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Build Personal Moats - Erik Torenberg

substack.com · 1,173 words · saved by 1 readers

A personal moat is a set of unique and accumulating competitive advantages in the context of your career. Like company moats, your personal moat should be a competitive advantage specific to you that's not only durable, but compounds over time. This should be something that's: Hard to learn and hard to do (but perhaps easier for you) Impossible without rare and/or valuable skills Unique to your own talents & interests Legible, in the sense that your expertise should be easy to describe, easy to share, and makes people want to do both for you Some examples include: Tyler Cowen: He specialized as a generalist, spending decades writing & reading all day. To recreate his encyclopedic brain would take 1-2 decades of deep work. Elad Gil: He invested in more than a dozen unicorns and then wrote the "High Growth Handbook" to teach others about scaling startups. To match his track record would take 1-2 decades of hard work plus luck. Tim Ferris: He has garnered a massive loyal following by post

My favorite career advice is to develop a “personal moat.” A personal moat is a set of unique and accumulating competitive advantages in the context of your career. Like company moats, your personal moat should be a competitive advantage specific to you that's not only durable, but compounds over time. This should be something that's: Hard to learn and hard to do (but perhaps easier for you) Impossible without rare and/or valuable skills Unique to your own talents & interests Legible, in the sense that your expertise should be easy to describe, easy to share, and makes people want to…

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