"I Didn't Make It" | How Steph Curry and Y Combinator Helped Me Achieve More

I sat in silence for about 20 minutes with one of the most diligent mentees I have and watched as streams of tears forced their way out of the corner of their eyes. They weren’t selected for what would have been their “dream job”, their first engineering job, after getting to the final round.

Rejection hurts.

When you compound being turned away with really wanting an opportunity, and/or really needing it… it can be devastating.

There have been only two times in my career that I’ve craved an opportunity the way my mentee had. The first was during a 30-ish minute wait between the first and second interviews to get my venture into Y Combinator. The second was years later between my first and second interviews to become an employee of Y Combinator.

Unfortunately, all I got from them was any clout & clicks I may get for adding it to the title of this post. I got rejected both times after performing worse than Carl Lewis singing the Star-Spangled Banner. There was even a moment in one, just like Carl, where I laughed because of how bad it was going ??… It’s something about people watching me code that makes my brain go “uhhhhh” like the people in the McDonald’s Super Bowl commercial. So close, yet so far away. What’s important was the change in my paradigm between both experiences. I was salty as hell after both, for sure, but the second time was low sodium… it even had a little sweetness to it.?

No sane basketball fan would argue against Steph Curry being the best 3-point shooter in NBA history. Here are a few interesting facts about his career (thanks Statmuse):

• In 13 years he has never lead in 3PT percentage (accuracy)
• In 5 of the last 6 years he has been ranked 13th or lower
• In 2 of the last 6 years he has not ranked in the top 25
• All-time there are 9 players that shoot it better than him
• His current coach happens to be the most accurate ever

So, what is it about his career that checks the box for best ever? Steph was officially declared the best shooter of all-time when he passed Ray Allen for most 3-point shots made. Earlier in my life and career I evaluated myself by my makes as well. Now that I’m more seasoned I realize it’s all of the salt from trying and often failing that has made me so.

There are several other players that shoot the 3 more accurately than Curry all-time. There are currently 25+ shooting it better than him now and there have been similar years where there are 25+, 19+, and et cetera plus players that do it better. The key metric that I focus on now and what made Curry the GOAT is attempts. Being good at whatever it is you want is table stakes. Consistently making attempts is the difference maker. Attempts whether in practice or in a game, build rhythm. Attempts create rapid learning opportunities and growth. Check these stats:

• Curry will soon have the most 3PT attempts all-time and is currently second
• He’s 4th on the all-time missed 3PT list
• There have been 39 games where he goose-egged and didn’t make a 3PT shot at all

Not making the shots you get in life is tough. It’s part of the game and something we have to embrace. Mentally reconfiguring the weight of importance on makes versus attempts changes the game for us. Similar to the way Steph has changed not just the NBA, but basketball worldwide.

When I was younger a lot of people, including myself, wrote me off because I wasn’t making it in a lot of areas:

• Failed 9th grade
• Judge considered forcing me out of the school system for a number of reasons
• Graduated 5th from last in my high school class
• Took advantage of everything college had to offer... except for the education part
• and a lot of other things I’m not proud of

Fortunately, there were people that took the time to expose me to different paradigms of thought and support me in developing a life I’m proud of. Over time I’ve been able to do a lot of things I wouldn’t have imagined:

• Invited to tech + criminal justice summit at The White House w/ Megan Smith, CTO of the US at the time
• Negotiated and signed a $100MM company and $4B company as clients
• Helped 75+ people learn software development and get into the industry
• and a lot of others things I still can't believe are developing

I attribute a lot of that to examining people like Curry and organizations like Y Combinator. Y Combinator invests in early stage companies (and are arguably the best at it) for those that are unfamiliar. Here are some interesting stats on their investments:

• Out of 953 investments that have reached some final state approximately 60% of them are failed/inactive.
• The other 40% or so have been acquired or have gone public. Interestingly, Curry shoots about 42% for his career from beyond the arc.

Even if you're good, you're going to miss a lot... (Jemuel Young of Netflix has a great video somewhere about this and interviewing for my new engineers)

I’m sure there are a few investment firms that have a comparably good track record for investing, so what sets Y Combinator apart?

“Twice a year we invest $500,000 per company in a large number of startups.”

Again, it is the number of attempts. They’re able to learn faster, find patterns, build network effects, and more. It’s the model I’ve adopted and why I try a lot of things and don't stress (as much) about them not turning out the way I'd like. 953 is a lot of investments, but they still have 2,556 more that are still active and TBD in terms of outcomes. Another interesting fact, both Curry and YC, have attempts at what they do in the 3,000+ range.

Not making whatever it is for you is going to sting, but embrace it. My hope is that like Curry, YC, and myself you scale making attempts… getting shots up knowing that with the blessing of time, consistent growth, and refinement the makes will add up.

To my engineer friends... join me in coaching students at an upcoming hackathon March 12th at the City of Refuge's Tech Transformation Academy. You can RSVP here or contact Dominick Preyer for more information.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I’m an engineer and entrepreneur that helps people transition from survival mode to managing surplus. Want to find a way to help me in this mission? Hit my DMs.