# How to Be Successful - Sam Altman Synced: [[2023_11_30]] 6:03 AM Last Highlighted: [[2023_08_27]] Tags: [[advice]] [[Advice]] [[personal growth]] [[Personal Growth]]  ## Highlights [[2023_08_27]] [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h8vqwr6jfs54axxdwt426hcn) > You also want to be an exponential curve yourself—you should aim for your life to follow an ever-increasing up-and-to-the-right trajectory. It’s important to move towards a career that has a compounding effect—most careers progress fairly linearly. [[2023_08_27]] [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h8vr5s99rhew4hdxg9wcyw5n) > The best way to be good at sales is to genuinely believe in what you’re selling. Selling what you truly believe in feels great, and trying to sell snake oil feels awful. [[2023_08_27]] [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h8vr6342895awn4s9g6cx7gj) > Getting good at sales is like improving at any other skill—anyone can get better at it with deliberate practice. But for some reason, perhaps because it feels distasteful, many people treat it as something unlearnable. [[2023_08_27]] [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h8vr5752r6shcvcmxpqw853b) > Don’t save up for too long, though. At YC, we’ve often noticed a problem with founders that have spent a lot of time working at Google or Facebook. When people get used to a comfortable life, a predictable job, and a reputation of succeeding at whatever they do, it gets very hard to leave that behind (and people have an incredible ability to always match their lifestyle to next year’s salary). [[2023_08_27]] [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h8vr6sdkhqtxsbapxsjcey1y) > Focus is a force multiplier on work. > Almost everyone I’ve ever met would be well-served by spending more time thinking about what to focus on. It is much more important to work on the right thing than it is to work many hours. Most people waste most of their time on stuff that doesn’t matter.