Success comes slowly
Jul 09
I’ve got this friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend who recently decided to start their own business. It’s a good, but very specific, idea so the target customer/client base is pretty small.
For about a month, they’ve been promoting online, advertising in their town, and trying to get things up and running, but based on the status updates I’ve seen on Facebook, it’s not taking off as quickly as they had hoped. In fact, I’m getting the impression that they thought the whole adventure would go like this:
- Get everything ready for business.
- Announce that I’m open.
- People will stampede.
- Be a millionaire by Christmas.
Now, I’ve never been the smartest person in any room (unless I’m teaching a children’s Sunday School class), but I don’t think success works like that. I mean, sure- there’s the occasional overnight fluke that shoots to the top of a field.
But 99.9% of the time, success comes slowly. Let me give you one of the best examples I can think of.
Have you seen this video by Tripp and Tyler?
It went viral a few months ago, and now it’s been viewed over eight million times on YouTube. It got the attention of some pretty powerful producers in the comedy world, which resulted in being invited to Google’s headquarters to speak on a panel about web content, signed to work with Broadway Video (they produce SNL), and the opportunities are still coming in.
Overnight success? Hardly.
If you check out their YouTube channel, you’ll see that they’ve got over sixty videos, going back to 2006. When the video above took off, and those producers saw it, they were able to that these two have been cranking out content for over six years.
Leadership genius John Maxwell has an idea he calls The Rule of Five. He explains it like this:
Imagine there’s a huge tree in your yard that you want to chop down. If you wake up every day, grab an axe, and go take five swings-just five swings- at that tree, eventually it will fall down. It has to. Monday morning- wake up, grab your axe, take five swings. Tuesday morning- wake up grab your axe, take five swings. Do that every day, and the tree will fall.
If you know what it is you want to achieve, and you know what you have to do to get there- do those things every day, and you will. You have to make sure you’re doing the right things, though. You can’t chop down a tree by swinging a jump rope. You have to use an axe. But if you do the right things every day, eventually you’ll get what you’re after.
Let’s talk about it. In the comments, answer two questions:
- What’s something you want to be successful at?
- What things should you do every day to get there?
Ive been thinking about this recently. It’s been a year since I’ve opened my blog and I have yet to really do much of what I had planned to do. I think I thought, “If you write it, they will come.” That’s not necessarily true, is it? It requires work. Is it work that I want to put forth? Yes, but not at the expense of my other duties. I’m learning that I have to be willing to be patient if I want to continue doing something I love.
Last week I got my business license. Now I just need to build a website and I’ll make millions, right?
That’s basically it.
Spot on there Jared- glad to see your blog- is this what those 5 am wake up calls are for!
Keep it up!
Great post, Jared. For me, it’s 1000 words a day. Those are my five swings.
Great post! Thanks for taking an axe to my dreams. No overnight success? What is all the chopping for then again? #sarcasm
1. I want to create and sell art.
2. I need to do something art related everyday, ie.,go to studio, work, check website, update & tweak, network, follow-up on offers to teach art, keep focused, don’t waste time doing mindless stuff like reading a million FB updates or playing Free Cell, share studio space and supplies with other artists (what goes around….), “to be more creative spend more time with THE CREATOR” MOM (Barbara Barlow Carpenter), and BE the ARTIST. Some days I do all of these and other days I do one or two. It’s a challenge. Thanks J-Red.
It’s weird, but sometimes I think the hardest part of BEING anything is actually DOING it. And Claudia- you ARE an artist. When you get famous and world renowned, don’t forget us little people.