Build a Peer Group, Not Just Mentors
Assemble a handful of peers on the same journey, ideally outside your org, to accelerate everything.
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~months to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 82%
Gurley argues that peer groups — more than coaching, consulting, or courses — are the most powerful and most under-discussed development lever, precisely because it feels counterintuitive to befriend people who might take the same job as you. When you're on the first rung, assemble a friend group of roughly four-to-six people on the same journey, ideally from outside your organization so they bring different cultures, structures, and viewpoints. Give it rules, rituals, and seriousness, and eject sharp-elbowed climbers who step on others; you want gracious, like-minded people. The payoff compounds every other principle: learning accelerates, your network becomes the group's combined network, bad days get real support, and you gain calibration on whether your own company's dysfunction is normal. Modern tools (a Slack, WhatsApp, or Signal group) make it easy to run.
Origin
Sam Parr built an 'Anti-MBA' book club in San Francisco after a low point (a rescinded job offer), meeting weekly to read a book a month; Gurley makes peer groups a core principle of his book.
Core principles
- 01Peers beat coaching, consulting, and courses.
- 02Four-to-six people on the same journey is the shape.
- 03Pull members from outside your organization.
- 04Rules, rituals, and seriousness make it work.
- 05Eject sharp-elbowed climbers; keep it gracious.
How to run it
- 1
Recruit peers on the same journey
Find four-to-six people at a similar stage and trajectory, not people above you — this is peers, not mentors.
- 2
Go outside your org
Prefer members from other companies so they bring different cultures, management structures, and viewpoints.
- 3
Set rules and rituals
Give the group structure — a cadence, a format (a book a month, a shared channel) — and agree to take it seriously.
Pro tip Sam's Anti-MBA read a quarter of a book each week and met weekly; modern Slack/WhatsApp/Signal groups make this trivial to run.
- 4
Curate for graciousness
Keep like-minded, gracious people and eject sharp-elbowed climbers who step on others.
Watch out One climber who steps on others can poison the trust the whole group runs on.
- 5
Use it to accelerate everything
Lean on the group for combined network, accelerated learning, support on bad days, and calibration on whether your company is normal.
In the wild
Stuck in San Francisco after a rescinded Airbnb offer, Sam created the 'Anti-MBA,' a weekly book club reading a book a month with a group of guys — with rules and rituals — which he says changed his life.
→ A structured peer group that became a durable engine of learning and support.
Gurley notes everyone talks about mentors and no one talks about peers, yet a peer group accelerates your learning, turns your network into the group's combined network, and tells you whether your company's dysfunction is normal.
→ A single under-used lever that compounds every other development principle.
Common mistakes
Chasing only mentors
Focusing solely on mentors ignores peers, the more powerful and under-used lever for early-career growth.
Keeping sharp-elbowed climbers
Members who step on others break the trust and graciousness the group depends on to function.
Is it for you?
Best for
Anyone early in a career who wants to accelerate learning, network, and calibration.
Not ideal for
People unwilling to commit to the rituals and seriousness a real peer group requires.
From the transcript
“Peer groups, more so than coaching, consulting, courses, whatever, is probably the most powerful thing that you could use and it's under discussed.”
“Everyone talks about mentors and no one talks about peers ... develop a friend group, might be four, might be six, that are also on…”
From the episode
Bill Gurley: 6 Out of 10 People Are Making This Mistake
Bill Gurley