Hi there,
I once heard about this concept of always building a ladder. I can't remember for the life of me which book or podcast it was from—my best guess is that it was a great Paul Graham essay.
The point, however, is the metaphor. The idea is that whenever you climb up and get an opportunity that you previously thought was impossible, instead of immediately focusing on yourself and thinking about how you can take advantage of this new position, you look down and think about how to build a ladder. Don't just leave the door open passively, but actively make it easier for people after you to access the same opportunity.
I've taken this advice to heart.
When I gave a TEDx talk at just 18 years old, I recognized how rare it was for someone that young to get a stage like that. But I believe more young people with great ideas should be heard. So after my talk, I connected with the organizers and helped them figure out ways to reach more young speakers. A few years later, I coached a 15-year-old myself for her talk at TEDx. That's a good ladder built.
Another example: I interned at the data journalism team of La Nacion in Argentina. This was a major opportunity for me—my first time working in Spanish, my introduction to the field of data journalism, and overall an experience ranking very high on my list of best university experiences. And that's tough competition, having seen the Taj Mahal and meditated with Korean monks at 4am in a temple.
I never imagined myself living in Argentina, working for one of the country's biggest newspapers with their award-winning data journalism team. But I did.
Being back in Buenos Aires for my last semester at Minerva University, I thought again of my mantra: "always build a ladder." So I teamed up with the Minerva team in Buenos Aires and La Nacion Data, and we organized an "Innovation Challenge."
For a day, La Nacion Data pitched their challenges to 30 students who came up with solutions. I expected this would be worthwhile for La Nacion Data to get fresh perspectives and for students to visit the newsroom and learn from the amazing work of the team. But I didn't imagine them conducting audience research, developing new content formats, and building full-on prototypes of AI tools for the newsroom.
The best thing? Students coming up to me saying, "Wow, I never imagined this was data journalism. I didn't think of this as a career for me, but now I might."
That's the thing—if an opportunity literally is out of reach, you can't imagine yourself there. That's why we need ladders.
Whether you do it because you want to or because of the good karma, in my experience, if you build a good ladder—it's always a win-win.
When I coached Rosalinde for her TEDx talk, it gave me the opportunity to anchor a lot of the storytelling knowledge I have. The Innovation Challenge at La Nacion gave me the chance to reconnect with their team and work with them again.
Moreover, there are very few things as fulfilling as seeing someone else shine and knowing you contributed to that a little bit.
So next time you access an opportunity that's rare, instead of passively leaving the door open behind you—make sure you build a ladder.
Until next time,
Emma