Hi Reader,

A lot of international students work extremely hard. The problem is they spend years focusing on the wrong priorities.

And honestly, it’s understandable.

Because the hardest problems in your life are usually the ones you don’t yet know how to solve.

So instead, you focus on the easier ones.

• You redesign your resume for the 19th time.
• You buy another course.
• You apply to 300 more jobs.
• You keep tweaking LinkedIn banners and fonts.

Because those things feel productive.

But deep down, you probably already know your real problem lives somewhere else.

The uncomfortable truth

For some people, the actual issue is:

• they have zero networking skills
• they’re applying to companies that don’t sponsor
• they can’t communicate confidently in interviews
• they picked a career path they don’t even enjoy
• they have no real projects or proof of work
• they’re waiting for motivation instead of building systems
• they spend more time consuming advice than executing it

And because they avoid solving the hardest problem… they keep working on second-best problems instead.

The danger of second-best problems

Second-best problems are dangerous because they still make you feel busy.

But they rarely change your life.

For example:

Your real problem might be that nobody knows you exist professionally.

But instead of fixing that through:

• networking
• referrals
• cold emails
• conversations

…you spend another six months mass applying online.

Your real problem might be communication skills.

But instead of:

• practicing mock interviews
• recording yourself speaking
• joining communities
• learning how to structure your thoughts

…you convince yourself the issue is your resume template.

Your real problem might actually be fear.

Fear of rejection. Fear of embarrassment. Fear of hearing “no.”

So you stay inside your comfort zone while telling yourself you’re “preparing.”

The question that changed how I think

One of the biggest shifts in my own career happened when I stopped asking:

And started asking:

Not 10 things.

One thing.

Because sometimes your entire next season of life is hiding behind one uncomfortable skill you’ve been avoiding.

The real constraints most international students face

Stage 1: No clarity

You don’t actually know what career you want.

So every decision becomes reactive.

You apply everywhere.
You follow trends.
You chase what seems “safe.”

Without clarity, effort gets scattered.

Stage 2: No strategy

You rely only on online applications.

No networking.
No relationship-building.
No positioning.

Just applying and hoping.

That’s not a strategy anymore.

Stage 3: Weak networking skills

A lot of students avoid networking because it feels uncomfortable or transactional.

But in reality, networking is simply:

• visibility
• trust
• repeated interaction over time

Most opportunities happen when people know how you think before they see your resume.

Stage 4: No proof of work

You say you’re interested in:

• AI
• product
• data
• software engineering

But there’s no visible proof.

No projects.
No writing.
No portfolio.
No real signal.

In today’s market, interest means very little without evidence.

Stage 5: Communication becomes the bottleneck

This is where a lot of technically strong students lose.

You may know the answer in your head.

But interviews reward:

• clarity
• confidence
• structure
• decision-making under pressure

Not just knowledge.

Stage 6: Burnout and fear

At some point, many students stop operating from intention and start operating from panic.

Every rejection feels personal.
Every delay feels dangerous.

And slowly, fear starts making decisions for you.

That changes how you:

• apply
• speak
• interview
• think

People can feel that energy.

What actually changes people’s lives

The students whose lives completely change are usually not doing 50 things at once.

They become obsessed with solving one real bottleneck at a time.

Not the easiest problem. The real one.

That’s where breakthroughs happen.

Not in doing more.

But in finally working on the thing that actually matters.

This is also why inside the accelerator, we focus heavily on identifying bottlenecks first instead of blindly doing more work.

Because the right strategy depends entirely on what your actual constraint is.

For some people, it’s networking. For others, it’s communication. For others, it’s clarity or consistency.

Until you identify that properly, it’s easy to spend years moving without really progressing.

So here’s a question I want you to think about this week:

Reply and tell me. I read every response.

— Yudi J