Ramit Sethi narrates a high-school anecdote about proactively reaching out to web hosting companies by sending ~50 individualized emails offering writing help. About eight replied, six engaged in conversation, and one paid him for work (which bought him his first cell phone). He uses the story to illustrate looking for opportunities that let you both add value and learn skills (sales, writing) to advance career goals.
I will tell you, by the way, a little. A little technique I used when I was in high school, and it still applies today. I was in high school and I was looking for different opportunities to kind of take my expertise. I was, you know, I had some experience in writing back then, and I went online and I looked for a bunch of web hosting companies and I wrote about 50 of them individually. Each email was handcrafted and I said, hey, your website's fine, but I think I can help you improve your writing and it will help improve your sales. Out of 50, about eight responded. Out of eight, I ended up talking to about six. And then I ended up doing work with one, which ended up teaching me how to do sales, which ended up buying me my first cell phone that they paid for back in high school. And that was like 99, 98, 97, actually. And that ended up helping me write my Stanford application, which blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. The point is, look for people that can help you strategically both learn more skills and you can add value to.
