How an inexperienced college kid got an internship at Shopify...

3 Thoughts

I.

Nobody is more stressed than someone who has seen their potential and know they aren't living up to it.

II.

If you want to be great, be ready to be seen. Judged. Misunderstood. Picked apart. They’ll mock what they don’t understand. Question what they can’t do themselves. Call you arrogant for wanting more. But that’s the price of greatness. The higher the climb, the louder it gets. More eyes. More noise. More resistance. If you can’t handle that price, you can’t handle being great.

III.

How to get ahead of 99% of people:

Extreme output coupled with extreme patience.

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2 Quotes

I.

Tim Grover, Kobe Bryant’s trainer on his obsessive focus:

“Kobe sprinted through life like no one I’ve ever seen.

He had no hobbies or distractions. Didn’t play golf, didn’t hang out with buddies, didn’t go out to parties. Occasionally, he’d decide to see a movie and would rent out the whole theater so he could take a small group of friends or family to see it privately, usually twice in a row.

Otherwise, he trained. He practiced. He studied film. Besides his beautiful family, which was his top non-basketball priority, his entire focus centered on one obsession: Winning.

For twenty years in the NBA, Kobe sprinted from season to season, game to game, quarter to quarter. He never slowed down, and he couldn’t comprehend those who did. He’d hear about a group of players heading to a concert or party or another sporting event, and he’d rarely join them. You go ahead and do that, he thought. I’ll be right here doing this. That was his time to elevate himself, to do the work others weren’t doing. He believed the extra work added years of advantage and experience to his skill set.

He had no patience for waiting or rebuilding. He began and ended every season the same way: racing toward a championship.”

II.

Author Sahil Bloom on preparation:

“Planning is based on the expectation of order. Preparation is based on the expectation of chaos. Plan for order and you’ll be destroyed by chaos. Prepare for chaos and you’ll thrive in any condition.”

1 Game-Changing Idea: The Public DM

Last week, Julia, a college student at the University of Waterloo, landed a marketing internship at Shopify.

Which might not sound like a big deal… until you realize Shopify has only ever had one other marketing intern in its ENTIRE history (and that was 15 years ago).

There was no job posting or open role available on their website. And Julia didn’t have a stacked resume or years of experience. But she didn’t let that stop her.

Instead of waiting around, she built a plan to stand out.

She recorded a 70-second video where she walked through her background, her skill set, and why Shopify should take a bet on her.

Then she took it to Twitter.

She tagged the Shopify account and a few employees who worked there.

The internet did the rest. Thousands of people rallied behind her. Many tagged the Shopify team directly. Her video made its way to the right people.

Soon enough, she heard back.

And she got the internship.

I call this the Public DM approach.

It’s one of the core ideas from my upcoming book You Can Just Do Things.

The truth is, opportunities aren’t handed out equally.

You can have 100 skill. But if you have 0 visibility, you’ll still get 0 opportunities.

So if your cold emails are going nowhere, or your messages are getting buried in crowded inboxes, try something else.

Share your pitch on social media. Ask your friends to tag your target. The public “pressure” will increase the likelihood you get the opportunity, or at the very least a response.

Obviously, be respectful. But don’t be afraid to hustle to get your pitch to the right people.

Until next week,
Jay “The Public DM” Yang

Ps. Make the chili.

A few memes I made to tease my upcoming book (coming out April 30th!!) 😁

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