Last week, a founder told me his competitor raised $50M. “Good for them,” he said. Then explained how their success would expand his market.
Every job I’ve ever got came from someone taking an irrational bet on me. A PM at Yahoo who met me once at a career fair. The CEO of a 10-person startup who hired me after one coffee. VCs who backed me with zero investing experience.
None of them had good reasons. They just took the bet.
I moved to SF and watched it happen everywhere. People betting on strangers for fun. That’s when I realized you don’t build abundance mindset. You absorb it.
Here’s how:
Environment is destiny. This is why everyone’s moving to SF. Not for the weather. Because taking bets on strangers is normal here. You start doing it without thinking. Three months in the Bay Area and you’re forwarding opportunities to people you barely know. You can’t journal your way into this. You become your environment.
Fun is key. The people who took bets on me were all having fun. Not grinding. Not optimizing their network ROI. The Yahoo PM who hired me? Spent our interview laughing about product disasters. Their site had been down for 24 hours. People enjoying themselves have extra to give. Stressed people hoard everything.
Choose hard quests. When someone’s mission actually matters to them, they’ll bet on anyone who could help. Developers open sourcing code that could be their competitive advantage. They want the problem solved more than they want credit. Small missions create zero sum games. Big ones create abundance.
Status kills abundance. 10K followers want 100K. 100K want a million. Even million follower founders feel small next to Elon. Every ladder has another rung. Status seekers don’t take bets on nobodies. They track ROI on every introduction. The happiest founders I know stopped keeping score. They bet on people because it’s interesting, not strategic.
Fulfillment before generosity. Burned out people can’t take bets. They have nothing left to risk. The most helpful people have energy to spare. When you’re full, you give. When you’re empty, you can’t.
I owe 99% of my success to being around people who bet on strangers for fun.
I used to think I earned my opportunities. Now I know better. I was just lucky enough to be where irrational bets are normal.
Where and How do you find these people ?