064 • What would you do even if you knew you'd fail?
064 • What would you do even if you knew you'd fail?
In terms of building a future that you’ll continue to enjoy sustainably, which of the following is more useful to ask?
“What's the worst thing you'd tolerate doing if you got paid what you wanted to do it?”
“What would you continue to do even if you knew you weren’t going to get paid to do it?”
The first is something one might ask a friend as a bit of fun. Even though it's more common, there's not a realistic application - nobody's queueing to pour money into your lap.
In general, it's more useful to single out the activities in which you can tolerate the disadvantages.
Perhaps you’re okay with sitting at a computer all day to build your software. You're building without the end goal of taking over the world and you get a sense of accomplishment even if it doesn’t take off.
Perhaps you’re the kind of person who wouldn’t mind the physical hardship of training for some kind of competition even if you knew you weren’t going to win. You get an internal boost just from taking your body to the absolute physical limit and competing against others who've done the same.
Often when people are asked this question, they decide that sharing lessons and advice about things they understand would be close to ideal. It's being able to follow curiosity and providing value at the same time.
Many people are drawn to the content creation lifestyle as a result. It’s natural and rewarding, even if you don’t end up turning it into a business that affects hundreds of thousands of people across the globe.
Even so, pitfalls exist in this journey too. Because social media is so prevalent in posting lessons and learnings online it’s easy to get caught up in posting for likes, views and other metrics rather than because you like what you’re posting.
A lot of people fall for this, then realise that they’ve built something that they don’t like being involved in and disappear. I’ve seen it more on Twitter than anywhere else because things move so fast. People can build names for themselves in days if they go viral.
The real victory, though, is if you stay true to doing what actually excites and motivates you inside, regardless of the reward.
Eventually, you’re going to beat the person who’s doing the same as you except with the expectation and dependence upon external reward and validation.
You can avoid the setbacks and negative experiences of things simply because you’re happy with what you’re doing regardless of whether it’s well-received.
Once you’ve fully embraced the fact that you’re happy if you don’t succeed, you’ll have more sustainability and, counterintuitively, you become more likely to make an impact.
These are some observations and pitfalls I’ve come across myself throughout my journey of writing online. I started simply because I thought it would be valuable to share my ideas online but I’ve stayed because it helps me think. And I wouldn’t stop helping myself think for anything.
I’ll leave you with this quote…
“I’m always ‘working.’ It looks like work to others, but it feels like play to me. And that’s how I know no one can compete with me on it. Because I’m just playing, for sixteen hours a day. If others want to compete with me, they’re going to work, and they’re going to lose because they’re not going to do it for sixteen hours a day, seven days a week.” — Naval Ravikant
-- Theo
Last week's video issue...
Back in Sheffield, set up with my proper camera. I might continue with this, but I might not. It's already a lot of friction on my part just to start talking, let alone set up equipment. I might nail that on the phone before I start adding production value.
Anyway, that said, talking felt quite natural this week. Social media and my connection to it is something that's still very prevalent in what occupies my thinking at the moment. I'm still trying hard to figure it out and I think this comes across well in the video.
What I published last week...
How I Use Obsidian Right Now — Complete System, Plugins and Projects Insight - The most detailed piece I've written about how I use Obsidian from projects to plugins and more. See the tweet below for a TL; DR.
What I’ve Learned From Tiago Forte - Lessons and takeaways from the creator of Building a Second Brain and The PARA Method.