They definitely send a signal that success is possible, and even though the advice is (has to be, probably!) quite generic, it's still good to get a distilled o

They definitely send a signal that success is possible, and even though the advice is (has to be, probably!) quite generic, it's still good to get a distilled overview of what the people who made this journey before us found important in hindsight. Of course the best overall statement I ever heard from a successful person comes from Notch, who, when asked what advice he would give to someone who wanted to become as successful as him, replied: first of all, don't listen to advice. The deeper wisdom behind this that really hit a chord with me is there is no big secret which successful people can hand down to others so they may reliably replicate that success. You might learn something, or even a lot, about procedures and attitudes that were essential, but at a fundamental level I don't think a successful person can meaningfully grasp all the factors that were instrumental to their story. A lot of what they think is essential may in fact be superstition, as they lack enough data points. I found it's still valuable information, but as with anything, you have to weigh it critically. All things being equal, I'd put a lot more weight on advice coming from VCs or people running incubators as compared to the observations of super successful billionaire founders, simply because they have access to more data.