The KingDammy Journal

Here's a little something for you Reader,

For decades, we have been sold the romanticized idea of the "lone wolf". We picture the brilliant individual as one who puts their head down, grinds in isolation and eventually emerges victorious.

But the reality is much different.

Most of the time, building alone simply does not cut it.

When you are grinding in isolation, it is incredibly easy to become demotivated.

You will inevitably face rejections, and days where nothing seems to go right.

Remember that famous line from Game of Thrones?

Relationships are not just an accessory to building your career.

They are the ultimate pillar that holds you up and determines how far you go. But to build a truly solid foundation, you cannot just build relationships with any rando. You need a balanced network.

There are three specific types of relationships you must actively cultivate.

1. The Circle (Your Trench-Mates)

You need a group of like-minded individuals who share your exact ambition and drive, people running the same race as you. When you grind with people who are even hungrier than you are, they naturally pull you up with them.

Take a look at some of the biggest winners in the tech and AI industry today:

Alexandr Wang, Scott Wu and Jeff Yan.

Before they were industry giants and became the world's youngest billionaires, they were simply a small circle of friends who competed in math and programming Olympiads together.

Their circle did not just stop at those three.

It included other prodigies like Steven Hao, Walden Yan, Jesse Zhang and Johnny Ho. The turning point came during one of Alexandr Wang's birthdays, when he looked around at his highly capable peers and asked a simple, yet profound question:

"Why not us?"

That one question may have sounded inconsequential and harmless, but it brought about a revolution, and no ordinary one. It gave rise to a set of brilliant, innovative men who led the charge into the new course of the AI era we have set sail for.

Today, many of them are building some of the biggest companies in AI and in crypto.

• Alexandr Wang founded Scale AI, which was valued at $7.3 billion by 2021. In 2025, Meta paid about $14.3 billion for a 49% stake in the company and brought Wang in as its Chief AI Officer.
• Scott Wu, a three-time International Olympiad in Informatics gold medalist, launched Devin, the world's first AI software engineer. Alongside his friends, Wu pushed his company, Cognition, to a staggering $10.2 billion valuation in a few short years.
• Jeff Yan went on to build the massive crypto exchange Hyperliquid, which has also grown to a $40 billion valuation.

As Scott Wu later reflected on his legendary friend group:

"We were all very, very lucky to have each other. I just think we were lucky to go through this together and watch each other bloom."

The Historical Power of Friend Groups

This concept of reaching the top through a tight-knit circle is not a new internet-era phenomenon.

In the early 1900s, three of the most famous industrialists in American history formed a close friend group they called "The Vagabonds." Henry Ford, Thomas Edison and Harvey Firestone took camping road trips together every summer starting in 1915. They sat around campfires to share ideas, debate innovations and push each other's businesses forward.

They helped shape the modern industrial era together.

We saw it again in the early 2000s with the "PayPal Mafia." A small group of friends and colleagues working at PayPal, including Elon Musk, Peter Thiel and Reid Hoffman, went on to build Tesla, LinkedIn, YouTube and Yelp.

You rarely see success being a solo thing.

Successful people meet successful people and keep good relationships.

Think about it this way: if you are surrounded by three millionaires, you are most likely going to be the fourth.

Success rubs off on the people around it, and ambitious standards quickly become second nature.

Your Circle Sets Your Ceiling

Our perception of what is normal is heavily influenced by the people around us.

If 90% of the people around you believe becoming rich is unrealistic, you will probably start seeing it the same way. The people who are around you today do not just influence who you are today; they influence who you can be tomorrow.

Spend time with people who want to achieve great things, or people who have already achieved great things. By doing this, you begin understanding how they think and make decisions.

2. The Mentors (The Trailblazers)

Your circle keeps you moving forward, but mentors pull you upward.

These are the people who have already made the mistakes you are about to make, and they possess the specific knowledge you need to reach the next level.

A great example from my own life is my old friend and mentor, Shola.

Since 2019, Shola has consistently pressured me to build my online presence and leverage social media. Honestly, I did not want to do it. I preferred to stay behind the scenes.

For a long time, the only reason I started putting myself out there was simply to honor my connection with him, because he would not let it go. But once I finally took the leap and built that presence, I saw firsthand just how profitable and rewarding it could be.

Shola pressured me because he saw my potential and wanted me to succeed.

However, when it comes to networking with mentors, most people tend to make mistakes when choosing mentors.

They chase top mentors who might never really have the time for them. It is absolutely fine to have industry giants as your ultimate goal.

A big-name mentor you cannot reach will not help when you have urgent questions and nobody to ask.

Say you call Elon Musk your mentor. If you send him a DM today, will he answer? If not, who do you turn to when you are stuck?

Instead, find someone who is just one step ahead of you right now and let them mentor you.

As you learn, apply and keep doing that repeatedly, you will find yourself drawing closer to the level of your main mentor. By the time you finally reach out to them, you will have built enough value that they will actually respect you and have time for you.

Let me give you a practical example.

Imagine your ultimate mentor did ten specific things to reach their level of success.

Take those ten things and break them down.

Find someone who has successfully done the very first thing on that list and learn from them.

Once you master that stage, cross it out, grow and move to the next person who has mastered step two. Keep growing and climbing like that.

Then boom, before you know it, you are standing at the top of the ladder.

Of course, whether you are reaching out to a peer or a mentor, you must always be a person of value.

Offer your skills, propose a clear collaboration or find a way to make their life easier first. When you give value, people are far more willing to do the same for you in return.

3. The Anchors (Friends Chasing Different Goals)

It is dangerous to only surround yourself with people in your exact industry.

If you only speak to developers, writers or traders, you will trap yourself in a professional bubble, where you only ever hear variations of your own thoughts. You also need friends who are chasing completely different goals.

These friends keep you grounded.

They bring fresh perspectives from other fields, and more importantly, they can see your blind spots. When you are obsessed with a problem in your career, a friend in a completely different industry can look at it from the outside and offer a simple solution you would have never considered.

They also provide crucial emotional stability.

When your specific industry goes through a crisis, your circle of trench-mates will likely panic because they are in the exact same boat.

An anchor, however, remains unaffected.

They remind you that the world is much bigger than whatever is currently going wrong in your industry, helping you step back, breathe and regain your focus.

Furthermore, true innovation often comes from combining different fields.

Some of the best ideas happen when you take a concept from one industry and apply it to another. Having conversations with people in healthcare, real estate, arts or logistics can spark creative breakthroughs you would never find by staring at the same industry resources as your peers.

Most importantly, anchors remind you that who you are does not begin and end with what you do.

When you face a massive setback, your professional circle might only see the failed project or the lost client. Anchors see you as a person.

Sometimes, the greatest benefit of a strong relationship outside your immediate space is having someone who cares enough to pull you out of your work obsession and remind you that you are much more than the money you make or the things you build.

One last thing

Ultimately, building your career in a silo is the hardest and slowest path you can take.

Find a circle of peers who inspire you, approach your mentors with value-first thinking and keep friends close who are willing to push you toward your full potential.

Of course, it is not enough to just collect these relationships. You have to nurture and build them over time.

But that will be a topic for another day.

For now, I have a simple task for you.

Look closely at your current network. Identify one person who inspires you or someone who is exactly one step ahead of you. Reach out to them this weekend and offer them some form of clear, undeniable value.

Feel free to reply to this email and tell me who you reached out to and how it went.

I would love to hear from you.