Outwork Their Luck

That's Philosophical #16

Sep 25, 2021

Welcome to That’s Philosophical, a newsletter that is still consistently published twice a week! Every week, I send you inspirational ideas to take a break from a noisy world.

You can read the web version here.

Consistency is amazing. To be honest, if I wanted to write a book, it would be on this topic.

Your skills improve and work accumulates over time, even if it’s not visible now, you will notice the breakthrough moment in the future. Achieving a long-term goal is never about one-time events, it’s about the consistent effort that brings the result.

Going to the gym once a month for 2 hours won’t change anything in your body. Working out every day for 10 minutes will. Brushing teeth twice one day won’t bring any benefit. If you do it every day- then you will see the results.

It’s all about consistency, not the intensity of a one-time effort.

Slow Growth

The average number of videos needed to surpass the one million subscribers mark on YouTube is 3,873.

Now think of creators who gave up making videos on their 100th or 1000th video. It requires consistent effort to achieve mastery. Here is a great analogy by James Clear:

“Imagine that you have an ice cube sitting on the table in front of you. The room is cold and you can see your breath. It is currently twenty-five degrees. Ever so slowly, the room begins to heat up.
Twenty-six degrees.
Twenty-seven.
Twenty-eight.
The ice cube is still sitting on the table in front of you.
Twenty-nine degrees.
Thirty.
Thirty-one.
Still, nothing has happened.
Then, thirty-two degrees. The ice begins to melt. A one-degree shift, seemingly no different from the temperature increases before it, has unlocked a huge change.”

In such a fast-paced world, our expectations are higher than ever. After starting a hobby, side-hustle, passion project, a lot of people have false expectations for their progress.

Most people think that growth is a straight line, but it’s rarely the case. It always goes up and down, so does your motivation and confidence in your abilities.

The key is how you approach your work. If you do it according to your feelings, then you probably can’t do it long-term. If you stick to the plan and consistently put yourself out there, then you are more likely to reach your goal.

“Writing is a craft, not an art, and that the man who runs away from his craft because he lacks inspiration is fooling himself. He is also going broke.”
- Zinsser William, “On Writing”

Sticking with it is important because you won’t always see the desired result of your work. This discourages most people and they give up. This is when you need to look back and see how far you’ve come.

Remember, it takes a one-degree shift for ice to melt. What you are looking for might be just ahead, but it’s impossible to predict when you will reach it.

Have you ever heard of a movie director who shot their first film and said: “Yeah, umm, this one is going to win an Oscar for me” ?. If you did, then probably this director didn’t go anywhere.

Most successful people have to deal with impostor syndrome probably because they weren’t expecting to blow up. Even Neil Armstrong, the first man to go to the moon doubts his achievement. So it’s entirely okay to feel like you are not getting any progress.

As James Clear wrote, the most powerful outcomes are delayed (and sometimes unexpected).

“Breakthrough moments are often the result of many previous actions, which build up the potential required to unleash a major change. This pattern shows up everywhere.
Cancer spends 80 percent of its life undetectable, then takes over the body in months. Bamboo can barely be seen for the first five years as it builds extensive root systems underground before exploding ninety feet into the air within six weeks.”
- From “Atomic Habits”

Outwork the Competition

When we start anything, there is always some competition in the field. But it fades away over time as people give up after their mistakes or absence of the breakthrough moment.

Is it bad that so many people give up after just testing the waters? I think it’s not. It’s good news for people who believe in consistent effort because now there is less competition. You got rid of it just because you followed your plan.

If you really want to reach the top, don’t let any mistake be your last one. People in your industry are experiencing the same difficulties. So with every failure, you are a step ahead of everyone else.

Every step removes competition. You become wiser every time you slip up, even if you don’t feel like it.

Here is my bad sketch about a guy (Jerry) who got what he wanted because he kept standing up after failing. While others were done with it after several mistakes.

Jerry reached mastery because Jerry is consistent despite all of his failures.

Here is an important insight from an article by Anthony Moore:

There are so many people in the world that are so much more talented than you.
They’re sexier. Smarter. Richer. More creative. More likable, more charming, better-connected, and better-looking.
But there is one, singular thing you can do better than them:
You can outwork them.
This sheer commitment to keep-going-no-matter-what beats your stronger opponent, every time.

The only advantage you can master in any environment to beat anyone- is being immune to repetitive tasks. Outwork those people who are just more talented than you.

Become a Good Loser

One of the reasons consistency works is because you manage to fail more than others. The best people in their field are typically those who failed more than the rest and learned from their mistakes.

Thomas Edison failed thousands of times before he invented the light-bulb. Here is the exact quote by Edison from an 1890 interview in Harper's Monthly Magazine:

"I speak without exaggeration when I say that I have constructed three thousand different theories in connection with the electric light, each one of them reasonable and apparently to be true. Yet only in two cases did my experiments prove the truth of my theory.”

When asked about the many thousands of failures he had when trying to create the light-bulb, he famously said:

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

Edison wasn’t afraid to admit that he didn’t know the answer. He kept trying nevertheless, and eventually, he reached the gold. He didn’t fail 1,000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps.

J.K. Rowling was a lone, poor, jobless parent. Once, she wrote a chapter for a story about a boy who lived on her way to England after a divorce. She believed in the boy and has been writing the first book for seven years. She was rejected by 12 major publishing houses. And eventually was offered a deal from a small house in London. Imagine if she said “screw it” on her 5th or 9th rejection. Now it’s the best-selling story ever written.

Henry Ford’s first two companies went bankrupt. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team. Jack Ma was the only applicant rejected from a position at KFC, other 24 applicants got the job. Steven King’s first novel was rejected 30 times.

These examples clearly show the value of not being discouraged and the willingness to learn from past defeats. These guys are among the most successful people in history, yet they had to go through their loser stage to achieve something.

“Obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.”
- Michael Jordan

You will feel like a loser if you are consistent.

Being consistent means failing and standing up repetitively, which is another reason why most people give up. If you want to achieve greatness, you will have to become a loser. Here is one of the previous issues of That’s Philosophical where I explained the skill of allowing yourself to be bad.

We need to rethink mistakes. They give us an invaluable opportunity to learn. If you had the courage to keep going, then you became one step closer to mastery. All successful people are losers. Embrace your mistakes.

The Takeaway

I guess you already understood how important is consistency for me. I believe it is the single most important thing that will help you achieve your goal no matter what field it is.

Want to become a successful athlete? Practice every week.

Want to become a world-class chef? Cook every day.

Want to publish a best-seller? Build a daily writing habit.

I want to build a philosophical community around this newsletter. That’s why I publish every week. Thank you for your support!

Remember:

Expect slow growth. Patience is key.
It takes one breakthrough moment to pay off the long, repetitive work.
Most powerful outcomes are delayed.
Don’t let any mistake be your last one.
Every step removes competition.
You can outwork any lucky person.
Embrace your failures.

Be grateful for every step. Every tiny bit of progress takes you ahead of your competitors. But the progress is fueled by failure.

“Repetition can be boring or tedious — which is why so few people ever master anything.”
-Hal Elrod

What’s your take on consistency? Do you have an example of consistency paying off in the long term? Would love to hear from you all in the comments, let’s discuss!

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