Sam Altman : How to Build the Future

Summary

Sam provides advice on having an impact and success in one's career. He emphasizes finding work at the intersection of what you enjoy, are good at, and creates value. He advises moving to access people and opportunities in your field, helping others with no expectation of reward, and persisting through criticism. Sam stresses focusing on a few ambitious ideas long-term rather than pursuing many projects quickly. He encourages taking risks, especially when young, and learning from failures. Sam concludes by urging people to carefully consider how to maximize their contribution, then have the conviction to take risks pursuing meaningful work.

Takeaways

• 😀 Focus on finding the intersection of what you're good at, what you enjoy, and where you can create value.
• 👥 Help people with no expectation of benefit - it often comes back to benefit you later.
• ⚡️ Things get done through a combination of focus, personal connections, and self-belief.
• 🚀 Work harder early in your career to get leverage and compounding effects.
• 🏃‍♂️ Burnout comes from lack of momentum, not overwork. Shut down what's not working and try something new.
• 💪 Ask for what you want and be aggressive - don't let fear of failure or rejection hold you back.
• 😎 Each crisis gets less scary over time as you realize you can survive them.
• 💰 Time arbitrage is one of the last great opportunities - take a long-term view.
• 💡 Have strong opinions, weakly held - be open to changing your mind with new data.
• 🎯 Take risks pursuing what you believe will let you contribute most, even if you might fail.

Q & A

What three things does Sam recommend looking at the intersection of when trying to decide what to work on?

Sam recommends looking at the intersection of what you're good at, what you enjoy, and where you can create value for the world.

What does Sam say is one of the most valuable times to study the trajectory for the rest of your career?

Sam says the beginning of your career is one of the most valuable times to study the trajectory for the rest of your career.

What three factors does Sam say are important for accomplishing big things?

Sam says the three factors for accomplishing big things are focus, personal connections, and self-belief.

What does Sam say is a good framework for deciding when to give up versus keep working on something?

Sam says you should make the decision to give up or keep working based on an internal, not external, assessment. You should give up when you have run out of ideas and something is not working.

What does Sam say most people regret more - things they did or didn't do?

Sam says most people regret more the things they didn't do rather than the things they did do.

What does Sam say is energizing versus draining when it comes to motivation and burnout?

Sam says that momentum and progress are energizing, while lack of momentum and failure are draining in terms of motivation and burnout.

What does Sam recommend doing to take advantage of being young and less established in terms of risk?

Sam recommends taking more risks early in your career to take advantage of being young, unknown, and poor.

What does Sam say is one of the few arbitrage opportunities left when it comes to investing?

Sam says that time is one of the few arbitrage opportunities left when it comes to investing.

What does Sam recommend in terms of having strong opinions versus being flexible?

Sam recommends having strong opinions about the overall vision but being flexible on the details of implementation.

What two pieces of advice does Sam offer for young people wanting to have a big impact?

Sam advises thinking hard about where you can contribute based on what you're good at and enjoy, and then having the courage to take risks and focus on that area.

Outlines

00:00

😀 How to pick what's important to work on

Sam advises looking at the intersection of what you're good at, what you enjoy, and where you can create value. Most people just fall into things without much thought, but upfront thought on how you'll spend time is valuable. YC brings people together interested in startups, which has been very valuable.

05:01

😊 Advice on work-life balance in your 20s

Sam worked hard early in his career to get leverage and compounding effects. He tried to meet people, go to events, and spend time learning to get better. He says it's worth working harder than people expect in your 20s, though you don't want to work all the time.

10:03

😕 Deciding when to stop working on something

Knowing when to quit is hard. Most people quit too early before something can succeed. Good entrepreneurs make an internal decision to stop based on running out of ideas, not external criticism. Things are hard and take a long time, you have to sustain criticism and lack of interest.

15:03

🤔 Finding motivation for big, long-term ideas

Enjoyment and belief it matters sustain motivation over time, not money or fame which fall away. Lack of momentum is draining, not working too hard. Work on things interesting and working to avoid burnout.

20:04

😲 Taking risks in your career

People have bad risk calculus. Take risks early when you have less to lose. Regret not trying something more than trying and failing. Do something meaningful despite criticism as a doer, not just talk.

😃 Asking for what you want and learning from crises

Ask for what you want aggressively, you'll get told no but sometimes it works. Each crisis gets less scary over time. You'll survive and figure it out based on experience.

Keywords

💡entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship refers to starting and running one's own business. It is a major theme in the video, as Sam provides advice to young people on how to have an impact as entrepreneurs. He talks about identifying problems to solve, assembling teams, getting funding, and persevering through challenges.

💡startups

Startups are newly established businesses, often involving a novel product or business model. Sam has experience supporting startups through Y Combinator. He advises that people should be willing to move and make sacrifices to work at promising startups.

💡risk

Risk means undertaking actions that involve uncertainty and potential failure. Sam argues that entrepreneurship requires taking calculated risks. He thinks people should take more risks early in life and advises having the courage to fully commit to an idea.

💡failure

Failure refers to an unsuccessful attempt at a project or business. Sam says failure is common in entrepreneurship and people should not let it discourage them. He argues failure comes from lack of momentum, not working too hard.

💡persistence

Persistence means continuing to try at something despite difficulty. Sam emphasizes that big achievements require persistence over a long period of time, even when progress is slow.

💡asking

Asking means directly requesting opportunities or resources from others. Sam advises that people should overcome fear of rejection and be aggressive about asking for what they want.

💡helping

Helping means providing assistance to others without direct benefit. Sam believes helping others builds relationships that pay off years later when trying to accomplish goals.

💡focus

Focus refers to dedicating time and energy to a specific goal or project. Sam argues that combining focus, relationships, and self-belief is key to making progress.

💡values

Values are principles that guide behavior and goals. Sam advises choosing work aligned with your values of helping the world, not just making money.

💡long-term

Long-term means adopting a timeline of many years. Sam advocates taking a long-term perspective to investing, companies, and career to maximize compound returns.

Highlights

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Transcripts

I'm Jack Sam's brother and we are here

in our backyard where we also live with

our other brother and Sam wanted to give

some advice about how to have an impact

on the world and since you couldn't

interview himself Here I am so Sam thank

you thank you for taking the time yeah

my pleasure

so to get started I think one of the

things that people talk a lot about is

how to get things done once you're

working on but I know you spend a lot of

time thinking about sort of what to work

on so could you talk a little bit about

how to pick what's important to work on

yeah um I think you want to look for the

intersection of what you're good at what

you enjoy and and what where you can

create value for the world and in my

experience if you don't find some of the

intersection of those three it's hard to

really have an impact I think most

people kind of just fall into what they

work on they don't give it much thought

and there is benefit to that sometimes

you actually have to just try stuff to

figure out what you like but I really do

think it is worth upfront thought about

what you're going to spend most of your

waking time doing so I think is really

good when people think about what

they're good at what they like and and

kind of how they can create value for

the world in sort of in addition to what

people are working on I know at Y

Combinator you talked a lot about who

people are working on things with yeah

how do you advise people to select sort

of who they're working on things with um

this is this is really hard finding your

tribe finding the sort of people that

you end up working with on and off for

the rest of your career is is really

hard I think I'll tell you some things

I've learned and I will admit that I

don't have a perfect answer to this yet

but I think one thing is you should be

willing to move for whatever you're

doing there tend to be pockets of it

around the world where there are similar

people that are doing great work in

whatever field you care about and it's

really worth trying to go be being near

them and so you know we get criticized

sometimes at YC for having people move

to the Bay Area but bringing people

together that are interested in this

similar thing of startups I think has

been really valuable for a lot of people

I think another thing that I have

learned is that whenever I've helped

people for no immediate benefit and with

no intention of ever getting to benefit

at all time and again in my career it is

really later benefited me a lot so I

think you at some point often get to a

point your career where you're limited

by how many good people you know and and

how many of those you can work with or

get to do things that together and so

fine just helping a lot of people and

spending a lot of time with a lot of

people has benefited me you know years

after I really helped someone for no

reason I get to invest in their startup

and it goes on to be a huge success or

were able to like work on opening I

together any number of things I think

just trying to help a lot of people and

out of that scene who is really

impressive and who gets things done is

helpful and in terms of how to actually

get things done so you've selected what

to work on who to work on it with you

think maybe you found your tribe and

then kind of now what what are what are

sort of the best ways to actually

accomplish big things well there's a

Charlie Rose quote on this that I've

always loved and I've since added one

more element to it but the quote is that

the way things get done in the world are

through a combination of focus and

personal connection and the additional

point I would make after having thought

about it for a while is that the third

factor is self belief it's you really

have to have a deep-seated personal

conviction that this thing you're going

to do that a lot of people say is really

stupid is going to work and going to be

important but I think those three things

focus personal connections and self

belief in my experience are how things

get done in the world so since you were

you know as long as you know you've

you've grown up and certainly three or

20s and now you've worked incredibly

hard and I know that a lot of the people

around you have worked very hard what's

sort of the advice or the way that you

think about your work-life balance in

your 20s and what do you recommend to

people who want to do these things and

also want to you know experience their

20s well I don't think I work as hard to

a lot of people I think I do work pretty

hard um but I'd say it's really I think

it's compound interest is a good

metaphor here if you work really hard at

the beginning of your career and you get

a little bit better what you do every

day every week every year and you learn

more and you meet more people and you

just get more done um there's a compound

effect and it's far better to put that

time in at the beginning

career then at the end because if you do

at the beginning you get to benefit from

it you know for the rest of the time you

work so you know one thing I always try

to do is like meet every person I had

time for go to every you know go to

everything I could and just like spend a

little bit more time trying to learn and

get better what I did what I do and I

think that is really valuable um the you

know the beginning of your career I

think in terms of studying the

trajectory that the rest of your career

follows is the most valuable time and so

obviously you don't want to work all the

time because your twenties your twenties

but I do think you want to work harder

than most people think you should and I

think that if you do that you tend to

benefit from it later life is super

unfair sometimes you also just get

unlucky and and so all you can do is

kind of maximize chances there but I do

think that working hard early in your

career to get the leverage and the

compounding effects is underrated and

one of the most valuable piece of advice

that I never got and so going into that

idea of these early years being

particularly valuable and working very

hard on things how do you decide when

you've worked on something long enough

and it's time to call it quits or when

you've worked on it for four years and

you're just about to have that

breakthrough how do you make that

distinction yeah this this is really

hard um knowing when to quit and knowing

when to give up on something is there's

no perfect answer to that but it's

really challenging to even get that

approximately correct I think most

people give up on things way too early

so the mistake that most people make is

they try something it does not

immediately work you see this

particularly in young entrepreneurs it

does not immediately work after seven

weeks they say you know what I tried

this thing it's just not meant to be and

I have too many other projects and so

they immediately give up and you kind of

you know the satirical version of this

is people that are 23 and have started

14 startups because they give up on

everyone before I could ever possibly

successful these things are really hard

they take a very long time there are a

lot of critics there are a lot of people

who say this thing sucks it's going to

fail it's really stupid and then also

there's like what at YC we call the

trough of sorrow where no one even

bothers to say it sucks because no one

cares at all

um and that is at least is demotivating

most of the founders that I have spent a

lot of time with that have gone on to be

super successful spent a very long time

on their idea when a lot of other people

would have given up and either people

said it sucks or people said nothing at

all and a framework that I have for when

to go up and when to keep working is it

should be an internal not an external

decision if people aren't using it or

people are saying it's bad that alone is

not a reason to give up you want to pay

some attention to that they might be

right but I think the best entrepreneurs

I know they make an internal decision

about when to give up or when to keep

working on something it's basically when

you have run out of ideas and something

is not working then it's a good time to

stop and so into this idea that you need

a long time to do anything important

what's the source of motivation for

people like what should people be

looking to find to be inspired or to

keep going on these ideas for a long

period of time

um yeah I think if you don't actually

believe what you're doing is really

important if you don't derive

satisfaction from what you're doing then

you will not be able to sustain all of

the bad things that happen an incredibly

long period of time that the bad things

happen over and so the only motivation

that I have seen work for people over a

long period of time is enjoyment and

what they're doing and an intense belief

that it matters and ideally liking the

people that they go to work with every

day um but the I think the reasons that

a lot of people and by the way it's

totally cool when people start off

saying well I want to make money or I

want to be famous I think a lot of

people start that way and they don't

like to admit it but pretty quickly or

at least in the first few years I think

a lot of people find a deeper mission

for why they do what they do

and that drives them than for the rest

of the time they work have you noticed a

change in what motivates you over the

last say 10 or 12 years um yeah I mean I

think I at this point I am sort of only

interested in things that I find sort of

interesting and important and early on

like a lot of other people I think I was

well I make money I want you know like

be in the press or whatever else and I

wouldn't say that doesn't motivate me at

all but it's honestly not a big factor

at this point yeah I just sort of like

there's a set of things that I think are

important and I want to work on this I

think another point about motivation

that is that people don't talk about

enough is related to burnout so I was

told and I thought for a long time that

you get burned out from working too hard

and at least in my own experience what I

found is that burnout actually comes

from failing and things not working

momentum is really energizing the lack

of momentum is super draining and I find

that I have infinite energy to work on

things that I find interesting and that

are working and almost none to work on

things that I either don't find

interesting or aren't working and so I

think you see a lot of founders try

something and fail and assume that they

just can't work hard enough or not

amount of energy or passion or whatever

and that's actually not true it's just

that that thing didn't work and what you

should do is shut that company down go

on vacation and try again and many

people then find that oh actually when

I'm doing this thing that I like and

that is working I have a huge amount of

energy and I can get a lot of stuff done

and so when you look at really

successful people and say how do they

get all those things done it's they have

the benefit of momentum and momentum is

energizing in the lack of momentum is

really not energizing working on a lot

of these problems that you know kind of

inspire this type of motivation are sort

of inherently riskier and I know you

know this is something that we've talked

about a lot about sort of the concept of

taking risk in a career being a repeated

game but how do you how do you think

about the idea of taking risks in your

career and how should people think about

it maybe differently than they currently

do well yeah I think people have

terrible risk calculus in general even

people who try to be really good about

this are bad at it um the answer I think

is almost always a you're wrong about

what is risking what it's not risky and

B most people don't take enough risk

especially early in your career being on

young and unknown and poor that is

actually a great gift in terms of the

amount of risk you can take

and I think people don't capitalize on

that enough I think what risk actually

looks like is not doing something that

you will then spend the rest of your

life regretting and there's a quote you

know people regret way more the things

they didn't do them things that they did

do so if you really believe in something

there's an idea that you're super

passionate about um you know and you

take a calculated risk to start a

company realizing you may forego a

couple of years of studying come in

another job and whatever else and you

know maybe people call you a failure or

whatever that's a great risk to take and

if you don't take that risk I think you

have a very high chance that you end up

regretting that um I think the wrong

kind of risk to take is where people

don't actually do things or don't commit

to something because they don't want to

fail and they over rate the risk of

failure and the reputation damage or

embarrassment or whatever I think one

really important thing to strive for in

your career is to be a doer not a talker

and the reason that people don't do

stuff one is it's hard and two is it's

risky and so you have these people that

you know want to dabble on a bunch of

different projects but never be all in

on one and I think it's this combination

of work and risk and it's you know I

think that's really bad I think history

belongs to the doers and I think you

should take a risk actually do something

don't just sit around and talk and

organize and bring together groups and

go to thought leadership conferences and

whatever it is these people spend their

time on other than actually building

something and just take the risk of

committing to what you you have

conviction on yeah and I think people

also seem to have sort of the fear of

being told no a lot and not asking for

what they want I'm sure that's something

that you've encountered with people yeah

um this was one of the other things I

learned that I wish I had gotten advice

on early in my career is ask for what

you want you will get told no a lot but

sometimes it will work and and I think

you see a lot of entrepreneurs shoot

themselves in the foot because they

don't ask

that person to quit the job and come

join them they don't ask this big

company to do a deal with them and

they're just not aggressive enough and I

think you being willing to ask what you

want and be somewhat aggressive are

really important characteristics of

being an entrepreneur people don't want

to fail they don't want to be told no

they don't want to end up in some crisis

another thing that I learned and I want

to say I wish someone told me this one

because I don't think it's a lesson

anyone can teach you you have to just

live through it is that each crisis gets

less scary than the one before it

you're running a company now I'm sure

you've I hope you've noticed this by now

you there are a lot of things that

really go wrong and they feel like

company killing events and they feel

like there's no way you're going to

survive because the crises are really

bad and the thing you learn is that you

generally do survive these and and that

the world doesn't usually end and even

if in the moment something happens you

have no idea how you're going to get

around it you eventually figure out a

way and because of that you know on the

19th major crisis you're like well I

survived the first 18 I'll probably get

through this one bit and you kind of

just do yeah definitely that rings true

so switching into a bit topic of sort of

money and sort of the long-term view of

it and how people can think about it

most clearly I'm actually to start with

a quick story that I think illustrates a

bit of some of your views this is from

when we were very young and our grandma

gave us each some stock oh this is a

good story in a company or you can tell

this one okay so she gave us each some

stock in a company that she thought we

would like and so as you like to point

out I was heavier as a child and one of

the things I liked was Appleby's and you

were hacking away on computers and other

things I was Apple and so we each got an

equal amount of Apple and Apple B's this

is like 20 years ago 20 years you know

and I think neither of us has sold it in

fact you nicely brought me my Appleby's

stock back from st. Louis recently your

stock certificates it's so long ago

still paper certificates and I think

inflation-adjusted I've probably lost

half my value there whereas I think your

Apple has gone up something

like I don't even want to think about it

hundreds hundreds yeah it's been a lot

how do you think about sort of the

long-term willingness to hold on to

things what are the advantages somebody

has early in their career how should

people think about money when they're

young yeah you know I still have those

uh Apple shares marked in my brokerage

account as grandma's birthday Apple

shares

I don't know I'm good I'm gonna keep

them I should benchmark them against

Applebee's um so I I think that one of

the few arbitrage opportunities left in

the market is time I think we have

gotten really good at high frequency

trading we've gotten really good at the

price of things we've gotten worse at

the long term value and I I don't think

you can go beat the market in a lot of

ways but the one way I do is is by

making a long-term commitment to

something I think that I my new belief

on how long I should hold stock and the

best companies I invest in is forever

and I think you know in a world where

people are increasingly focused on the

tick and the quarterly earnings cycle

you should try and go in the other

direction and this is a great way to

generate value and wealth and and so I

think that when you're thinking about a

startup it's really worthwhile to think

about something you're willing to make a

very long-term commitment to because

that is where the current void in the

market is um I think you know you get

paid as a founder for the wealth you

crave for other people so there's this

view of the world that business is all

about like trying to steal money and

sometimes that's true but but they're

the best companies just create massive

amounts of value for the world and then

they capture some of that for themselves

but they capture far less than they

create and they do it over a very long

period of time so if you're going to be

one of those companies

um I think you want to make a super long

term commitment to yourself and others

that are going to work on it with you

that this is going to take a long time

um but it is worth waiting because you

will make far more money over the long

horizon by doing this company really

well then a bunch of short-term things

along the way so how much do you think

people should have strong opinions about

things versus putting something into the

world iterating and sort of finding out

whatever works and going with that I

think you want a combination of those

two things you won't want to have a

strong opinion and then be flexible

about the details so the thing I don't

think works that often are the startups

on their love of the pivot that are

totally unrelated but I put a big

difference between refinement and

pivoting so when you start with a strong

belief you know we should have a social

graph in an online directory that is

Facebook has stayed pretty similar to

that although the product itself has

changed a lot along the way and I think

that's really good that is a strong idea

with flexibility in the implementation

and I think that's much better than the

we're just going to keep trying random

ideas because we want to have a startup

I think strong with strong opinions

about the future are really important

and I think one of the things that I

have noticed among the most interesting

the most successful people that I spend

time with is that they have strong

opinions strongly held about the future

they are willing to be convinced with

new data they are wrong but the bar for

that is fairly high and this idea that

the future is fundamentally unknowable

I've never liked actually I remember

pretty clearly this time war I was sort

of like spouting advice someone else had

given me in high school or college about

how you in you know you need to

diversify and investing because the

world is unknown unknowable and so all

you can do is have the most balanced

possible portfolio and I remember that I

was saying that out loud someone else's

said it to me probably grandma and and I

realized that I really didn't agree with

at all um because I had strong opinions

and then I knew that there were some

companies who stock I'd rather own than

others and I knew that I would rather

like own stock than own bombs because I

thought technology was gonna be worth a

lot more I have different ideas today

about the next 10 or 20 years um but I

think it's good it's not only okay it's

good to have strong ideas about the

future and it is okay to not be super

diversified in your investment portfolio

or your career or your life and then the

final question is if you could leave

young people who want to have a big

impact with one or two pieces of advice

what would you tell them well I don't

want to give people a specific field to

go work on because I think the whole

idea is that people need to figure out

themselves what they believe in and what

they think and what they believe is

high-impact to work on for the future so

what I will say instead is it is really

important to actually think hard about

where you think you can make the biggest

contribution that you're good at and the

world needs and that you enjoy and then

go meet people to work with go learn as

much about that field as you can and

then have the the courage of your

convictions to actually take a risk and

focus on it and go do something there

and that it's okay if you fail and if

you do fail you'll not be in much

different place than you are today and

you can go try the next thing but it's I

think really important to be willing to

go take a risk and make someone of

sacrifice to be able to try to impact

the world in some way that you really

care about and I think the sooner you

get to work on that the better you'll

you'll be awesome all right well Stan

thanks very much thank you jack