The Quest for Shortcuts!
The will to win is not nearly as important as the will to prepare to win. Everyone wants to win but not everyone wants to prepare to win!
Bobby Knight
My journey online was nothing short of a fairytale.
But this fairytale didn’t end at “and then they lived happily ever after”.
In fact, stories don’t end there.
There is a lot that is left after that “ever after”, because that is just one part of a long story.
A part that everybody likes seeing and clapping for.
I was probably one of those few who was able to make my first dollar online in less than 3 months of starting online (and that too with no knowledge of computers or, the internet).
At the end of the 3rd month, I had already made about $300 online.
If that story was a Disney’s fairytale movie, the ending would have been, “and he lived happily ever after”. After all it was the successful journey of a small-town boy from a struggling family, who struggled to even find a job ending up making handsome money online.
But, for me it was just the beginning.
I had probably tasted success a little too early.
What happened next was the most natural human thing to happen – Greed!
I wanted to make more money, but without doing more work.
The next 2 years that followed were disastrous, fill of losses, stress and frustration!
I lost a lot of money, even some that I had borrowed, running after shiny objects.
It took me 2 solid years to get back on track.
These 2 years taught me 2 solid lessons.
Every single person I see getting onto the online bandwagon needs to hear this. And I keep sharing it with everyone such person that I know.
Learn from my mistakes and avoid doing them!
SHORTCUTS
Bobby knight put it so well in his quote, when he said, “Everyone wants to win but not everyone wants to prepare to win”.
It is the preparation to win that involves all the hard work. It is this preparation that results in a “WIN”.
And it is this preparation that we all want to skip.
So we start looking out for shortcuts.
We want to jump the queue and reach the front of the queue. We want a “HACK” that can help us get whatever we are looking for!
There are thousands of people who are looking for shortcuts..
..and you will come across hundreds of thousands trying to sell you these hacks and shortcuts.
But the truth is – “there are no shortcuts” (remember that scene from Kungfu Panda)!
Watch this clip!
In the words of Mr.Ping (Kungfu Panda Star), “to make something special, you just need to believe that it is special”.
So don’t look for a shortcut or, a secret ingredient.
Instead spend that time, learning and perfecting. Keep doing it until you find the perfect recipe that works for you.
Go through the grind!
(After all, someday you too want an inspiring story that you can share with your kids.. isn’t it?)
Remember, Content creation is a marathon and not a sprint. It is a very difficult journey and you are sure to feel frustrated during this journey.
It weak moments like these that push us to go looking for that secret ingredient. This newsletter is a reminder to stop yourself from doing it!
LOVE WHAT YOU DO
I started off with writing.
Because writing was what I loved.
I could write for hours and not feel fatigued.
And when I learnt that I could make money using that skill, I put that to good use.
No wonder, I made my first dollar in less than 3 months.
But then, the greed to find shortcuts took me down the rabbit hole.
It made me do things that I didn’t like doing.
I was force selling ads to an email list that I had spend months building and nurturing.
The result – they stopped opening my emails because there was nothing worthwhile to read in it.
Then I started using “Article Spinners” that could put together an article in less than 10 minutes. These were senseless articles with no value. But someone told me I could put that onto my website and make a ton of money.
The result – My website was de-indexed and penalized by Google.
The one thing that was kept nagging me all throughout while I was doing all of this crap was the question, “was I really enjoying it?”
I wasn’t.
It wasn’t something I wanted to do or, I loved doing.
The truth is, you can never succeed in something that you don’t love doing.
Remember, when our parents pushed us into one career stream?
How many of us were able to do well, unless of course, it was your career choice as well.
Hardly any!
Do it only if you love doing it.
Else find something you would love doing.
Content creation needs your heart and soul.
It is only then that you will create something that you will love and that the world will love.
So love the journey.
Find ways of enjoying what you are doing.
Find reasons why you want to do it.
Enjoy the process.
And if you feel that you aren’t enjoying the process, find something else.
PS: Podcasting is not just about recording and publishing a few episodes. It is soul-searching and is about enjoying your beautiful creations.
I put in about 18 hours every month to create this newsletter, starting from researching to writing and editing it.
So, If you enjoyed reading this Newsletter, I would sincerely appreciate it if you could recommend it to others. You can send them to https://theloudspeakeronline.com to subscribe to it for FREE!
What am I reading?
If you would like to check out some of the books that I have read in the past or, some that I have in my to-read list, you can find all of them on my Amazon page.
Go ahead and check it out!
I am almost done with “Getting Things Done”. I am now in the process of putting it into practice using Notion.. In fact, I am trying to integrate it into the “Second Brain” that I have built into Notion, following Tiago Forte’s training.
You can check the book out here!
That’s it for this week!
Do let me know your thoughts, feedback, and opinions about this newsletter.
