One Of My Biggest Lessons | #63

Let’s get right to it. The biggest lesson I learned is this:

You need to put in work with zero expectation of return.

The world does not owe you anything.

You are not entitled to anything.

You’re not owed clients, you’re not owed views or followers, and you’re not owed any revenue no matter how good you think you are.

It’s on you and you alone to go out there and make something for yourself.

To some of you this is freeing, to others it may sound brutal.

But it’s the reality of entrepreneurship. You’re going to have to work hard and grind for months or years with zero expectation of return.

When you expect nothing, and something wonderful happens, you feel great. But when you expect something big and you fall short, you feel lousy.

Understanding that the world doesn’t owe you anything is something you need to keep in mind. When you see an “overnight success” on social media, they weren’t really an overnight success. Behind that is months and years of work behind the scenes. They worked in the dark every single day and didn’t give up.

It took 6 months of daily effort to land my first product photography clients, and after that first one, they just started pouring in. Because I showed up every day and worked.

It took me 1 year to break the 1000 subscriber mark on youtube, and the next year I nearly broke the 30,000 subscriber mark. All from weekly uploads without missing a single week. For 2 years.

In both these cases, I expected nothing in return. For the longest time, I got nothing in return. And finally, everything seemingly blew up overnight.

We as entrepreneurs have to go through that season of work and struggle. It’s a non-negotiable part of this process. Just go ahead and ask any successful entrepreneur, and they’ll give you the same answer.

The opposite is true. Ask any failed entrepreneur, and they’ll tell you they tried for 6 months, and they just didn’t get “lucky” or “wasn’t for them” or “it’s a saturated market”.

Put in work with zero expectation of return for a long time, and you will find success.