On Everyone Else

One very interesting thing is, I see almost everyone as competition.

If someone is very cracked, I do admire or want to be like that a bit, but I also don't want to lose to them.

I suppose that's just human nature (envy), but I must overcome that and see the bigger picture.

There are 8 billion people in the world. That's insane. I must assume there are 1000 people who have perfect chemistry with me. And the internet allows you to connect with anyone, anywhere. That's a gift.

Being in the arena seems to be the answer. Let me build cool stuff, grind, achieve success, and I'll make friends along the way.

How would Bill Gates think about this? How about Alexandr Wang or Patrick Collison?

I think they'd take a lot of action. That'd be their full priority. Especially Bill Gates. He'd just build the product, code for 12 hours. Or he'd get into Harvard first before thinking about taking over the world! He wouldn't scroll on Twitter or check out his competitors' Instagram/YouTube: that's irrelevant. I must first of all do that. Afterwards, when you have momentum, everything becomes easier.

Obviously one big point is, in that case, you're starting from the ground up. Another option is to either join a company to learn and build a network, or find a world-class mentor and work under them 7/24 to learn as much as possible.

But to find the best mentor possible, you need a good personal brand.

And in this regard, someone who has shown that they can be successful on their own has a lot of advantages.

And some things are just clear: focus on getting into a great university. Focus on building something people want. I have many side projects right now, I should just make one work very well.

tldr:

• Take action, don't worry about competition. You'll find and meet cracked people anyway, no need to network/worry.
• Don't compare yourself to others who had success earlier or in a different way. Every input is unique. I've read a lot and listened a lot about history/companies. Someone who looks "successful" might have just repeated a no-brainer playbook. So all you can do is put in the work every day. If you do that, you will win. Just don't waste time.