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You have two choices.
Either you're so passionate about something that you're willing to put a lot of time, energy and resources into it and become really good at it.
Or you become so good at it that it somehow also magically turns into a passion.
Those are your two choices.
Well, actually, there's a third one.
Doing it because you enjoy doing it.
Just for the fun of it...
Which might maybe even be the most important one out of all of those three...
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To talk.
To respond.
To care.
To connect.
To notice.
To help.
To listen.
To support.
To change.
And to be grateful.
Being busy is a great place to hide.
A great place to hide from doing the things that really matter...
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You don't launch a popular YouTube channel.
Or a podcast.
Or a blog.
Or a website.
You build it.
Over time.
When you read it like that it seems obvious.
And straight forward.
But when you're actually out there on your own experiencing the frustration first hand, it's easy to forget this.
So whenever you're struggling, try to remember this...
You're in the business of building something.
Over time.
And you're not in the business of launching something.
Over night.
Because this kind of business just doesn't exist...
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You probably know this kind of conversation:
"So what's the best time for us to come by and show you our product?"
"Hmm, maybe in 3 months from now..."
That's the hardest way of trying to schedule a meeting.
Because there's no urgency.
No deadline.
And a lot of days, weeks and months for excuses.
And possible reasons for de-prioritizing it.
On the other hand, the easiest way to schedule a meeting is to tell people that you'll be in town on this and that date and if they're interested you can come by and show them your product.
There's urgency.
And a deadline.
And not a lot of days left for excuses.
Or possible reasons for de-prioritizing it.
If you're interested, this is your chance.
Take it or leave it...
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It's very exciting to share good news.
And very scary to share bad news.
That's why we tend to share the good news and avoid to share the bad news.
But if you just keep sharing the good news without ever sharing the bad news, then you'll quickly get the reputation of someone who's never sharing the bad news.
No matter how big or small they might be.
And that's dangerous.
Because you don't want a reputation of someone who's hiding the bad stuff.
You want a reputation of someone who's sharing the good stuff and the bad stuff.
Because that's ultimately how you build up trust.
And that's really all you've got...
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Some time in the past you did something special.
That made you special.
That got you all the attention.
All the clients.
All the talent.
And all the publicity.
But soon your special will become the norm.
And what was so special yesterday won't be so special anymore tomorrow.
So don't get stuck in yesterday's special.
And instead try to keep creating tomorrow's special.
To make sure that you keep getting at least some of the attention.
And some of the clients.
And the talent.
And the publicity...
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The harder it is to sell something, the bigger your competitive advantage will be once you've succeeded in selling it.
Simply because most people and therefore organizations, institutions and companies will go for the easy thing.
And avoid the hard thing.
Hang in there...
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Coming up with ideas is a whole different story than executing ideas.
So even though you might come up with a good idea every once in a while that doesn't mean that you'd know how to execute those ideas.
So you might as well just start working on getting better at executing ideas.
So that one day when you have that one big idea you know how to execute it.
And while you're busy executing all kinds of ideas you might realize that there aren't really any good or bad ideas.
There's just good or bad execution...
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Most people know how to do it but they never really actually do it.
That's why you'll always win if you know how to do it and actually really do it...
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Maybe next year the economy will be more stable.
And you'll have more time.
More money.
More confidence.
More patience.
More resources.
More leverage.
More motivation.
Or, and that's a lot more likely, nothing is going to change.
And everything will remain the same.
So you might as well just start today...
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Sometimes it's just not possible to monetize your audience.
Or your art.
Or your music.
Or your blog.
And sometimes trying to monetize it might turn it into the thing you wanted to get away from.
Sometimes trying to monetize it will dumb it down.
So that more people will buy it.
Sometimes trying to monetize it will make it feel like a job.
And make you hate it (and/or yourself).
Instead of feeling like something you do just because you enjoy doing it.
Sometimes it's just not possible to monetize it.
And that's ok.
But that's never a good reason to just stop doing something that you actually really enjoy doing...
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It's right there.
Right in front of you.
It just takes a lot more work, energy, resources, dedication, focus and discipline than you've ever thought possible.
But it's right there.
And it's up for grabs.
For just about everyone who's willing to put in the work....
Are you?
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... see the things that go wrong.
While at the same time you''ll never really see the things that go right.
Because whenever things go right, there's no friction.
And no one is complaining.
It just works.
That's why it's so easy to lose hope.
To get discouraged.
And to feel like nothing is working out.
Because you'll only notice the things that go wrong.
And never the things that go right.
But the majority of the things go right.
Today, even more so than ever before...
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What you do when something happens for the very first time will define how you're going to do it for the next couple of hundred times.
What you do when something goes wrong.
What you do when someone complains about your product.
What you do when someone asks for help.
Or what you do when someone didn't do what they said they were going to do.
If you do nothing and just ignore it, then you're probably going to ignore it again and again.
And the more often you ignore it, the harder it'll get to change your way of responding.
And then that first time might also be the beginning of your last time...
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If you do have a choice, use it.
And if you don't have a choice, don't complain about not having a choice.
Unfortunately, we tend to do it the other way round:
Way too often we get stuck complaining about the situations where we don't have a choice.
And far too rarely we don't use the situations where we do have a choice.
Use them...
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Go to a restaurant in a city where there are mostly tourists and it's very likely that you're going to get disappointed.
Just like a restaurant somewhere in the middle of nowhere that has a pretty high rating on Yelp is very likely to be a lot worse than a restaurant in the middle of Manhattan that has a similar rating.
The free market works in both ways.
Where there's no free market (and only tourists for example), the quality will automatically depreciate.
Because if you don't depend on regulars it doesn't really matter if you cut a few corners here and there.
On the other hand, a free market with a lot of competition that mostly serves regulars will automatically lead to a better quality, but also to lower ratings as the ever increasing expectations (and a constant raising of the bar) make it harder and harder to keep up...
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It's all about serving people.
As an employee you're serving your boss.
And as an entrepreneur you're serving your clients.
Or your investors.
No matter what you do, you'll always be serving the people that are paying your bills.
No matter if you're an employee, an entrepreneur or a freelancer.
So if you suck at serving people you'll not just suck as an employee, but probably also as an entrepreneur.
Or as a freelancer as a matter of fact...
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Never treat your employees as if they had to be lucky that they even got the job.
And instead treat your employees as if they were the only thing you've got.
Because they really are the only thing you've got...
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Avoiding an issue will rarely make it go away.
What it'll usually do instead is that it'll lead to even more issues being ignored.
It'll turn into a pattern.
A pattern of living with unresolved issues.
And over time that one unresolved issue will turn into many more issues.
Unfortunately, there are only so many unresolved issues we can live with...
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... is unlimited.
It doesn't really matter anymore tomorrow how much time, money, energy and resources you've already put in.
Especially, if tomorrow the thing you've worked so hard for will be worthless.
Or if it's something that doesn't really make you happy anymore.
Even worse, holding on to the past will rob you of future opportunities, relationships and happiness.
The time, money, energy and resources you've already put in don't really matter.
What matters is what the benefit of putting in more time, energy and resources will be.
And if it's zero or less than putting them into something else, then just go ahead and do something else.
Of course, the hardest part is about being honest to yourself and realizing that it's probably going nowhere....
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We tend to overestimate the risk of starting something new while at the same time we tend to underestimate the probability of an established system, organization or institution to stop working. Which makes it almost impossible to properly prepare for the worst case scenario. But is a worst case scenario even likely? Most of the time it isn't. Until one day it is...
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It's a lot harder to change the game you've already started playing just a tiny little bit than it is to just start playing the right game right from the very start.
Of course, figuring out what game you actually really want to be playing in life is the hardest part of it all.
Which is why we usually end up playing the wrong game. For way too long.
But playing the wrong game just because you started it, doesn't really make a lot of sense.
If you realize that what you really want to be doing is to play baseball, then it doesn't really make a lot of sense to keep playing basketball...
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The more new mistakes you make, the more you'll learn.
And the more of the same old mistakes you make, the less you'll learn.
It's that simple.
But as always, not that easy.
Unfortunately, making more new mistakes is a lot harder than to just keep doing the same old stuff over and over again.
Because to make more new mistakes you'd have to do things differently and do more different things.
Which is what we usually tend to avoid once we've settled and feel like we've already made enough mistakes.
But making more new mistakes is the only way to life long learning...
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The problem isn't that you aren't reaching enough people.
The problem is that you're probably not properly leveraging the people you're already reaching.
And if you're not able to properly leverage a small group of people, then you're most likely also not able to properly leverage a bigger group of people.
So before you're trying to reach even more people, try to get those you're already reaching to take the actions you want them to take...
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Stop wishing.
And start putting in the work.
Stop complaining.
And start creating.
Stop worrying.
And start getting out of your own way.
Stop thinking.
And start doing.
Stop comparing.
And start learning....
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... other people's weaknesses.
And fears.
Here's the thing...
Everybody is afraid of failure.
And of trying.
And of not being good enough.
We all are.
So as a result most people stopped trying.
Which makes it a lot easier for you to win.
Sometimes the bar is so low that all you've gotta do is to just raise your hand.
And to keep raising your hand even if it didn't work out the first few times around.
To raise your hand and to say yes to opportunity.
Because most people won't.
The truth is that most people might be smarter, better or stronger than you.
But it doesn't really matter.
Because most people won't be competing with you.
They'll only be competing with themselves.
And their fears.
Just like you'll competing with yourself.
And your own fears.
And the voice living inside your head.
The voice that's constantly trying to tell you that you're not good enough.
That's the only competition you really have.
And no one else...
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When you're employed somewhere you're usually getting paid for doing the things you're already pretty good at.
The things you already know how to do.
On the other hand when you're an entrepreneur you're getting paid for doing something in a completely different or new way.
In a way that you probably don't even know about, yet.
And that's the biggest difference between being an employee and being an entrepreneur:
Doing things you already know how to do vs. doing things you don't even know you're going to have to do some time in the future.
That you probably also don't really know how to do...
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When you give people what they want, you'll be successful.
And the more you give them what they want, the more successful you'll be.
Which makes it more and more lucrative to just keep giving people what they already want.
Instead of trying to give them something new...
In the age of the Internet that means to just keep showing people more and more of the stuff they already read.
Or watch.
Or listen to.
Which creates bubbles.
Bubbles of interests.
Of themes.
Of people.
Bubbles of how we see the world.
And the more we feel like the entire world sees things the way we see them, the more dangerous it gets.
Because your bubble is probably very different from someone else's bubble.
Or the reality as a matter of fact.
The first step is about realizing that you probably are in a bubble.
Because we all are...
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The only way to compete with free is to offer something that's better.
Way better than what's now available for free.
The only problem is that these days almost everything is available for free or almost free.
And if it isn't yet, it's probably already on its way...
So when you want to sell something, you've constantly gotta reinvent yourself, what you're doing and what you're offering.
Because the moment you start offering it, the race to free begins.
Here's the thing...
You can't keep selling the old thing when the old thing doesn't sell anymore.
You've gotta create a new thing .
I know it sounds obvious.
But when you look around and see all those people and companies that are still trying to sell the old thing, then it doesn't seem so obvious anymore...
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What no one usually talks about when you're out there on your own is that you can't outsource responsibility to anyone else anymore.
It's all on you.
No deadlines.
No boss.
No clients.
No one telling you what to do.
Or not to do.
And when things go wrong or you don't do the things you're supposed to do, then no one will hold you accountable for it.
And that's the hardest part about freedom.
You've gotta learn what it really means to be free.
And what it really means that you're the only one responsible and accountable for what you do.
It's like running a marathon.
Every single day.
With no one else running but you.
With no spectators.
No sign up sheets.
With no one taking the time.
With no one even knowing that you're running a marathon.
All by yourself.
And on your own...
Are you ready for it?
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... is by trying to not beat Google.
Because it's a race you can't possibly win.
There will always be people outsmarting you.
Out-keywording you.
And algorithm changes outpacing you.
It's a dead end.
So instead of trying to beat Google, instead of trying to predict how the algorithm works and trying to win a race you can't possibly win, why not try to create your own keyword?
So how do you create your own keyword?
By showing up.
Over and over again.
By consistently over-delivering.
By keeping your promises.
And by building your brand.
Be it a personal brand or a brand name for your business.
A name that people will type into Google.
Because they about know it.
And know what it stands for.
That's the only keyword you'll ever be able to own.
And that's the only keyword you'll ever need to own.
So which one is yours?
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