The crazy simple secret to massive success in Silicon Valley is actually incredibly easy: Help People... That's it. If you do it, huge amounts of success (and wealth) will flow your way. But, it is a little tricky... Here are some secrets (a thread)

The reason this strategy works is technology outcomes are unbounded and non-linear. A tiny investment of time or money at the early stages can become a fortune. Advisor equity in FB became worth $100m. $5k in the Uber seed became $25m https://brandondonnelly.com/2019/05/10/5599/

These incredible asymmetric returns have created a culture here where help is freely given as the optimal strategy is to all about finding the next Facebook vs quid pro quo cultures seen in other industries.

But the tricky part is these unbounded outcomes are unevenly distributed and true innovation comes from the edges. It is all about the crazy ones and they are really hard to find.

Because these outcomes are diamonds in the rough, it requires a system to uncover them. It is just not so simple that you can just help anyone and everyone and it will all work out.

The Grand Master of this system is undoubtably Ron Conway. Tales of his usefulness are legion. This story from Airbnb founder Brian Chesky is just one of myriad. https://news.airbnb.com/ron-conway-and-the-economic-empowerment-award/

Step 1 You first have to find people worth helping. Not every idea is good and not every person can pull it off. It's like peeling an onion. You meet a person. Are they smart, ambitious, open to help? If so maybe a quick call. Then maybe a meeting.

2. Give value first and expect nothing in return. Think of it like planting seeds, constantly scattering them. I call it being "Lazy Useful". When I can add value with no cost to me, an idea, a customer or an introduction I freely do it and ask for nothing. Then I wait.

3. The trick is to do things you are very good at and scalable. If it takes hours of effort it will never give you enough breadth to find the diamonds. It helps to do things you enjoy, for instance I love the process of raising money for startups and get joy helping there.

4. If you are actually useful folks will come back asking for more help. Sometimes immediately, sometimes years later. Now is a tricky part. You have to decide if you want to invest your time and or capital in them. That decision is alpha and is very very hard (a later thread).

5. Once you decide to help, you must make sure that if they win so will you. The worst feeling in the world is seeing a startup IPO who you helped a ton and you get nothing. Trust me it sucks... If they ask for more help you must get equity or full stop.

6. Now the real fun starts. You are a fellow traveler on what will hopefully be an epic journey. Be useful, enjoy the ride, remember that your reputation is everything in this game.