Give Value First

Noah Kagan shares his perspective on building successful networks and careers, emphasizing the importance of providing value first and being proactive in building relationships. His approach focuses on practical actions that can be taken even without an existing network.

Key Points:

• Building Professional Relationships:

  • Connect aggressively with smart people
  • Ask everyone you know for introductions to other smart people
  • Organize events, lunches, and conferences to bring smart people together
  • Can be done remotely via Zoom if location is a barrier

• Most Effective Networking Strategy:

  • Offer value for free without being asked
  • Help people with what they're working on
  • Focus on making them genuinely interested in you
  • The key question: "How do you get them to give a fuck about you?"

• Career Development Approach:

  • Use your day job as an investor in yourself
  • Follow your curiosity and passion
  • Start multiple businesses on the side
  • Take advantage of low living costs early in life to take risks

• Practical Steps for Building Your Brand:

  • Start a newsletter and commit to weekly emails for a year
  • Post daily on YouTube for 30 days
  • Try multiple business ideas simultaneously
  • Keep working nights and weekends until side hustle becomes main hustle

• Finding Mentors:

  • Identify someone 10-20 years ahead of you
  • Study people doing what you want to do
  • Be aggressive in making yourself valuable to them
  • Learn from their career and relationship patterns

• Timeline Expectation:

  • Side hustles took 2.5-3 years to become main source of income
  • Success requires consistent effort over time
  • Keep costs low to enable risk-taking and experimentation