#40 Elaha Gurgani | On Exploring Curiosity and Building Your Tribe
Today's guest is a great example of what you can achieve by putting yourself and your creations out into the world.
In this episode, we chat all about building a network and getting into startups through the third door.
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Listen to the episode here.
Elaha Gurgani is employee #19 at seed-stage tech startup, Relevance AI. She’s previously connected with and hosted events with thought leaders Sahil Lavingia and Sahil Bloom.
Since moving to Sydney earlier this year, she has started a micro-grant fund for side projects and connected with people across the tech industry.
She recently started her own newsletter, aiming to curate lessons from thought leaders and tech.
🤝 Connect with Elaha
✋ Things Discussed
Earlywork Community (Tell them Graduate Theory sent you!)
Never Eat Alone - Keith Ferrazzi
"What feels like play to you, but looks like work to others?"@naval
— Navalism (@NavalismHQ) April 21, 2022
👇 Episode Takeaways
Relationship building requires action
We all know that building great relationships is so important.
Elaha is fantastic at doing this. She has built an amazing network in Sydney since she moved there.
During the episode, she shared plenty of advice on building relationships.
relationship building is really a long term game and one that requires a lot of action
- Recognise it's a long-term game
- building a good network requires massive action
Exploring Curiosity leads to opportunity
Curiosity is an interesting thing.
It can lead us to interesting places.
Elaha shared that many of her opportunities have come from her exploring her curiosity.
the biggest opportunities that have come my way all come because exploring my curiosity
So many of us are curious about things but don't explore them.
Today's challenge is to explore something that you are curious about. Ask a friend or a stranger. Perhaps attend an event. Do something outside your comfort zone.
Explore.
Third Door Strategy
There is a fantastic book called The Third Door.
Here is the synopsis.
There's the First Door: the main entrance, where ninety-nine percent of people wait in line, hoping to get in. The Second Door: the VIP entrance, where the billionaires and celebrities slip through. But what no one tells you is that there is always, always... the Third Door.
Utilising the third door approach will set you apart and allow you access to great opportunities.
Elaha uses this analogy when discussing her opportunity to work at Relevance AI.
She made a point of making sure that she stood out from other candidates.
It's (thinking) how can you stand out? But also, how can you provide value from day zero
Thinking outside the box is the secret to outsized results.
📝 Content Timestamps
00:00 Elaha Gurgani
00:54 Elaha's Move Interstate
10:14 Connecting with People that are more Senior
12:27 Systems or Serendipity
16:53 Networking Advice people should ignore
21:08 Finding Jobs Through Networking
25:51 Advice for people wanting to get into startups
30:26 Setting Long-Term Goals
34:20 Balancing Goal Setting and Fun
42:12 Failure that ended up being a success
45:02 Advice for Graduates
46:54 Connect with Elaha
