Nobody starts at the top of their field’s rolodex, they climb one relationship at a time. Larry’s own ladder began with one name: Mark McCormack, the IMG founder whose book became his blueprint. The move is External API: instead of cold-emailing the top of the ladder, plug into someone who already stands on it.
One mentor rarely hands you their whole network in one conversation, they introduce you to the next rung when they trust you. That trust gets built the boring way: show up prepared, do what you say, follow up fast, and don’t waste their time. Each rung should earn the next one. Treat a mentor’s introduction as something you have to justify, not something owed to you.
Larry describes copying a working format and changing one piece of it, the same logic that turned his mentor’s Harvard book into his own Stanford version. Apply that here: don’t reinvent how to climb, copy the pattern of whoever already climbed the ladder you’re on.
Ask each mentor directly who else you should talk to, rather than hoping they’ll offer it unprompted. Write down every name you get. A ladder you don’t track is just a list of people you met once.
The people at the top usually got there through a chain like this, not a single lucky introduction. Reach one person well before you ask that person to reach the next one for you.
Details: Watch Larry explain the mentor ladder
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