Sterling Terrell

recovering economist

The Paypal Mafia

The Paypal Mafia

Crazy to think about all the people that came to be known as the PayPal Mafia out of this.

Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and Ried Hoffman are the most recognized.

But two dozen others work all over Silicon Valley, making a network that would make anyone envious.

For example:

  • Roelof Botha – partner at Sequoia Capital
  • Chad Hurley – cofounder at YouTube
  • Russel Simmons – cofounder at Yelp
  • Premal Shah – cofounder at Kiva
  • Yishan Wong – CEO at Reddit

And that’s just a taste.

It’s bananas, actually.

The pleasantries between X.com and Confinity came to an abrupt end. The Confinity founders moved to an office down the street and, like X.com, began focusing their attention on Web and e-mail-based payments with their service known as PayPal.

-Ashley Vance, Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future (Amazon)

Your Art, Without Networking

Your Art, Without Networking

This point on working in your craft without networking hurts.

It hurts, of course, because I am not particularly good at networking.

Coming back day after day and producing is the part that I find easy.

Mentorship, working in a community, and collaboration is my difficult part.

But the potential value here, I believe, can make or break a career.

  • Where would Jeff Goins be without Michael Hyatt?
  • Where would Ryan Holiday be without Robert Greene?
  • Where would Ernest Hemingway by without Gertrude Stein?
I need to think about this some more.
Without a network, creative work does not succeed. Exposure to the right networks can accelerate your success like few things can. This flies in the face of what we typically expect an artist to do or say. “All my great opportunities have come from friends,” Hank said. Great work does not come about through a single stroke of genius, but by the continual effort of a community. When the right people advocate for your work, your success becomes more likely. Being good is necessary, but it is not sufficient. Skill is a prerequisite for creative success, but talent is only part of the equation. The rest is network.
Sterling Terrell