Sam boils down his ability to accomplish more to three things: 1. Focus 2. Personal Connections 3. Self Belief Master these, and you'll unlock a new level of productivity and impact.

In 2018, Sam Altman simultaneously managed YC(a $30B+ Startup Accelerator) , invested >$400M in startups on the side, and built the world’s best team of frontier AI researchers with Elon for Open AI. His answer to ‘How do you get so much done?’ is powerful. A thread 🧵

1. Ruthless Focus For an early-stage startup, the definition of focus could be acquiring customers and shipping on a constant basis. Working on anything else is pretence, not impactful work.

Sam talks about how taking a year off between jobs helped him pick the right project to work on. He was on a break for a year before picking his latest project: OpenAI.

These sabbaticals help Sam choose projects that constantly outdo his past achievements. He co-founded Loopt in 2005. It became a thing of the past after he became the president of YCombinator in 2014. Today, OpenAI is what Sam's known for.

2. Personal Connections Sam is well known as one of the best network builders in Silicon Valley history Having a wealth of personal connections allowed him to hire the best talent and close amazing deals

I asked ChatGPT to map all of the important connections Sam's built over the years working in the Valley. He's connected to everyone in some way or other, from Elon to Brian Chesky A network like this unlocks talent, money, partnerships -- and a path to build a $100B+ company

Had you been a part of PayPal's early team, you would practically have access to every successful entrepreneur in the Valley. When SpaceX was on the brink of failure, Elon's Paypal buddies swooped in to save the company.

But here's some real talk: Newbie founders often fail to understand that great personal connections are a byproduct of great work. Just "networking" doesn't do shit. Naval said this best:

3. Have almost too much self-belief The most successful have an almost delusional level of self-belief. Contrarian ideas create value, but you need self-belief to have them when others doubt you.

But there's a caveat to this. Self-belief maxing needs to be paired with deep humility. It's the combination of extreme self belief + humility that is so powerful. This is a lesson I learned while building Thumbtack

To summarize, Sam Atlman believes that a strong personal belief and focus, combined with personal connections is how you can accomplish something truly great

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