I interviewed Rajesh Setty, serial entrepreneur, startup mentor, keynote speaker, and 20-time author. Rajesh published his first novel at age 13 and five more before he turned 17. He’s written over 20 books, 2K blog posts, mentored over 2K founders at Founders Institute, and been part of the founding team of over 10 startups collectively valued at more than $150 million.

In 2014, Rajesh was diagnosed with Parkinson’s. Soundarya Balasubrami, who works closely with him, describes: “When I met him in 2021, he was in one of the toughest physical phases—he couldn’t walk outside his home, eat on his own, or even lift a glass of water. And yet, when he met me, he lifted me up at a time when I was struggling, even though my struggles were tiny compared to what he was going through.”

Rajesh, who's introduced me to some of the most influential people in my network, shares his philosophy of “net-giving” over networking, the power of being fully present, and how slowing down taught him to “out-see, out-think, and out-execute.”

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Topics We Discussed

* How Rajesh became a serial entrepreneur

* The sunk cost fallacy and local vs. global maxima

* How to know when to quit vs. when to persist

* Stop networking, start net-giving

* Trust, timing, and thoughtfulness in introductions

* Building trust with famous people over decades

* How to stand out when reaching influential people

* The art of being fully present

* Thoughts as paying guests in your mental real estate

* The Most Interested Person - Rajesh’s upcoming book

* Living with Parkinson’s: Accept the unchangeable

* Advice for aspiring entrepreneurs in the AI age

* Beyond Luck - Creating unfair advantages through giving

Insights from Rajesh

* “Work on awesome projects with awesome people, and if you keep that as the North Star, amazing things will happen. Once I say yes to that project, I put my heart and soul into it.”— Rajesh Setty

* “Stop networking, start net-giving. The moment it’s net-giving, you have to network to give something of value. And once you add enough meaningful value, the law of reciprocation will kick in.”— Rajesh Setty

* “I always look at three things before making an introduction: Trust, timing, and thoughtfulness. Trust means I can vouch for you. Timing means the person is in the right place to receive this. Thoughtfulness means there’s something meaningful in it for them, not just you.”— Rajesh Setty

* “People make the mistake of misunderstanding the value of time for different people in different capacities of power. If someone’s hour is worth a thousand dollars and yours is worth a hundred, you need to put in ten hours of work before asking for one hour of their time.”— Rajesh Setty

* “As Susan Scott puts it, ‘there is no guarantee that any single conversation can change the trajectory of your life, career, business, and relationship. But any single conversation can.’ This could be the conversation for both of us that changes the trajectory of both our lives—but if you’re not present to it, you miss it.”— Rajesh Setty

* “As Carlo Mahfouz says ‘be so present that you will disappear.’ When I am there, everything is about you and nothing is about me. That’s the level of presence.”— Rajesh Setty

* “Any thought is a paying guest in your mind. It’s a guest that should pay you, not a guest you should pay. Thoughts should bring you value for residing in your mental real estate.”— Rajesh Setty

* “Parkinson’s taught me to slow down. When you slow down, you can see more. When you see more, you can think more. When you out-see, you can out-think. When you out-think, you can out-execute. When you out-execute, you can be outstanding.”— Rajesh Setty

* “As Mahatria puts it, ‘accept the unchangeable, change the changeable, remove yourself from the unacceptable.’ There’s no cure for Parkinson’s—I can’t change it, and I can’t remove myself from it. So the only option I have is to accept the unchangeable.”— Rajesh Setty

* “The ability to practically give meaningful help at scale with very low incremental cost—if you do that, you automatically get an unfair advantage. Eighty percent of your help is good but goes unnoticed. Twenty percent will want to reciprocate, and that last ten percent is big enough to fuel all your projects.”— Rajesh Setty

* “My goal in life is simple: Once I wake up, how fast can I meaningfully contribute to someone, somewhere in the world through my writing, actions, gifts, insights, or generosity? Some days I succeed in the morning. Some days it takes all day. But I always aim for it.”— Rajesh Setty

* “We always give labels to events and experiences—joyful, fantastic, disastrous. But I reduce the labels to only two: Is it a gift or is it a lesson? If it’s a lesson, I learn and grow from it. If it’s a gift, I’m joyful and grateful for it. That gives me perspective.”— Rajesh Setty

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