'Successful People Are Constantly Learning'

What separates the greatest entrepreneurs from everyone else? Legendary VC Bill Gurley knows—because he's studied (and invested in) people who make billions.

- DAN BOVA

Bill Gurley built a career betting on bold ideas: He was an early investor in Uber, Zillow, and Nextdoor.

Those successes helped turn Benchmark, the VC firm where he's general partner, into one of the most famous names in Silicon Valley. Now he wants to help other people make similarly bold bets—on themselves.

His new book, Runnin' Down a Dream: How to Thrive in a Career You Actually Love, draws on lessons from the accomplished people that he's met and invested in. They all share a similar quality, Gurley says: They have a relentless drive to get better at what they do, despite whatever barriers they face.

For example, he tells the story of Jen Atkin, a celebrity hairstylist who has worked with the Kardashians, Jennifer Lopez, and Katy Perry, and launched her own brand Ouai. People might see her biography and think: Well, business success came easy to her—because she already had access to famous people. But before she landed jobs with all those famous people, she arrived in L.A. with nothing but determination and $300 in her pocket. “She finagled her way into a front desk job at a salon and then attended a free vocational school in cosmetology that was offered in the city of Los Angeles,” Gurley says. “It is still offered, and most people don’t take the opportunity to go do those things. Then she parlayed this into an insanely successful career.”

Gurley joined me on the How Success Happens podcast, to share how to build an opportunity-seizing mindset. Here's his playbook for activating your dreams.

A common fear among would-be entrepreneurs is: “I waited too long. The industry is too big now. I’ll never get in.” What do you say to that?

There's a wonderful book by Daniel Pink called