Comment by fleitz | Hacker News Reader

Comment by fleitz | Hacker News Reader

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Brush up on your social skills, hacking computers are nowhere near as valuable as hacking people.

Be CEO of something, dress sharp, get fit. How you look, act, and dress is your UI most hackers have a really shitty UI. Get a good logo, great cards and a good website / brochures. Pay others to make these things, use fivver, put everything out to bid, some people are really cheap, don't be afraid to hire people undercharging for their services. Tip them so you get prioritized.

Sell something repeatable, anything you can pay someone else to do, pay them. Get a lawyer, a good accountant, create your own contracts, run any serious changes by them.

Make sure you have quotes from your subcontractors, double it. Triple it. 10x it. Charge that to your clients. The more you charge the better you are.

Basically be the fucking man. Don't apologize for it.

Read everything by Robert Cialdini. It's a hacking guide to the masses. Read how to win friends and influence people it's a guide to hacking individuals.

Realize everyone is winging it and actors are doctors when they wear lab coats, lawyers when they wear suits and bikers when they wear leather. It's not hard to pass for anything wearing the right clothes.

Don't be afraid to bill $500 for something you paid $24 for. Never tell people how much something cost you or where you sourced it from.

Be really nice and highly complimentary to people.

Appreciated.

I had passed off Cialdini's books for dirty salesman tactics, but I'll get to it now.

Thinking of successful people as dirty is the first thing to get out of your head. Don't be a hater. I did for years it got me nowhere.

A pretty much universally reviled dirty salesman is the President of the United States and most of the people who hate him are not.

Cialdini was also Obamas Comms guy so people you might like also use him.

The question is do you want to not use cialdinis tactics or do you want to be President, both are honorable choices.

Many people who don't want to use his tactics will be your employees.

Also read / listen to Thomas Sowells basic economics and understand the short and long term debt cycle.

I understand.

I've picked up all the books you recommended and I'll get through them tomorrow.

Is business at that level all about working people?

Yes and no, it's about understanding their needs and providing a solution while also charging enough to pay for everything and future expansion. Also at the same time you need to cut costs to deliver efficient solutions in the future.

If you price everything based on living in a dorm, underpaying yourself, etc your business would fail.

If I didn't charge $500 for something with $24 in direct costs I wouldn't have time to meet with clients, go to networking events, pay for my time for all these things, pay for insurance, pay for nice clothes, pay my trainer, etc, etc, etc.

Initially it's best to think of things as massively over charging because it's way too complicated to actually figure out what things are really costing you. Plan for future expansion, etc.

But yes at a higher level people are going to try to get you to undercut yourself, if you give into the idea that you are over charging you'll end up being taken advantage of. So initially you need to be very strong in your boundaries until you have full time staff to do a proper analysis.

If you roll up in a Mercedes and a nice suit people take you much more seriously than in a beat up Toyota and some rags, you'll also project more confidence, people are buying you, not your product.

Also with all this stuff learn body language, slow down how fast you talk, slow down how you walk, do everything as if it's just a sure thing that's going to happen

I'll implement this advice.

I've picked up The Silent Language of Leaders and What Every Body is Saying for body language, and another for persuasion: The Like Switch.

Would you recommend learning how to shake hands/assert dominance like Trump, or is that something that might start being fazed out?

Also, when you get "fuck you money," will toning down on the theatrics hurt you in a major way, even if you've already shown you can be a BSD and preform?

Dominance isn't being phased out, it goes back to the great apes.

I dunno, I think if anything fuck you money will make me up the antics

This is awesome advice!

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