Issue #2 - Overnight success

The process of building is addictive, it is also heartbreaking. You research, investigate, build, and then get shown reality and you iterate again. You get proud of what you built, and then get shown reality once again. Regardless of the ups and downs, this process is vital to your success in the future. It is tempering you, strengthening your resolve and perseverance.

Eventually, success finds you and everyone thinks you came out of nowhere.

I think about this quote frequently. A lot of people have different variations of the same concept. The struggle of creating something from nothing, and the work under the surface does not really get noticed by people outside your circle. But it implies survivorship bias.

Success doesn’t just find you in time. Oftentimes, it’s elusive and doesn’t prevail in business. Why is that?

For me, it comes down to two things:

1. The business has been validated by some market factor and proof

2. The business operator’s actions behind the curtain are impactful and meaningful, not just “hustle” work.

What does that mean?

Everyone thinks they have a great idea.

However, there is a lot wrong with that sentiment:

Just because you have that problem, doesn’t mean that it is a problem enough people will pay to solve. If it doesn’t exist, it is either bleeding edge innovation and you have to create the market for it, or it doesn’t exist because there is no market.

It might be a complete pain in the butt having to set an alarm to wake up every day, but probably not enough for an end user to pay a subscription for an AI alarm clock.

What can you do to avoid this trap?

Investigate and challenge ideas. Don’t assume it is a great idea. Don’t assume great ideas can be monetized. Spend time interviewing a significant amount of people.

I’d recommend gathering data on 100 people asking them the following questions:

1. Do you ever struggle with __________?

2. What have you done in the past to solve __________?

3. Have you ever considered buying __________ (or paying for a service that solves __________)?

4. If you’d pay to solve __________, what would you be willing to pay?

You’ll find out whether or not solutions you may not know about exist, whether or not a decent amount of people have the problem you think needs to be sold, and whether or not the pain is painful enough to solve with their hard earned dollars.

What is “hustle” work?

Hustle work are actions where you are appearing busy, or are doing a bunch of tasks, but not really tasks that are meaningful or impactful. To borrow from Stephen Covey, they are tasks that are an over focus on tasks in Quadrant IV, not urgent and not important.

Those are activities best axed out of your work days. Tasks in Quadrant’s II and III are tasks that should be delegated, and you should focus on Quadrant I as much as possible through your work days.

We fool ourselves into thinking we are busy by taking actions that are busy, low-level thinking tasks, and ignore what is truly important.

Want to be successful? Learn how to master prioritization.

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