fundamentals: how to become a builder
how to be successful
im not a twitter/instagram guru, neither am i successful myself, but i have picked up a few things from people who are .
#1: do the basics
its honestly surprising how many people don’t do the basics. whether it be submitting an application to a VC or following up from a chat, or even following simple instructions, im appalled by the number of people who don’t do the basic things or normal human/societal things engrained within our culture. i don’t blame them though, there’s a reason YC only accepts less than a percent of applicants: because of the way distribution works + most people think they can somehow think they can get away from that (or cope with excuses)
#2: do the fundamentals
show up on time. do things early. communicate with everyone you’re working with more than you want to. do actual work than beating around the bush. stop blaming or coping with excuses; work will still be there at the end of the day.
i can guarantee you if you: do the very fundamentals of any task all the time than half ass a bunch of things. from personal experience: ive been in situations where id take multiple offers from fascinating people and think i could double up on work; realistically, id run into the same YC darwinism distribution, where i’d not do the basics of communicating or coping myself with excuses and nearly had all my offers dropped because of it. nowadays, im much more strict with what i say yes to and commit to things 100%, which long term adds social capital (another post about this later on) and gives me even more interesting opportunities.
3: communication
this is kind of off-topic, but given my purposely horrible writing and grammar, im going to add this in: given that pretty much everything is remote nowdays; no one can know what you’re working on, unless you tell them. you might be stuck on a bug for 5 hours or binging netflix for 5 hours; only if you tell your boss or whoever you’re working with, will they know what you’re up to. overcommunicating adds a level of trust that you won’t realize until you’re the boss looking over someone who doesnt text back for another 5 hours on what they’re up to.
#3.5:
also dm a lot of people. im not the one to be talking since i do this on and off, but you’d be surprised how many people are lonely. no one gets dms unless you’re a celebrity; at the same time, make sure your dms provide value in some way; no one will care about you unless its muturally beneficial in someway; keep this in the back of your mind.