Contrary to popular belief, being overrated is good. It opens doors and gives you credibility.
But don’t let this go to your head. Stay hungry, humble and hardworking.
I interviewed 100 legendary investors, founders and executives.
Collectively, they have created over $1 trillion of value for the world.
Here are 20 practical career lessons they shared with me 👇👇👇
Contrary to popular belief, being overrated is good. It opens doors and gives you credibility.
But don’t let this go to your head. Stay hungry, humble and hardworking.
Expiring skills are tactical; their relevance diminishes with time and technology
Permanent skills are evergreen and create disproportionate impact
E.g. communication, judgement, trust, empathy
If you get advice from enough people, the advice will cancel out.
You can find 2 smart people to take opposite sides of the argument on virtually every topic.
Focus on developing your instincts and trusting your own intuition.
Open Minded People:
- Ask genuine questions
- Insatiably curious
- Listen attentively
Close Minded People
- Make statements instead of ask questions
- Focus on being right
- Speak more
Most people hate messes and avoid them like the plague.
But this is where the impact lives.
If you let details go, you slowly chip away at your core.
Doing 1% less consistently makes underachievement inevitable.
It’s really important to separate inputs (process) from output (outcomes).
Every so often you will have a great outcome that seemingly comes out of nowhere — this is luck.
Do not get seduced by it.
It isn't repeatable.
Every commitment is 2 decisions:
1. A decision to engage on X
AND
2. A decision not to engage on Y.
Guard your time. As the road widens, many of the detours are seductive.
Most people hit roadblocks and give up.
Successful people understand roadblocks are a part of the journey.
When you hit a roadblock - embrace it, work through it, celebrate and then “re-rate” your baseline.
Cows consistently graze. This is akin to 9-5 jobs. Always operating at ~30% efficiency.
Lions pounce in bursts. This is counterintuitive. Work on high intensity, high value projects. Execute at 120%.
Rest. Rejuvenate. Repeat.
Every complexity starts out as a snowball. Address it head on.
If you let it fester, it’ll turn into a boulder and you’ll either (a) get crushed or (b) have to spend an inhumane amount of energy to fix it.
- Be Top 1% in the world at 1 thing
- Be Top 25% in the world at 3 things
Top 25% is achievable by most people.
The problem is most people focus on being Top 1%.
Work on combining “3 pretty goods” and stay at it.
It’ll pay off big.
Build in public. Send that cold email. Build relationships with people you look up to.
The most interesting opportunities are never on job boards, they’re created organically.
- Best idea? Maybe
- Correct answer? Maybe
- Most useful answer? Maybe
Most persuasive story? Definitely
Nobody wants the facts, everybody wants a story.
Every opening is a sale - partnerships, recruiting, vision, fundraising
Every close is a negotiation - hiring, alignment, price, terms, value
Can Control:
- Attitude
- Mood
- Reaction
- Effort
- Curiosity
- Motivation
Can’t Control:
- Other People
- The World
To win big, surround yourself with 3 things:
1. Other greats
2. Role players
3. A system that brings out the best in everyone.
All three of these are equally important and allow you to thrive.
How to build a successful business:
- Traction
- Speed
- Simplicity
- Consistency
- Community
- Iteration
- Imitation
How to feel like you're building a successful business:
- $ Raised
- Investor Brand
- Advisors
- Headcount
- Adulation
Interesting thought experiment:
If you had the opportunity to switch places with Warren Buffet, would you do it?
You would be a billionaire, but you would also be 90.
Time > Money.
At the end of the day, everyone wants the same thing: to feel fulfilled, maintain pride and enjoy what they’re doing.
Remember that, apply it to every interaction you have and you can get through the toughest of conversations.
Religion. Family. Friends. Kids. Whatever it is, find it.
Life only gets more complicated as you grow older.
Anchors help keep it simple - they remind us what actually matters.
More from Romeen Sheth
The cold hard truth:
Why do companies like Quibi raise billions, while companies like Peloton get nothing?
Because fundraising is a GAME
And the insiders keep the rules to themselves.
Here are 100 tips the insiders don’t want you to see but will help you win the game:
1. You can’t play the game without nailing the basics.
There are 5 core ingredients to a startup pitch.
Most have 2.
Good ones have 4.
The best have all 5.
2. Now that you have a grasp of the basics, it’s time to level up.
Good news - most founders make the same mistakes as each other.
Bad news - these mistakes are really easy to make.
Here's what not to do:
3. Ok so you told me what not to do.
So what should I do?
Read below.
4. We’re in a really unique fundraising environment right now.
It’s important to contextualize all these tips in the “here and now” of what’s going on in the landscape.
Why do companies like Quibi raise billions, while companies like Peloton get nothing?
Because fundraising is a GAME
And the insiders keep the rules to themselves.
Here are 100 tips the insiders don’t want you to see but will help you win the game:
1. You can’t play the game without nailing the basics.
There are 5 core ingredients to a startup pitch.
Most have 2.
Good ones have 4.
The best have all 5.
There\u2019s a lot of bad advice out there on how to pitch your startup.
— Romeen Sheth (@RomeenSheth) April 10, 2021
Last year, I invested $1M+ and heard 200 companies pitch.
Every great pitch I've heard nails 5 ingredients.
In this thread, we'll go through each to help maximize your chances when fundraising
Let's dig in\U0001f447 pic.twitter.com/FBaUUWHz8L
2. Now that you have a grasp of the basics, it’s time to level up.
Good news - most founders make the same mistakes as each other.
Bad news - these mistakes are really easy to make.
Here's what not to do:
0/ After evaluating 200+ startups this year, I've been in some awesome and not so awesome pitches.
— Romeen Sheth (@RomeenSheth) December 28, 2020
Here are the top 10 mistakes I see Founders make that routinely derail fundraising \U0001f447\U0001f447\U0001f447
3. Ok so you told me what not to do.
So what should I do?
Read below.
0/ Last night I tweeted about the top 10 things Founders do that derail fundraising. It struck a chord. 2,500+ liked the tweet.
— Romeen Sheth (@RomeenSheth) December 30, 2020
I got a ton of DMs asking the opposite question: \u201cWhat are the top things Founders do well when fundraising?\u201d
Here's my top 10 \U0001f447\U0001f447\U0001f447
4. We’re in a really unique fundraising environment right now.
It’s important to contextualize all these tips in the “here and now” of what’s going on in the landscape.
Raising money for startups is wild right now. I\u2019ve never seen anything like it.
— Romeen Sheth (@RomeenSheth) May 5, 2021
Lots of Founders are wondering how to approach it and who they should partner with.
Here are 10 observations / practical tips I've shared with 100+ Founders in the last few months \U0001f447\U0001f447\U0001f447
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The neither validated nor standardised hypersensitive RT-PCR test / Ct 35-45 for SARS-CoV-2 is abused to mislabel (also) other diseases, especially influenza, as COVID-19.https://t.co/AkFIfTCTkS
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— Dr. Thomas Binder, MD (@Thomas_Binder) November 29, 2020
4/12
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Stan Lee’s fictional superheroes lived in the real New York. Here’s where they lived, and why. https://t.co/oV1IGGN8R6
Stan Lee, who died Monday at 95, was born in Manhattan and graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx. His pulp-fiction heroes have come to define much of popular culture in the early 21st century.
Tying Marvel’s stable of pulp-fiction heroes to a real place — New York — served a counterbalance to the sometimes gravity-challenged action and the improbability of the stories. That was just what Stan Lee wanted. https://t.co/rDosqzpP8i
The New York universe hooked readers. And the artists drew what they were familiar with, which made the Marvel universe authentic-looking, down to the water towers atop many of the buildings. https://t.co/rDosqzpP8i
The Avengers Mansion was a Beaux-Arts palace. Fans know it as 890 Fifth Avenue. The Frick Collection, which now occupies the place, uses the address of the front door: 1 East 70th Street.
Stan Lee, who died Monday at 95, was born in Manhattan and graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx. His pulp-fiction heroes have come to define much of popular culture in the early 21st century.
Tying Marvel’s stable of pulp-fiction heroes to a real place — New York — served a counterbalance to the sometimes gravity-challenged action and the improbability of the stories. That was just what Stan Lee wanted. https://t.co/rDosqzpP8i
The New York universe hooked readers. And the artists drew what they were familiar with, which made the Marvel universe authentic-looking, down to the water towers atop many of the buildings. https://t.co/rDosqzpP8i
The Avengers Mansion was a Beaux-Arts palace. Fans know it as 890 Fifth Avenue. The Frick Collection, which now occupies the place, uses the address of the front door: 1 East 70th Street.
