7 Helpful Lessons From My Mentors ??

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Quick story.?

In 2011, upon Steve Job’s death, Mark Zuckerberg publicly said goodbye to his guiding light:?

‘Steve, thank you for being a mentor and a friend. Thanks for showing that what you build can change the world. I will miss you.’

Bill Gates learned from Warren Buffet,?

Oprah got help from Maya Angelou through some of the most crucial moments,

And we all know how instrumental Professor Dumbledore was in Harry’s life.?

Mentorship has been and always will be a powerful tool.

But in the last decade, the mediums of learning have transformed drastically.?

Today, we learn from 1:1 conversations and via tweets, blogs, texts, newsletters, videos, and conferences.

I wanted to share 7 lessons that I’ve learned from my mentors over the years.?

Let’s dig in!?

1. Make The Main Thing, THE Main Thing

We live in the ‘distraction economy’. Recognizing a good idea is easy. Relentlessly pursuing it and scaling it is another story. Prioritization is a competitive advantage.?

While starting something has become easy, growing it is now the difficult part.

One of my life’s biggest learning is to avoid the shiny objects to create something that will stand the test of time.?

2. How To Know Whether You’re Working On The Right Thing

But how do you actually know if you’re working on the right idea? How do you know that you aren’t losing out by not hopping on the ‘new trend’ train? ??

How do you decide whether to take or not take the leap??

Here’s a simple framework:?

• What does your gut say? Are you excited about the ‘building’ part or the ‘result’ part? Does this idea serve your ego or your problem-solving self?
• Find reasons why it would not work. Before you start something, reach out to people in the industry and ask them to critique your idea.
• Do a Minimal Viable Execution. Instead of building a podcast – Try hosting weekly Twitter Spaces. Instead of building a newsletter – Try publishing one LinkedIn article per week.?

Read Paul Graham’s take on what stops people from executing ideas and why it shouldn’t.?

3. You Can Never Go Wrong If Your Timing Is Right?

Positioning an idea with the right alignment – asking the right questions to the right people at the right time, figuring out your action plan by digger deeper into existing trends, and researching competitors just to map out your next move.?

Understanding the market before diving in will help you understand whether you could get eaten by sharks while you figure out how to swim.?

Doing the necessary homework, networking with people just because they inspire you and building in public are some key things that help you get your timing right.?

4. Owning An Audience Vs Renting It?

If you’re solely focused on engagement metrics without building true relationships with your audience – they’ll pass you by like visitors.?

You’re just borrowing a few seconds of their “scroll time”.?

Unless you own a direct relationship with them over the phone, email newsletter, or your website – they’re really not your loyal audience.?

5. Write To Refine Your Ideas?

One of the most profound pieces of advice I’ve ever come across is from David Perell:?

Write to think better. Write to reflect better. Write to understand better.?

Assessing the weight of your ideas and your decisions by writing about them is probably the most underrated cheat code to get ahead in life.?

6. Community Before Product?

I wasn’t on board with this mindset initially. I mean, shouldn’t the product bring people together? Yes, it should.?

But building a community before you launch your MVP has 2-fold benefits that are too crucial to ignore:

• Feedback: Your community will be more than happy to be a part of your growth journey by testing and offering their feedback on your MVP.?
• Advocacy: Your community trusts you and they will accelerate the growth of your product/startup via the network effect.?

1 person will bring in 3 more. Those 3 people will bring in 9 more. So on and so forth.?

7. The Underrated Power Of Following-Up

Note-taking, emailing myself, blocking my calendar, scheduling reminders are a few ways I like to keep track of important ideas, communications and actions.?

If you struggle with writing daily, for example, you can just email yourself a content idea whenever you’re reading something and it sparks a thought in your head.?

If you’ve to reach out to someone, schedule a reminder to spend time researching about them and prepare your draft message.?

Whenever an idea strikes, take the smallest possible action in its direction.

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??RIFF OF THE DAY

Just go read this thread – you can thank me later :)?

Thanks for reading. I try hard to make it worth your time. Got feedback? Let me know.

?Stay outta’ trouble and catch you next week.

???? Joel

Wanna learn more about building your voice online? Check out my 2022 Spring Cohort Class.

You can also learn more about my work on my Website, Twitter or LinkedIn.