Success Stacking
Success must be stacked. A lot of young Founders try and skip the initial steps. You want to build a Unicorn? That’s cool. But have you even tried getting Traction to a Tweet or a Blogpost. Have you tried building an App on top of another Platform and got Traction on the same?
My fundamental belief is that Success must be stacked.
This is how the steps for the same look:
Start with a Small Game
Gain Leverage
Move on to the bigger Game
If you want to build a Unicorn and then the first thing that you should focus on is not Raising Capital. But you should focus on building something and getting Traction on the same. It can be a YouTube Channel, it can be a iOS Game or it can be a Twitter Profile.
One thing you should remember is that you must not get addicted to the Small Game. Once you get enough Traction on YouTube, there is a chance that you would want to just play that Game because it is addictive. Whenever you get the opportunity, you must level up. There will be a time to enjoy Success, but let it compound first. Let it stack up.
Sam Altman wouldn’t have been able to build OpenAI if he would have started with OpenAI as his first Startup. Bigger Games need more Leverage, in this case, huge capital and an incumbent backing you. And to reach that level you must keep Stacking Success. Now Sam made enough money through his personal Startup Investments and his stint at YC that he could’ve just been satisfied with that game. But he moved on to a bigger Game at the right time.
One of his quotes that I love is “Your next move should make everything else that you have done so far look like a Footnote.”
And this is how you should think about Success Stacking.
Short-term Success is as important as Long-term Success. Because it leads to the creation of a Flywheel that motivates you, that motivates the team. In the initial days, Unacademy Founders were writing Answers on Quora to gain Traction. And that helped us grow. And once we gained enough Leverage through that, we raised another Round of Funding and then moved on to try other Traction Channels.
What can you achieve in the next few weeks that will help you gain Leverage even if it doesn’t help you achieve your Iconic Goal?
Start asking this question and get started.