The Long Game is the Shortcut. You've Just Been Sold a Lie.

How to guarantee you’ll never be successful? Take all the shortcuts.

I’ve fell hook line and sinker into every get-rich-quick scheme there is. What happened? It took me three years to get to the right starting line.

I want to propose a rewrite for success: have so much fun taking the long road that time flies and you get to exactly where you want to be.

Confused? Great, let’s dive in.

The shortcut is never ‘the shortcut’

The way I see it, there are two inevitabilities when it comes to taking a shortcut.

First, it’s your perception. So Joe Schmo who you went to high school with is now raking in 6-figures, lives in a killer house, in the best location AND he’s got, adorable kids.

Yeah, yeah I get it.

But here’s the deal. Joe has been working for years to get where he wants to get. Razor focus is often viewed in hindsight. The first rule of shortcuts? No overnight success is an overnight success.

The second rule of shortcuts

It probably isn’t a shortcut.

You know those people selling you the dream: ‘You can make 8 figures in 8 minutes with this $1997 course’ those are the people I want to talk about. So the reality is they make more on those courses than they do doing the thing they say they are.

It’s the reality.

And that’s fine, Alex Hormozi says to sell the implementation. If you can actually implement. That’s the trick.

In short, if someone selling you something that sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Why you should take the long road

I wasted 3 years on shortcuts.

It’s embarrassing. I tried everything, for a week then I got bored. Selling on eBay, Amazon FBA, homeware store, a sweet store, I even considered a window cleaning business.

I used to get jealous of the ice cream man because I thought he had a cool business.

I spent 3 years doing this. Of chopping changing, finding something else, trying again, committing, and giving up. It was an embarrassing cycle of nothingness.

Nothing ever stuck and I was miserable.

This was me chasing shortcuts.

So I started writing

I started writing because I was so fed up with the world.

I was angry. Angry that I saw all these people around me making a success of themselves and there was little me, not doing anything significant with my life.

I was embarrassed.

I was angry.

Writing made me feel like I was doing something about it.

So I kept on writing. 2.5 years later, my writing makes more money than I could have ever hoped for, I’m happier than ever and the ride has been incredible.

It’s been the long road and that, I’ve realised, is the shortcut.

What I’ve learned about success

I’m a nobody.

I’ve not seen anywhere near the level of success most people have. I get that. But even from my tiny spot in the world, I’ve learned something profound.

When I was trying to be a success I was sloppy, frantic, and desperate. Taking the shortcut feels, well, it feels bad.

When I was at peace with the long road ahead, when I didn’t even realise I was on the road, when I was creating because I loved it and it made me happy, it’s the most fun I’ve had in ages.

I realised that actually, the fun is on the long-road. The fun is picking something you’ll do for the next ten years and committing to it fully.

The effort is the reward

I’ve really tried to be a writer.

I obsess over headlines, review my work weekly, and read all the time. I’m constantly trying to be better. I’ve never worked harder at anything. And the weird thing? I’ve never enjoyed it more.

The progress is slow but it’s thrilling.

I’ve never had more fun. I’ve never felt so good about something. I’ve never been more proud of the progress. And it’s made me think deeply about success.

Slow growth is more enjoyable.

Shortcuts are a long way around.

The quickest way to achieve your dreams?

To commit to something.

To give up with these short dopamine hits and give yourself to something. A skill, a craft. Commit to sticking at it for the long run. For 5 years. 10 years.

When you do that when you really do that, you’ll go further than you imagined and it’ll be more fun than you ever thought it could be.