Founders Notes
A treasure trove of resources that help founders go further and faster. Studying and copying successful founders is the cheat code to entrepreneurship.
The 7 Entrepreneur Superpowers
Almost impossible to offend
Almost impossible to embarrass
Not caring what others think of you
Handle rejection with zero emotion or setback
View all failure as learning
View all feedback as a gift
Change your mindset to think rejections are a badge of honor. Collect them.
The Equation for Success
Try something and fail
Learn as much as possible from that failure
Speed up the feedback loop of useful failures
Repeat indefinitely
Someone once asked MrBeast "what advice do you have for me about being successful on youtube?" His answer? The Rule of 100. "Make 100 videos. Any videos. Don't over think it, just start. And after each video, think of 1 thing you can do better. Maybe the title. Or intro. Or graphics. Do that 100 times, then come back and talk to me." Guess what happens? Nobody ever comes back and talks to him. 99% of people were just talkers. They weren't willing to make 100 videos. 1% of people actually do it, and by the 100th video, they're flying. They don't need advice anymore. They're too busy winning.
MrBeast — The Rule of 100
How to Make Your Own Luck
Luck intro
As a general rule, people have to go find luck; it doesn't find them. Luck is attracted to action and energy; it doesn't come looking for you on the couch. — Scott Adams
Courage Luck
Taking risks, making bets, experimenting, exploring, trial & error, failing, learning, and making iterations. Persistent curiosity. Change your mindset to think rejections are a badge of honor; collect them.
Hustle Luck
Seizing opportunities quickly as they come your way. Luck is a function of speed & action. A key predictor of success is how fast people move on important opportunities.
Who Luck
Learning from mentors, connecting with A players, and sharing ambitious goals, dreams, and ideas. Increased collisions with high-energy, innovative, and ambitious entrepreneurs lead to good outcomes.
Reputation Luck
Consistently adding value, under-promising and over-delivering. Be known as someone who always delivers and never drops the ball. Your reputation becomes a magnet for new opportunities.
Habits & Systems Luck
Luck tends to find systems that are most deserving.
Motion Luck
Creating motion and collisions through hustle and energy inserted into an ecosystem. Increased collisions lead to more lucky events.
Luck from Awareness
Resulting from awareness and depth of understanding in a specific domain. This depth positions you for lucky breaks within your area of expertise.
Luck from Uniqueness
Your unique attributes attract specific luck to you. It actively seeks you out.
Luck from Storytelling
Casting an audacious vision clearly and boldly attracts A players to help you build the dream.
Surface Area Luck
Luck is a function of surface area. Increase your odds by exposing yourself to more opportunities and people, leveraging media to expand your reach.
Why Sales is the #1 Skill
Sales is the key to success
Being able to sell yourself and your ideas is how you win. And it's all about story telling.
Being valuable and useful
Being valuable and useful is all you ever need to do to sell things. Share your ideas for growing their business. Introduce people who would benefit from knowing each other then get out of the way, expecting nothing in return. Do this consistently and authentically and people will find ways to do business with you.
Sales is a numbers game
Sales is just a numbers game; it's all about hustle and putting in the reps. Example: If, EVERYDAY, you did 10 burpees, read 20 pages of a book, saved $10 — that would probably put you in the top quartile for health, knowledge and wealth. Consistency is extremely undervalued.
Be a bold asker
Essence of Sales: We are in the business of asking. Be a bold asker.
Rainmaker Mindset
Everyday try to open one new door prospecting for new business. Prospecting/hunting is the #1 most valuable & hardest skill in every business. People who master this skill earn the most money in every business.
All great careers become sales jobs
All great careers, to some degree, become sales jobs. You have to evangelize your ideas/plans to your employees, customers, prospective employees, the press, investors, etc.
CEOs should focus on sales
One of the biggest areas CEOs should be focused on is sales. As the leader of a company, all you do is sell every day. You have to sell people around you on your vision and your company. You have to sell customers on buying from you and your employees on working for you. You have to sell your vendors on serving you and your investors on partnering with you. It's all sales.
People buy from friends
All things being equal people buy from their friends. So make everything else equal then go make a lot of friends.
Sales early in life is the cheat code
Being good at sales early on in life is the ultimate cheat code. It opens doors that then give you the ability to build your skill set. Accumulative advantage and compound interest begin to take over. Nobody can catch up.
If you don't ask the answer is always no
If you don't ask, the answer is always no. No ASK? No GET. This applies to every part of life.
Speed to lead
Calling leads the second they arrive in inbound is the single greatest hack in sales. Create or find AI to do this automatically.
Sell the transformation
Sell the transformation not the product…sell the dream.
Sell aspirin not vitamins
People buy aspirin always. They buy vitamins only occasionally and at unpredictable times. Sell aspirin.
Career advice for young people
My only career advice is if you absolutely have no idea what you want to do in life, fight hard to get into a sales role, and stick with it for at least a year or two. The reality of many successful people is that they are just good at selling things.
Take away selling
People don't like being pitched. There's a natural distrust, a fear that they're getting taken advantage of. Want the immediate trust of a prospect? Tell them why it's not a fit. Let them tell you why it is. Your no equals their yes.
Systems over goals in sales
The most successful sales people are usually those who have built the right systems. It is fundamentally just a numbers game. Focus on the process over the outcomes. Systems over goals.
Don't trade dollars for hours
Don't trade dollars for hours (salaries). You will not get rich renting out your time. Eventually work in places and situations where you gain leverage. Performance based rewards like sales commissions or bonuses or renewals/recurring revenue. Ultimate leverage is earning stock or equity in a company. The goal is for your pay to be tied to your performance/results rather than a capped salary.
How to close more sales calls
1. Listen for what they need, not what you want. 2. Be a trusted advisor first, salesperson second. 3. Close with the question: Are there any blockers that would keep you from getting started immediately? Best Closing Questions: What is the next step? Based on everything we discussed today is there any reason why we cannot go ahead and book the next step?
Learn to sell, learn to build
Learn to sell. Learn to build. If you can do both, you will be unstoppable.
Be a top 1% self-learner
Every job out there has unlimited how to success recipes widely available all over the internet, YouTube, Twitter, books & podcasts. Most of it free. 90% of people will never seek to find these resources & self-learn and more importantly 99% will never apply the ideas and put them into action. Be a top one percenter. Seek to learn and then take massive action to apply the learning.
Selling is helping
Selling is helping: if you believe your product improves the lives of your customers, sales is just education. You're helping people out.
High Agency Thinking
Two core beliefs of success
Almost every successful person begins with two core beliefs; 1. The future can be better than the present. 2. I have the power to make it so.
Bend reality to your will
A High Agency person looks to bend reality to their will. They either find a way, or they make a way.
High Agency vs Low Agency
High Agency: Relentlessly Resourceful. Low Agency: Hapless.
Bend the world to your will
A big secret is that you can bend the world to your will a surprising percentage of the time. Most people don't even try and just accept that things are the way they are. — Sam Altman
More boldness less complacency
We can almost always use more boldness and less complacency.
When told something is impossible
How do you respond when you are told something is impossible? Is that the end of the conversation or the start of a second dialogue in your mind? How to get around whatever it is that's just told you that you can't do something. — Eric Weinstein
Life was made by people no smarter than you
Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact: Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you and you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use. — Steve Jobs
Create your future
The best way to predict the future is to create it. — Peter Drucker
Make your own circumstances
People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can't find them, make them. — George Bernard Shaw
Maxims to Live By
Relationships run the world
The right relationships are better leverage than money
Enthusiasm is a force multiplier
Be a thermostat and not a thermometer
Appreciation is the fuel of joy
Your network is your net worth
Trust is the greatest economic force in the world
The best story wins
Sales cures all problems
Life is sales; dating, hiring, parenting, managing
'A' players attract more 'A' players
Talent is a great multiplier
People go where they grow
Comfort is the enemy
Being comfortable being uncomfortable is how you win
Small actions repeated over time transform us
The greatest teacher is called "doing"
The number of doing iterations drives the learning curve
Try a lot of stuff, keep what works
Actions express priorities
Action is the foundational key to all success
Action cures fear
Your actions reveal your values
People buy into stories, people, and momentum
We become the stories we tell ourselves
We become like the 5 people we hang out with the most
We become our habits
We become the food we eat and the content we consume
Be a good copier of successful people
Bet on people who take lots of shots
Find work that feels like play
Feedback is a gift
Hire people who have inherent urgency
Incentives drive behavior
Setting the right incentives is a superpower
What gets measured and rewarded gets done
Make small bets to test and double down your winners
Extreme ownership: everything is my fault
I own the problem, and I own the solution
When your values are clear, decisions are easy
Process saves us from the poverty of our intentions
If your behavior doesn't change you've learned nothing
We start with a YES mindset
Fortune favors the bold
Time kills deals
The best way to predict the future is to create it
Expectations govern results
Every problem is a leadership problem
Under promise, overdeliver
Key to success: do what you say you will do
Have a 100% say / do ratio
Action over everything
Mood follows action
The ROI on A players is 10x
People are the greatest asymmetric bet you can make
Always be recruiting
Be a perpetual talent scout
When you get inspired, leverage it to the hilt
Leave it better than when you found it
Gratitude is a superpower
Delayed gratification is a superpower
Vulnerability is the currency of human connection
Let's win at the fruits of the spirit
Your reputation is your brand
Brand: the opinion people have about you
Fast pay makes fast friends
Meritocracy culture: best ideas win
Quiet the ego, look for the lesson
People support what they help to create
As a leader, you get what you tolerate
Entrepreneur: people who bet on themselves
Life is an iterative and compounding game
Be the dumbest and poorest in as many rooms as possible
Pain + reflection = progress
Live life full throttle
Founders Quotes
“A small team of A players can run circles around a giant team of B and C players.”
— Walt Disney, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk
“All the benefits in life come from the magic of compound interest -- relationships, money, knowledge, habits -- anything of importance.”
— Naval Ravikant
“Always find the Arbitrage: everything in business boils down to buy low, sell high -- regardless of the product or service.”
“Average players want to be left alone, good players want to be coached, exceptional players want to be told the truth non-stop.”
— Nick Saban
“Be curious. Read widely. Try new things. What people call intelligence just boils down to curiosity.”
— Aaron Swartz
“Build a Learning Engine. The learning engine is at the core of every lifelong learner. It is comprised of all the learning inputs regularly consumed -- books, podcasts, newsletters, videos, mentors, advisors, mastermind groups, conferences, etc. The internet has opened access to it all.”
“Courage is in far shorter supply than genius.”
— Peter Thiel
“Don't be afraid to try what you're not qualified to do. If I only did what I was qualified to do, I'd be pushing a broom somewhere.”
— Chris Sacca
“Enthusiasm is a force multiplier to everything. The outcome of things is often proportional to our enthusiasm.”
“Entrepreneurship is really just a fancy word for delegation. It's a continuous process of removing yourself from the equation step by step and empowering your team to do the things that they do best.”
— Andrew Wilkinson
“Every result that you desire is preceded by a process that is required to produce that result. When you commit to it for an extended period of time the results take care of themselves. Work the process with zero attachment to the result.”
— Hal Elrod
“Everything in life can be solved with baby steps + compounding.”
“Find work that feels like play. It's incredibly hard to compete with someone who is having fun.”
— Naval Ravikant
“Focus on being directionally correct. Don't try to be perfect. Speed of action in the right direction is more important than a perfect record.”
“I believe that God gives to us at the level that flows through us, not just financially but in all ways.”
— Scott Donnell
“I believe that people rise in life not because they are the smartest or most diligent but because they are learning machines. Be a learning machine.”
— Charlie Munger
“I still underestimate the compounding power of rapid execution and iterated learning feedback loop. A commitment to this over the course of a career is the closest thing you can get to guaranteed success.”
— Sam Altman
“If I ask you to describe your real life to yourself, and you look back from your deathbed at the interesting things you've done, it's all going to be around the sacrifices you made, the hard things you did.”
— Naval Ravikant
“If you are paying attention the whole world is your classroom.”
— Jeff Bezos
“Just be a savage. These days, if you are even remotely a savage and you get out there and you grind hard and you want it badly enough, you can run by anyone. It's all out there for the taking, especially in this era of remote work. There has never been more opportunity out there than there is today.”
— Dana White
“Legacy is creating children and grandchildren who blow by you in every way.”
— Scott Donnell
“Life is all about who has the best imagination.”
“Life rewards the specific ask and punishes the vague wish.”
— Tim Ferriss
“Reading & lifelong self-learning unlocks your potential to just about anything in life.”
“School: asking other people for the answers is cheating. Life: asking other people for the answers is a superpower. Find successful entrepreneurs and copy their playbooks; the cheat code for winning.”
“Surround yourself with people whose default behavior is your desired behavior.”
— James Clear
“The best story wins. Attracting both money & A players flow to the best story tellers.”
— Walt Disney, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk
“The impediment to action advances action, what stands in the way becomes the way.”
— Marcus Aurelius
“The one characteristic that describes all successful Entrepreneurs: Relentlessly Resourceful.”
— Paul Graham
“To be successful you have to put yourself in situations and places you have no right being in. You shake your head at your stupidity. But through sheer will, you wear the world down, and it gives you what you want.”
— Stephen Schwarzman
“Unless you are willing to do uncomfortable things and take uncomfortable risks, nothing great is ever going to happen to you.”
— Nick Huber
“We have a sense of urgency. In my opinion a sense of urgency is the #1 most important trait of a human when it comes to being successful or not. You see, most people move slow. They think slow. They work slow. They make decisions slowly and they analyze opportunities for so long they disappear before they get up off the couch.”
— Nick Huber
“Will you choose Alive Time or Dead Time? There are two types of time: Dead Time where you let things happen and Alive Time where you make things happen. Life is always giving you the choice to decide...Alive Time or Dead Time?”
— Ryan Holiday
“You are not going to get rich renting out your time. You must own equity. Otherwise, your inputs will equal your outputs. Equity is how you earn nonlinearly.”
— Naval Ravikant
“You don't become confident by chanting affirmations in the mirror, but by having a stack of undeniable proof that you are who you say you are.”
— Alex Hormozi
“You will be the same in 5 years as you are today except for two things; the people you meet and the books you read.”
— Charlie Jones