#32 - The key to success no one wants to talk about
What I’m reading
The book Richer, Wiser, Happier sounds like another fluffy self-help book. It’s anything but. It’s a collection of interviews carried out by the author Richard Green with the most successful investors around the world that have managed billion of dollars. Reading about the insights, habits, and routines that these titans of their fields have, is eye-opening.
Resource of the week
Carrying on the theme of improving our public speaking skills, there’s actually a very well-established club solely dedicated to it, called Toastmasters. So if you want to improve your corporate presentation skills, or pitching a startup or just general confidence it could be something to consider.
Quote
“Do not pray for an easy life; pray for the strength to endure a difficult one.”
Bruce Lee
Thoughts
One of the things that grind my gears on social media is the amount of virtue signalling and humble bragging from people who get a lucky break. The influencers who started a business selling stuff online, learnt to code and created a startup or blew up on social media. They then go on to ‘help others’ by preaching hard work and saying things like ‘I had no experience if I can do it you can too’.
It annoys me because they’re taking all the credit for something that was the result of a big dose of luck. A bit like a lottery winner teaching other people how to win it. Or a less extreme example, someone who was born in privilege and all the advantages growing up preaching how if you work hard and take risks you’ll succeed, when they never had to worry about money a day in their life. Where in this case there is no consequence for failure.
As Daniel Kahneman mentions in his book, you often hear stories of people from humble beginnings achieving incredible success (e.g. Apple, J.K. Rowling), but if you changed just a few key events the results would’ve been very different. If hard work was all it took, most nurses would be millionaires. And the fact is a lot of smart talented people don’t achieve their potential either. So luck plays a much bigger role than people admit, but it’s not particularly sexy to go on a podcast and say the key reason for my success is because I got lucky for example.
Having said all of that I don’t believe luck is constant either. It is something you can influence. I was very lucky to have the chance to get into property early. I was very lucky that TikTok as a platform came along which was a new playing field for me to start my channel. If I started today from 0, I can’t say for certain that my channel will be in exactly the same position a year from now. But I have also tried more things and have a lot more failed ventures than the average person. Starting out is always the hardest, not because you have to work hard (I think a lot of people are prepared to do that) but because you don’t know if you’ll ever ‘make it’. Contrary to all the hustle porn, I’m quite pragmatic. Early on, I learnt to accept the reality that there is a real possibility I would never make it and genuinely be ok with that. To give myself permission to enjoy what I do day to day instead of after some arbitrary goal is achieved.
As James Clear said, “Lucky opportunities tend to be stumbled upon, not handed out”. If you keep moving, keep trying, pushing, and putting yourself out there, you’ll come across more opportunities. And just maybe, one day you’ll come across one that changes things for you.
Other stuff
My free Skillshare class on starting a business-oriented TikTok channel is now live.
Have a good week!
Hans