How To Find Your Trillion Dollar Skill

On a recent episode of My First Million, Hubspot Co-founder Dharmesh Shah described his strategy for identifying the skills you possess that, when combined, could be your trillion-dollar unfair advantage.

Side note: if you’re in the startup space and don’t listen to My First Million you’re missing out. The value-packed podcast is both enlightening and entertaining thanks to startup superstar hosts Sam Parr and Shaan Puri.

Dharmesh Shah breaks down the simple process anyone can use to discover which skills can be combined to set you apart from the crowd.

Step 1: Draw a circle and write your best skill in the middle

Take stock of your professional skills and determine what you think your best skill is.

What is something you’re in the top 5–10% of given all the people in your field?

As a personal example, I tend to think I’m a pretty good writer and it’s a skill I practice often because it’s something I enjoy doing. Specifically, I enjoy business-focused writing about new ventures, business models, and startup breakdowns. So, I might write down “long form business writing”.

Step 2: Draw an intersecting circle with a second top skill or area of domain expertise.

The second circle is going to contain your second best skill or a domain where you have a lot of experience. Think broadly about this one — it could be a specific business model (like B2B or B2C), it could be a hard skill (like graphic design), or it could even be an area of knowledge (crypto, music, or climate change).

Whatever ends up in the second circle should be something you’re very experienced with — maybe it’s not your best skill and maybe you’re not top 5% in the world at it but it’s a top area of expertise for you.

To continue with the personal example, I have a particular skill in new venture building and innovation management. Specifically, I excel in the operations role of 0–1 business building. In…