« The trust economy | Main | One step back »

Accelerating something that doesn't exist doesn't work

I've written and published five books. No one read them.

A few months ago I started shooting videos. No one watches them.

A few days ago I started a podcast. No one will listen to it.

At least not now. Or tomorrow. Or the day after tomorrow.

Maybe never. Probably never..

Michelle Phan published fifty videos on YouTube about putting on makeup. Barely anyone ever watched her videos.

Fast forward a few years. Michelle has published 350+ videos on YouTube, has a follower base of 7mn+ people, 1bn+ lifetime views, she has her own makeup line and is making millions.

Michelle knew one thing. She knew that all she could do was to create her own luck. To create opportunities for herself. She created her own luck by being persistent, by constantly showing up and never giving up. By working on the foundation.

While shooting her videos she was working a shitty day job.

There was no overnight success. There was only hard work and persistence. And no guarantee that it might ever work out. For most people it never works out. It might never work out for you. For me. For all of us.

The only thing we can do, the only thing that Michelle did was to work on the foundation. Just like when you build a house you start with the foundation. Or else your house might collapse or it might get blown away by the wind.

You don't start with the fancy interior of your house. You don't start with hiring an interior designer and buy all of the fancy furniture before you worked on the foundation.

Working on the foundation is hard. And ugly. You'll have to get your hands dirty. You'll have to work many months without ever seeing any results. Mostly years..

And what you're seeing once the foundation is done... is nothing. Just some plain and ugly looking pieces of concrete.

That's why most of us try to skip the hard work. The foundation. It just takes way too long. And it looks ugly. We still need to use our imagination. We need to be able to imagine what it might look like in the distant future.

So we start with hiring an interior designer instead. We buy expensive furniture instead.. We try to accelerate things without having worked on the foundation.

That's why most of the things don't work out.

That's why self help books don't work. You have to work on the foundation first. You have to work on yourself first. And the only way to do this is to take time to be with yourself. That's how you can see what you really want in your life.

That's why growth hacking your life your company, your education, your relationship or what not doesn't work.

You need time to understand the underlying logic. The system. You need to understand how it works. And this takes a hell lot of time. Starting from scratch always takes time. Working on your foundation takes time. Without a foundation your house will collapse like a house of cards.

Is working on your foundation a guarantee for success or a happy and fulfilled life? No, it's not.

But it brings you one step closer to overnight success. It brings you one step closer to being able to leverage momentum. When you have a foundation you might be able to leverage momentum. 

Momentum that might maybe one day build up to a big enough wave you can ride.

But there's no guarantee that this wave will ever come. There's just getting ready for it.. one piece of ugly looking concrete at a time..

Read More: Get 85% of my best life & business hacks

Twitter | | Pinterest | Facebook

++ YANN'S DAILY BLOG ++


  • Ideas on entrepreneurship, seeing & believing. Established 2013. Daily since 2015. Start here...
Email subscription form header
Please enter all required fields Click to hide
Correct invalid entries Click to hide

Search

Archives

More...

Quote Box


  • "97% of the people out there won't care about what you do. Act accordingly."

     

  • "Money is not for buying things. Things don’t make us happy. Money is for buying ourselves some freedom to do the things that make us happy."

     

  • "Being unrealistic is the most realistic thing you could do."

     

  • "You just need one person who cares about what you do. And that person is you. And no one else. It all starts with you."

     

  • "We always think we have enough time. Until we realize there's no more time left."

     

  • "The only way to stay ahead of the curve is to create your own curve."

     

  • "Be the dealer. Don't be the junkie. The dealer always wins. And the junkie always dies."

     

  • "The only person you should try to please is your 80 year old self."

     

  • "It's hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel when you keep your eyes closed.."

     

  • "Most advice doesn’t work. Because most advice comes from people who’ve never even done the things they're taking about. And that's dangerous."

     

  • "Being able to build something out of nothing is the most important skill. For what? For everything!"

     

  • "Why are people who write about millionaire habits not millionaires?"

     

  • "No one will magically find out about you."

     

  • "The things you don't want to do are usually the things you should be doing. They're almost always the things that will get you where you want to be."

     

  • "Don't let other people's reality be your reality.."

     

  • "Today it's easier to get started than ever before. That's why most people give up so easily. Because it was so easy to begin with."

     

  • "When you hate your job you'll never be able to do more than just mediocre work."

     

  • "Don't listen too all the life advice out there. It's all B.S. Just like this right here."

     

  • "No one starts as an expert. We all start from the bottom. And have to work our way to the top."

     

  • "The only thing that will ever lead to quality is quantity. To do it over and over again. That’s the only way."

     

  • "Be a Warrior, not a Worrier!"

     

  • "New ways of doing things never work. Until they do. Just like old ways of doing things always work. Until they dont."

     

  • "Constantly thinking about things won’t get you anywhere. You'll never find a solution just by thinking about it. You've gotta start doing."

     

  • "Not getting it right is part of the process of getting it right."

     

  • "How long does it take to change the world? As long as it takes to change yourself. So probably your whole life."

     

  • "Focusing on results won't get you results. Focusing on the actions that produce results will get you results."

     

  • "It's easy to forget all the things you have when all you do is to focus on the things you don't have."

     

  • "Perfection will only hold you back"

     

  • "Never listen to anyone who has never done what you're doing or want to do. Ignore your parents, your friends and pretty much everybody else."

     

  • "Trading time for money is not freedom. It’s a prison. The only way you’ll ever be able to make more money is to trade more of your time."

     

  • "The only way to beat the system is to know the system. Inside out."

     

  • "It's not what you do on your good days that will make you. It's almost always what you do on your bad days that will either make you or break you."