://t.co/N0SkH4hR35
USC's Interactive Media & Games Division cancels all-star panel that included top-tier game developers who were invited to share their experiences with students. Why? Because there were no women on the
ElectronConf is a conf which chooses presenters based on blind auditions; the identity, gender, and race of the speaker is not known to the selection team. The results of that merit-based approach was an all-male panel. So they cancelled the conference.
Apple's head of diversity (a black woman) got in trouble for promoting a vision of diversity that is at odds with contemporary progressive dogma. (She left the company shortly after this
Also in the name of diversity, there is unabashed discrimination against men (especially white men) in tech, in both hiring policies and in other arenas. One such example is this, a developer workshop that specifically excluded men: https://t.co/N0SkH4hR35
1/“What would need to be true for you to….X”
Why is this the most powerful question you can ask when attempting to reach an agreement with another human being or organization?
A thread, co-written by @deanmbrody:
2/ First, “X” could be lots of things. Examples: What would need to be true for you to
- “Feel it's in our best interest for me to be CMO"
- “Feel that we’re in a good place as a company”
- “Feel that we’re on the same page”
- “Feel that we both got what we wanted from this deal
3/ Normally, we aren’t that direct. Example from startup/VC land:
Founders leave VC meetings thinking that every VC will invest, but they rarely do.
Worse over, the founders don’t know what they need to do in order to be fundable.
4/ So why should you ask the magic Q?
To get clarity.
You want to know where you stand, and what it takes to get what you want in a way that also gets them what they want.
It also holds them (mentally) accountable once the thing they need becomes true.
5/ Staying in the context of soliciting investors, the question is “what would need to be true for you to want to invest (or partner with us on this journey, etc)?”
Multiple responses to this question are likely to deliver a positive result.
Why is this the most powerful question you can ask when attempting to reach an agreement with another human being or organization?
A thread, co-written by @deanmbrody:
Next level tactic when closing a sale, candidate, or investment:
— Erik Torenberg (@eriktorenberg) February 27, 2018
Ask: \u201cWhat needs to be true for you to be all in?\u201d
You'll usually get an explicit answer that you might not get otherwise. It also holds them accountable once the thing they need becomes true.
2/ First, “X” could be lots of things. Examples: What would need to be true for you to
- “Feel it's in our best interest for me to be CMO"
- “Feel that we’re in a good place as a company”
- “Feel that we’re on the same page”
- “Feel that we both got what we wanted from this deal
3/ Normally, we aren’t that direct. Example from startup/VC land:
Founders leave VC meetings thinking that every VC will invest, but they rarely do.
Worse over, the founders don’t know what they need to do in order to be fundable.
4/ So why should you ask the magic Q?
To get clarity.
You want to know where you stand, and what it takes to get what you want in a way that also gets them what they want.
It also holds them (mentally) accountable once the thing they need becomes true.
5/ Staying in the context of soliciting investors, the question is “what would need to be true for you to want to invest (or partner with us on this journey, etc)?”
Multiple responses to this question are likely to deliver a positive result.