What are you working for?
(total read time: 7 minutes)
If you got to the position of your bosses boss, would you be happy?
If you got to choose your job, would you choose the path of highest average gain with medium risk or highest possible gain with maximum risk?
Just as anybody who dedicates their life to music has at one point imagined themself as an international rockstar, anybody who willfully dedicates their life to the Internet has at one point imagined themselves being beyond a boss; being part of something magical.
Which websites represent the rockstars we aspire to be? You already know what they are, because they all reached a level where they registered resoundingly in the national consciousness, and there’s one every 18 months or so in accordance with Moore’s law.
Chronologically they are Yahoo, Google, Amazon, eBay, Myspace, Netflix, Youtube, Facebook, Twitter.
So you’re saying there’s a chance.
There are a few patterns uniting this batch of sites.
1. None of them solved an existing problem. Instead, they all created entirely novel experiences.
If your focus is on fixing a problem, you’ve given yourself a ceiling that’s too low.
2. None of them were carried by a brilliant or unique idea. Instead, they were all solid ideas that hundreds or thousands of people may have had concurrently — but only one team executed and executed well enough to be a leader.
If you’re focused on concept over execution, you’ll be sitting on a barstool lamenting the fact that someone else took “your” idea.
3. None of them were started by a lone individual.
If you’re not actively surrounding yourself with people who inspire and challenge you, it’s going to take you decades to catch up.
4. None of them were a first venture.
Overnight successes were underground for decades. The great ones have always had a sort of urgent patience, like stubborn turtles.
5. None of them were started with financial profit as the primary motivation (despite some having fantastic business models).
If the money’s anything more than a bonus of your endeavor, you’ve already lost.
What was all that one in a million talk??
If you’re going to pursue the Grail, you can’t be reliant on praise or encouragement from others. You’re going to have to discount 90% of what anyone not pursuing the same Grail says to you.
Most people, including your parents, will laugh in your face if you tell them that you’re going to make the next Facebook. “A few get lucky; for every one that succeeds theres a million that fail.”
Here’s the thing about other people’s advice though: no-one believes in you. When you yourself can’t even articulate what it is you know you’re capable of, no-one is going to make that assumption on your behalf.
Do you think Steven Tyler’s mom or dad looked at him when he was 15 and said “Son put down those books, you were born to be a rock star. Here’s a guitar and a bottle of whiskey, now get in your room and make some f*cking rock and roll”. No.
If you have a special gift, you also have a special burden of needing that gift to emerge and manifest itself and a special constraint of not being able to follow any of the paths cleared for you by friends and family.
Shoot for the moon and land on the damn moon.
The benefits of owning, creating, or otherwise being associated with a Grail site are obvious to any casual observer. Rich and famous, right? Wrong. Those are the symptoms, but not the disease.
There is a higher good than money or fame: glory.
As Gary and AJ put it, “Legacy > Currency”. As Lil Wayne put it, “I don’t want the glow, I want the glo-ry”. As Drake put it “It’s funny when you coming in first, but you hope, that you last/you just hope, that it lasts”.
Chris Rock originated a wildly accurate phrase that says you always lose money chasing women but never lose women chasing money. It goes up another level. You always lose glory chasing money, but you never lose money chasing glory.
75% of the time, you’re screwed anyway.
An abstraction of any challenge that can always embolden you is that you only control at most half of the variables. All you can control is your preparation and belief. It looks like this:
| You don’t think you can | You think you can | |
|---|---|---|
| “Luck” favors you | Fail. | Glory. |
| “Luck” passes you by | Fail. | Fail. |
To some this chart is daunting — to me it’s freeing. You’re probably screwed anyway. Might as well try.
I gotta get back to work but…thoughts?
Author: Neil Sarkar
