For the life of me, I would wonder at times if there was something wrong with me when it came to hard work.
I have been an entrepreneur, a salesperson and mostly a writer.
I would seek out advice from seemingly successful people and listen to them. I would try my very best to believe everything they say.
I never once verbally admitted it, but I cringed at literally everything they said, for the advice they gave all came with the same formula and I felt it never made sense. That formula is simply:
"Do this, and therefore, you'll get this."
And it was always spoken with such flippant tones in all sorts of scenarios.
. "Join me and my team bro, and you'll earn up to $10,000 in commissions within a month."
. "If we work together, all you need to do is introduce me some friends and you'll start making money."
. "I am going to introduce you to someone. He's super rich. All you need to do is make the sale then. Easy."
. "Follow what this guy is doing and create the same content as him. You'll definitely go viral on TikTok with at least 10K likes per video."
. "Follow this template in writing your articles and you'll get tons of traffic."
. "I saw her checking you out bro. I think if you talk to her now she will sleep with you tonight."
The naive simplicity of it all really got to me.
I was demoralized all the time when I didn't see the same results as other people were getting. Of course, in hindsight, most of them were full of shit. Imagine the exasperation I felt when I was lambasted for "not trying hard enough" and also even being told, "It seems like you don't want success enough."
What the fuck right?
Life doesn't work this way. There're no guarantees in life except that we're all going to die one day.
What kind of works for me today?
. Realizing that I am fueled by creativity ONLY. No formualae. No guaranteed results and certainly no fixation on numerical results as if they're the only thing that matters.
. Henceforth, dig deep and find your deepest reason to why you want to create something. Go headfirst into the chaos of your art. Practice and improve. Along the way, try to enjoy yourself.
. Learn marketing and business principles. Then see how you can align them with your art. There is indeed a method out there that will make sense for you and not make you feel like you're selling your soul.
. Realistic advice from people who acknowledge that what worked for them may not work for you.
. Empathy from people who acknowledge and even admire the fact that you are not soley driven by conventional results like money, fame or buying a nice car.
. Surrounding myself with said people and only talking to them. Fuck everyone else.
. That said though, understand the importance of networking and meeting people, but adjust your expectations accordingly and stay true to yourself. Many opportunities in life arise from who you know and not just what you do, but don't forget who you are along the way.
. Actively blocking out segments of social media that are rife with cringey stories and unrealistic advice that only talk in absolutes. Seriously, swipe left.
Many things in life do get lost in translation. Ironically, they're from people who are trying to help you.
Stay true to yourself. Keep creating and practicing. Share and learn not just from, but with everyone else.
I am sure you'll find some form of success that you'd be personally proud of then.