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Ask HN: How to meet and connect with successful people?

13 points by codegeek ↗ HN
I have always been obsessed with successful people and learning about their life and the things that they did to get where they are today. May be it is nuts but i always feel that there is a pattern to successful people. Yes some things are no-brainers like hard work, passion etc. etc. but those are too abstract. How can we learn more about them ? Obviously, we can find books on the ultra-successful such as Warren Buffet, Bill Gates etc. What about the Tier-2 people who may not be as popular but are definitely out there. How can we find them ? How do we approach them and even ask to be mentored possibly ? Wondering if any of you has been able to find such people, approach them and were able to spend some time.

I am not asking for a secret formula to become successful. I just want to hopefully observe/study/learn from them. Crazy thought i guess?

14 comments

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victorhn
Plenty of Tier-2 successful people here on HN itself.
gesman
Great idea. And good luck!

Hint:

When you'll have a chance - pay attention to the way successful person handles bad stuff: emotional pain, negativity, disturbances, irritation, annoyances, etc... You'll notice that he/she immediately faces it, pays attention to it and resolves it.

Not-so-successful person escapes it, postpones it, blocks himself from it, hides.

Attitude of dealing with pain is the first and one of the most important inner traits of successful person.

lifeisstillgood
That's pretty interesting idea - clearing the path as it were.
kaws
Definitely not a crazy thought to me. I'm in your shoes also. I'd love to work my way in to be mentored.

The only person I've had a small amount of mentorship from is Allen Wong, the creator of "5-0 radio app." I email him back and fourth occasionally. Just a normal guy. He helps me with my app development. I feel so fortunate to chat and get help from someone who is already successful.

31reasons
I think most important thing about hanging out with successful people is not the knowledge but the Reality Transfer. They can literally make you feel that its possible. You begin to see the world the way they see it.
goofygrin
Any time I get to pick someone's brain to see how they got where they are I do it. Most people like to share, and I find that once I get them talking we'll talk for a fairly significant time. Last month I met with another vendor for one of my large clients and we mostly talked about how he got from 2-3 people to the size he is now and how he finds good talent. While he hires for different skills than me (internal guys for RoR vs. customer facing .NET [him, me]), it was good to learn the how and why of his business.
dzink
Invite anyone you find successful to coffee or lunch for 30 minutes of their time. Seriously. Then have them share their story. The stories might inspire you, get you thinking, or surface something you might be interested in doing.

From what I've seen so far, you are most successful with the things you are passionate about. Passion helps you persist through obstacles, find creative solutions, etc.

codegeek
I always thought of doing this and in fact have done it a couple of times already but more with people I am already somewhat familiar with. Real test is to try on complete strangers whom I have heard of from someone but never met before.
orangethirty
There are no successful people. Stop drinking the Kool-Aid. There are just people who work their ass off and keep focused on their goals. If you want to meet and connect with those, then get busy building stuff that relates to what they are doing.
codegeek
we are talking about the same thing here.
chris_dcosta
"There are no successful people. Stop drinking the Kool-Aid."

Great comment - this sums it up perfectly. Your definition of successful, seems to be limited to wealth - and that may not be everybody's definition of successful. My grandparents survived the War, but died poor.

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