Back in 2019, Open CEO Sam Altman (AKA: the brains behind ) wrote a blog post that slipped under many people’s radars (and still doesn’t get the attention it deserves).
The original blog post titled “How to be successful”, is 3,500 words (link here), and is well worth the read if you have the time. Otherwise, the summarized key takeaways are below, with the reference summary site
Compound yourself
Focus on exponential growth in your personal and professional life. Leverage technology, capital, brand, network effects, and people management to achieve more with your efforts.
Have self-belief
Cultivate immense self-belief, balanced with self-awareness. This belief fuels contrarian ideas and perseverance, while self-awareness helps avoid self-delusion and keeps you grounded.
Think independently
Original thinking is key to entrepreneurship. Cultivate it by thinking from first principles, generating new ideas, and testing these ideas in real-world scenarios.
Get good at sales
Learn to convince others of your beliefs. This involves developing strong communication skills, having an inspiring vision, and being able to show evidence of execution ability.
Make it easy to take risks
Make small bets where the potential gain outweighs the risk by a large margin. Keep your life flexible and cheap to facilitate this risk-taking.
Focus
Identify the right things to work on and be relentless in accomplishing them. Focus acts as a force multiplier in your work.
Work hard
Hard work, combined with smart work, is necessary to reach the top percentile in your field. Embrace the joy of finding your purpose and making an impact.
Be Bold
Embrace challenging projects as they attract more help and make your work matter. Follow your curiosity and don't hesitate to work on what excites you, regardless of what others are doing.
You can shape the world more than you think. Overcome self-doubt, persevere, and don't give up too early. Be persistent, ask for what you want, and stay optimistic. Persistence often leads to success.
Be Hard to Compete With
Make yourself unique and valuable. Build leverage through personal relationships, a strong personal brand, or skills in multiple fields. Avoid imitating others; your uniqueness makes you difficult to compete with.
Build a Network
Cultivate a network of talented people to work with. Help others generously and take care of those who work with you. Build a reputation for identifying and nurturing talent. Surround yourself with positive people who support your ambitions.
Get Rich by Owning Things
Wealth comes from owning assets that increase rapidly in value, not just from earning a high salary. Ownership could be in businesses, real estate, intellectual property, or other assets. The best way to create such assets is by producing things people want on a large scale.
Be Internally Driven
Don't be primarily motivated by the desire to impress others. Focus on doing interesting work and making an impact. Being internally driven motivates you to perform at high levels even after achieving financial comfort and social status. Success should be defined by excellent work in areas that are important to you.