Multiplier

Part 1

We live in a wild time where paths in front of young people have never represented more opportunity or more peril.

The internet provides nearly infinite free knowledge to learn how to create or do anything. The internet also provides nearly infinite cheap dopamine to waste your time, ruin your motivation, and become cynical.

Similarly: those who are able to leverage this new breed of AI tools are having faster career advancement than ever before and those who are looking for "old style" entry level jobs are struggling.

The question is: how do you allocate your most valuable asset—time—when the range of outcomes has never been wider?

With age comes the realization that everything of enduring value compounds – relationships (i.e. network), skills, brand. The notion of compounding that we tend to associate with financial investing is broadly applicable to careers – and life.

‍

Illustration showing outcomes when investing in self versus consuming for self over time

‍

Which path will you choose?

Here are 5 mental models to adopt and 5 traps to avoid – compiled as I think about my early career, the landscape today, and the early career folks we want to hire at Multiplier.

Part 2

(1) View your time as an investment

Investing is all about trajectory—the direction of travel. By the time a result is known, investors speak of that expected outcome being "baked into" the price of the asset in question.

Markets are forward looking.

As a free agent in the economy, you want to be forward looking too. Where will the opportunity be in the future?

Every job that you do — as an employee, founder, student, or volunteer — can create the following sorts of returns:

Cash (salary, equity)
Network (relationships that compound)
Expertise (skills, capabilities)
Brand halo (credibility, reputation)

Your goal is not just a good financial outcome but to build relationships that are durably meaningful throughout your life and career. You also want to become qualified for the best jobs that will exist in 5, 10, 20 years— when you'll be entering your peak earning period.

Part 6

(5) Focus on genuine relationships

Almost all the best jobs I've gotten, people I've hired, funding rounds I've raised, advice I've received—they all have one thing in common: they're the product of a genuine relationship that I built.

Deep relationships where you a) care about and respect the other person and b) have significant experience working together are the foundation of these sort of connections.

To get the upside of these genuine relationships you have to be emotionally available at work—truly expressing how you feel (while staying professional) and thoughtfully listening to others. This essential human connection creates trust and understanding.

This advice seems almost trivially obvious to me—but when I look around it actually seems shockingly uncommon.

Failure modes here include: creating many superficial relationships where nobody can really vouch for the quality of your work or your integrity. Being transactional or disinterested in other people or, worse, burning other people. Playing political games. Being cold and disconnected—communicating the minimal required for the job.

Business karma is real—if you help out the other people around you and build genuine relationships these will compound like nothing else.

The returns are both practical (access to opportunities) and far deeper.

The essence of human thriving is having a community of people that you care about—and who care about you. Your career can be an ideal domain within which to build one such community.

Part 7

Five Traps Nobody Expects

(A) Great financial outcome without the network, career trajectory, or internal scorecard wins will feel empty

A lot of ambitious young people are concerned with financial outcomes - or career trajectory (often a proxy for future financial outcomes), or what is currently fashionable (often a proxy of where the good returns have already been gotten).

The story you'll tell yourself (or your kids) matters more than you think now. Focus on creating real value, durable relationships, and a track record you'll be proud of.

External validation (manager praise, promotions) is nice but insufficient.

(B) Big brands can make it hard to grow yourself because you have so many people scrambling for opportunities. Understaffed teams give you an opportunity to shine.

The more established a firm is the more great people want to work there. The more great people work there the more competition there is for meaningful work and opportunities.

This idea rhymes with the idea of "Table Selection" - as a poker player your ability to win will be determined as much by who the other players at your table are as by what you can do.

The ideal situation is to be in a small, understaffed, team of exceptional people. This will give you great network, chances to learn, and a shot at doing work you're not yet qualified for (operating at the edge of ability).

(C) By the time success is clear, it's too late — the results are priced in from both a financial and reputation return basis.

Everyone wants to buy a stock after it's clearly a winner, join a company after the risk looks low. Fundamentally being able to absorb a certain level of risk and uncertainty will be required to get the full amount of upside.

(D) The cohort effect — The cohort of people you bond with will matter more than you think.

If you're early in your career you'll think of your peers as junior today—but in 5 or 10 years many will have climbed high and the history you have with them will matter.

Focus on building real relationships with people who are more senior than you, peers, and more junior than you. Be kinder than you need to be. Great people are rare. Great people where you also have a genuine personal connection are priceless.

(E) Financial success matters less than you think — After you win the financial games you'll just want to go on a business adventure with your friends. So focus on the friends.

I was very focused on financial independence when I was younger. Every vesting day - every bonus - I would diligently track the spreadsheet. The truth is that the opportunity you can easily measure (usually finite, near term, low risk) is wildly inferior to the opportunity you can't easily measure (usually uncapped, longer duration, higher uncertainty).

Part 8

The early career playbook

Early on you have maximum natural energy with minimal life responsibilities. Highest capacity to take intelligent risks. Ability to fully focus on growth without competing priorities.

Just like investors view companies: your best years are 20+ years down the line, but it's hard to appreciate long-term compounding in the moment. In a compounding process the good returns come in the second-half of the process.

Financial success is a downstream output: Focus on maximizing learning and network, and skills first.

Financial outcomes follow from capability building and positioning yourself to get lucky.

The goal isn't to be reckless, but to be intentional about growth and willing to push beyond your comfort zone when the opportunity is right.