Be Willful and Hard to Compete With

A big secret is that you can bend the world to your will a surprising percentage of the time. Most people never even try; they accept the default. Altman's pattern for willfulness is almost mechanical: ask for what you want, keep showing up after ninety-nine people say no, and don't fold.

He describes founders whose companies looked dead multiple times, who each time made a seemingly miraculous save. The common thread wasn't luck, it was an unwillingness to let the company die. Optimism underwrites all of it: the belief that you'll figure it out is a self-fulfilling advantage.

Willfulness gets you in the game; being hard to compete with keeps you there. If what you do can be done by someone else, it eventually will be, for less money. So build moats around yourself: rare skill combinations, a real network, a track record people trust. Doing what everyone else does is precisely how you stay replaceable.