I’ve observed thousands of founders and thought a lot about what it takes to make a huge amount of money or create something important. Usually, people start off wanting the former and end up wanting the latter.
Here are 13 thoughts about how to achieve such outlier success. Everything here is easier to do once you’ve already reached a baseline degree of success (through privilege or effort) and want to put in the work to turn that into outlier success. But much of it applies to anyone.
1. Compound Yourself
Compounding is magic. Look for it everywhere. Exponential curves are the key to wealth generation.
A medium-sized business that grows 50% in value every year becomes huge in a very short amount of time. Few businesses have true network effects and extreme scalability, but with technology, more will. It’s worth a lot of effort to find or create them.
Be an exponential curve yourself. Move towards a career with compounding effects—most careers progress linearly. Avoid paths where two years of experience are as effective as twenty. Your rate of learning should always be high, and your work should generate increasing results over time.
The biggest competitive advantage in business is long-term thinking. Trust the exponential, be patient, and be pleasantly surprised.
2. Have Almost Too Much Self-Belief
Self-belief is immensely powerful. The most successful people I know believe in themselves almost to the point of delusion.
Cultivate this early, and as you get more data points proving your judgment, trust yourself more. Balancing self-belief with self-awareness is critical to avoid delusion. Truth-seeking separates confidence from arrogance.
3. Learn to Think Independently
Entrepreneurship thrives on original thinking. School doesn’t teach this—it rewards conformity. Cultivate independent thinking by reasoning from first principles and testing ideas quickly in the real world.
“I will fail many times, and I will be really right once” captures the entrepreneurial mindset. Give yourself the chances to get lucky.
4. Get Good at Sales
All great careers become sales jobs. You must evangelize your ideas to customers, employees, investors, and others.
Good sales require a vision, strong communication skills, charisma, and execution evidence. Sell what you truly believe in—it feels great and avoids the pitfall of selling snake oil.
5. Make It Easy to Take Risks
Most people overestimate risk and underestimate reward. Early in your career, take small bets with high potential upside. Later, ensure your obligations are covered so you can afford bigger risks.
Keeping your life flexible and simple allows you to follow hunches and focus on long-term gains over short-term comforts.
6. Focus
Focus is a force multiplier. It’s much more important to work on the right thing than to work many hours. Identify your priorities and attack them relentlessly.
7. Work Hard
You can achieve the 90th percentile by working smart or hard, but reaching the 99th requires both. Extreme effort brings extreme results.
Momentum compounds, and working hard early in your career amplifies your future success. Find work you enjoy, with people you like, to make the effort sustainable.
8. Be Bold
Ambition attracts support. People want to help those tackling big, meaningful problems. Follow your curiosity and don’t be afraid to work on exciting, challenging projects.
9. Be Willful
You can bend the world to your will more often than you think. Optimism and persistence enable you to keep going until luck turns in your favor.
Ask for what you want, and don’t give up easily. Most people fail because they stop trying too soon.
10. Be Hard to Compete With
If what you do can be replicated, it will be—and for less money. Build leverage through relationships, personal branding, and expertise at the intersection of multiple fields.
Avoid mimetic behavior. Doing what everyone else does won’t make you exceptional.
11. Build a Network
Great work requires great teams. Help people over time, and they’ll often open doors for you. Generosity with others builds your reputation and opportunities.
Spotting undiscovered talent and nurturing it is a powerful way to grow your network and capabilities.
12. You Get Rich by Owning Things
True wealth comes from owning equity, not salaries. Time scales linearly, but equity grows exponentially when tied to valuable products or services.
Focus on creating things people want at scale.
13. Be Internally Driven
Externally driven people chase consensus ideas and care too much about others’ opinions. Internally driven people focus on what truly matters to them, leading to original, impactful work.
Eventually, success is about performing excellent work in areas you care deeply about. The sooner you start, the further you’ll go.