Everyone thinks that success is down to:

Hard work. Luck. Intelligence.

They're wrong.

After building 2 startups in Silicon Valley, I've seen one rare trait all successful founders have.

Here's what it is (and how you can build this rare trait too): In 2017, I started my first company Juni - an online education company.

That has since raised $10.5M, backed by Y-Combinator.

And because of this, I have been around many successful founders.

The one trait I see in all of them? High agency.

Here's how to be more high agency:

If you spend more than 4 hours a day on your phone, read this: A bit about me:

I'm passionate about education and am building two companies to help students worldwide learn & grow.

A key part of learning is minimizing distractions so you can fully focus on the task at hand.

But phone addiction is the enemy of focus. Here's why:

Learning how to learn is the most valuable skill of the 21st century.

Sadly, most people don't know where or how to start.

Here's what we found on how to master anything fast: In 2017, I co-founded Juni, and then Acely - an AI education company helping students learn skills rapidly.

Since then, we've trained 1,000s of students on how to learn faster.

Here's 7 year's worth of lessons on how to master anything fast:

Elon Musk is a big believer in learning cognitive biases.

Not just Musk – Charlie Munger, Peter Thiel, and Jeff Bezos too.

Here are the 3 most important ones to understand: Understanding cognitive biases helped me attend Stanford, get into YC at age 26, and scale my company to millions in ARR.

But many of them aren’t worth learning.

Here are the 3 that have helped me the most in my career:

The number 1 killer of startups is that they never launch.

If you suffer from overthinking, read this: I could’ve overthought my startup ideas, played it safe, and stayed at McKinsey at age 24.

Instead, I got accepted into YC at age 26 and founded my startup.

How?

I fought the temptation to overthink.

Steve Jobs once said:

“You can’t win on innovation unless you have a way to communicate it to customers.”

Here are 10 strategies to talk to anyone about anything: Communication is THE most important skill for your career:

• It improves clarity
• Reduces misunderstanding
• Leads to a more connected and creative workforce

Master these 10 strategies for effective communication.

Or risk being left behind.

Education is broken.

Social media tells you to drop out of college to become a successful entrepreneur.

But what is the reality?

Out of the 10,000 funded founders in the US, what was their education

Here’s what I found: Top schools by the number of funded founders (2022-2023)

1. Stanford: 472
2. MIT: 325
3. UC Berkeley: 297
4. Harvard: 281

Stanford grads founded companies like Google, LinkedIn, Instagram, Snapchat, Paypal, WhatsApp, Yahoo, Netflix, NetSuite.

I just read about a study I can’t stop thinking about…

AI will disrupt 44% of your skills by 2027 (according to the World Economic Forum).

Here’s how to futureproof your career: According to the World Economic Forum, the top skills for a future-proof career are:

• Creative thinking
• Analytical thinking
• Resilience, flexibility, and agility

In other words - soft skills, not hard.

Sam Altman on why these skills are essential:

More women are entering the #web3 space, but it’s still far from equal.

Some women who inspired me to engage with crypto/NFT/web3: 1. @gaby_goldberg (former Juni instructor) - awesome content on web3, technical, and obviously I’m biased since she used to be a Juni instructor :)

Do you have what it takes to be a startup founder?

I’ve spent years around founders (including at @ycombinator).

More importantly — I’m one myself.

These are the attributes you MUST have to be successful 🧵 1. Resilience.

Startups really are a marathon AND a sprint. I’ve gotten knocked down more times than I can count, but consistently getting up and back at it is the only way forward.

I went through @ycombinator, founded a startup in SF, and went on to raise a 10.5M+ Series A.

From my POV, I see how many misconceptions exist around start ups.

This is what I wish people (on Twitter and beyond) understood about Silicon Valley startup culture 🧵 1. The people are incredibly humble.

Building a startup is a LOT OF HARD WORK + it doesn’t always (ever?) work out the way you thought it would. That keeps folks humble - everyone has a war story from when they thought they almost weren’t going to make it (or didn’t).

Being a founder is hard.

Sometimes, it’s lonely.

And almost all the time, it’s scary.

That’s why having an executive coach is worth the time (and money).

This is how my executive coach makes me a better CEO 👇 1. Collects 360 feedback

I encourage two-way feedback with direct reports.

Even with that open dialogue, I provide a forum for anonymous feedback as well.

My executive coach collects and distills that feedback — and helps me prioritize high-impact improvements.

Going through @ycombinator left me with lessons I still use every day.

These are my most helpful takeaways 👇 1. To balance sprints and marathons.

During @ycombinator we had weekly group check ins, we had to get things DONE weekly while working towards a long-term goal (demo day).

Now, I treat team milestones as critical – not optional. And set that tone for my entire team.