Leo Polovets

I am genuinely curious what you think those opportunities are. Like, whats 'hustle', it seems like a very broad category

Hard to define, but I think it boils down to looking for workarounds to commonly accepted/recommended paths. Hacking the system with a combination of ingenuity, hard work, and lack of ego. Basically doing whatever it takes -- as long as it's ethical -- to get to your end goal.

How many have social hackers gotten hired in VC funds as investment professionals vs how many from the traditional elite college --> elite jobl? I am just saying that finding hacks in and of itself could be as time consuming as finding the best person to learn from

Not as many as from elite colleges, for sure. But on the other hand if you're 30 and didn't go to an elite college, don't assume you have to go back to school to become a VC. Lots of paths to get there, even if elite school/startup is the most predictable one.

For sure. But Id say my broader point is, if there are X really awesome people who are worth to apprentice from there will always be at least 100X kids who want to learn from them. So its kind of tough, imo, because inevitably there will be some of those kids who wont have access

That’s where hustle comes in. It’s such a broad definition bc it means ‘find a way to stand out from the 100s of other people trying to do what you want to do.’ @lpolovets never said it’s easy!

the implication of his tweet and the tweet he was replying to was "Instead of school which is an Y that leads to X " just "Do X" because its a better outcome. And my reply is that for most "Just do X" is the harder option

I wasn't trying to state a preference, I was trying to say that the standard path is usually not the *only* path.

Or as @AlexBanayan would say, go through the "third door."

That's a wonderful term! Purchased the book. :)

In a podcast he described it as relating to getting into a club. First door- waiting in line, doing what pple expect Second door- VIP status, born into it, easy entry Third door- sneaking in the back entrance, hustle, etc.

I have a tough time with recommendations that clearly won’t work if everyone followed them. Imagine if everyone tried to sneak in the back door.

Then it would become the front door! I'm not too worried about this. My gut feeling is that 1 in 50 people will try to sneak in through the back b/c that's their natural approach to things. If you publicize the option, maybe it'll be 2 in 50. Most still prefer traditional path.

The thing is, there are thousands of back doors.

This seems generally (and directionally) true, however, in my experience not always. E.g. in corporate strategy roles without front facing experience or early stage VCs (not growth stage/PE) without operating experience. Unless your boss/mentor has done the hard yards.

Do you mean it's easy to get roles in corp strategy/early VC w/o backgrounds in those? Or the opposite? I can't speak for corp strategy, but lots of early stage VCs come from non-VC backgrounds.

Easy to get into (in India VCs are now changing and operational experience is considered a *huge* plus). What i meant is that in terms of effectiveness on the job these are two roles where previous operational experience is probably more helpful than apprenticeship.

Fair enough, though the same article also says "there was also no relationship between investors’ years of experience " My best guess, I don't think a majority of these surveys/lists are controlled correctly. (E.g. in this case, at what stage the VC usually invests)