Sam Altman: Be Delusional

Sam's take on self-belief from one of his essays.

December 20, 2024 • Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes

First things first: we’ve changed the name of the newsletter. We wanted something cleaner and more meaningful, so here it is—Entrepreneur Lore. It’s simple, because we share entrepreneurial lore, after all. Everything else remains the same. Reply to this email to share your thoughts on the new name.

Now with that out of the way, let's dive into something truly inspiring I came across recently.

I stumbled upon one of Sam Altman’s blogs from 2019. This was around year four of his work at OpenAI, and by then, he was already highly successful. Most of his early Y Combinator investments were thriving, OpenAI was gaining momentum, and almost everything seemed to be going his way. This essay holds strong value for new entrepreneurs to this day.

Here’s what he had to say about self-belief:

Self-belief is immensely powerful. The most successful people I know believe in themselves almost to the point of delusion.

Cultivate this early. As you get more data points that your judgment is good and you can consistently deliver results, trust yourself more.

If you don’t believe in yourself, it’s hard to let yourself have contrarian ideas about the future. But this is where most value gets created.

I remember when Elon Musk took me on a tour of the SpaceX factory many years ago. He talked in detail about manufacturing every part of the rocket, but the thing that sticks in memory was the look of absolute certainty on his face when he talked about sending large rockets to Mars. I left thinking “huh, so that’s the benchmark for what conviction looks like.”

Managing your own morale—and your team’s morale—is one of the greatest challenges of most endeavors. It’s almost impossible without a lot of self-belief. And unfortunately, the more ambitious you are, the more the world will try to tear you down.

Most highly successful people have been really right about the future at least once at a time when people thought they were wrong. If not, they would have faced much more competition.

Self-belief must be balanced with self-awareness. I used to hate criticism of any sort and actively avoided it. Now I try to always listen to it with the assumption that it’s true, and then decide if I want to act on it or not. Truth-seeking is hard and often painful, but it is what separates self-belief from self-delusion.

This balance also helps you avoid coming across as entitled and out of touch.

- Sam Altman, How To Be Successful (2019)

One thing to take into account is that this approach only works when your business model has fundamental value, and you’re simply stuck on the steps to reach your desired audience or customers. This kind of delusion doesn’t work for people who have yet to realize that their business is not viable.

One of the best examples of this self-belief is Airbnb. When Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia pitched Airbnb, critics dismissed it as absurd. Who would share their house with strangers when hotels exist, right? Yet, their near-delusional self-belief kept them going, even selling cereal boxes to fund the business.

Their conviction helped them stay contrarian, envisioning a global platform for home-sharing. At the same time, they balanced this with self-awareness, addressing trust and safety concerns early on.

Today, Airbnb’s $100+ billion success proves that strong self-belief and learning from feedback can turn bold ideas into reality.

So, what's the takeaway? It’s simple—believe in yourself, stay open to learning, and be willing to adjust. As an entrepreneur, you'll face doubts and challenges, but if you stick to your vision, trust your instincts, and keep growing, you can turn your ideas into something big.

Keep pushing forward.