Finding a mentor, high agency people, and moving fast

Happy holidays everyone. Welcome back to the Z Fellows newsletter! Every Monday we share 3 ideas - to help you build companies, ship products, and create your life's work.

1: How to Find A Mentor

The formula for finding a mentor:

1) Ask for specific advice
2) Actually follow the advice
3) Report back on the result
4) Repeat

The people who respond are now invested in your success.

Source: The Formula For Finding A Mentor

2: How to Spot High Agency People

1. Weird teenage hobbies - Teenage years are the hardest time to go against social pressures. If they can go against the crowd as a teenager, they can go against the crowd as an adult.

2. Energy distortion field - If you meet with them when you’re tired and defeated, you leave the room ready to run a marathon on a treadmill with max incline. Low-agency people do the opposite.

3. Golden question - If you’re in a 3rd world prison cell and had to call someone to get you out, who would you call? That’s the highest agency person you know.

4. You can never guess their opinions - The boxer who writes poetry. The advertiser obsessed with the history of war. The beauty queen who reads Nietzsche. If their beliefs don’t line up with their stereotypes, they’ve exercised agency.

5. Immigrant mentality - If they’ve moved from their hometown, that’s a good sign. If they’ve moved from their home country, that’s an even greater sign. It takes agency to spot you’re in the wrong place, resourcefulness to operationalize a move, and a growth mindset to start from zero in a new location.

6. They send you niche content - Low agency people look at the social engagement of content before deeming its quality. High-agency people just look at the content. They spot upcoming trends very early.

7. Mean to your face but nice behind your back - The social incentives are to be nice to people’s faces and gossip behind their backs. To do the opposite requires agency because they’re swimming against the social tide.

Source: How to Spot High Agency People

3: Moving Fast Is A Competitive Advantage

“Focus is a force multiplier on work.

Almost everyone I’ve ever met would be well-served by spending more time thinking about what to focus on. It is much more important to work on the right thing than it is to work many hours. Most people waste most of their time on stuff that doesn’t matter.

Once you have figured out what to do, be unstoppable about getting your small handful of priorities accomplished quickly. I have yet to meet a slow-moving person who is very successful.” — Sam Altman

Source: How to Be Successful

Best of The Week

See you next Monday,

- Jay + The Z Fellows Team

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