If you’re learning a new discipline and trying to grow on top of it, there is something that barely ever works: taking shortcuts.
You can try to skip steps and apply your ingenious “growth hacks.” Yet, experience tells me that it doesn’t take long for reality to slap you on your face.
If I had to attribute my most catastrophic mistakes to just one factor, I believe that would be the pursuit of hyper-growth. This isn’t the first time I talk about that. I’ve been speaking for a long time about it in the context of creating businesses and products, yet it’s easy to fall for its appeal.
In fact, beyond businesses and products, I’d say most of the critical mistakes I committed in my life in general or things like trading in particular, are greatly influenced by it.
As in everything else, hyper-growth won’t get you to your destination sooner. Often, counter-intuitively to what you might think, more is less, and faster is slower.
So instead, study the system and walk the terrain first to get started. Then improve to come up with a system that fits you. And only when you have an approach that works for you, scale to optimize for more money, more time, or both, depending on your particular needs and goals.
- Get started. Understand how it works, get familiar with what it takes, and identify your blind spots.
Aim to understand the system first. Study materials like books, webinars, courses, and the like to learn the concepts and theory. Start with the classics, look for the fundamentals, and grow from there.
Mix the theory with practice. Walk the terrain at the same time. Practice and get familiar with what it takes to do the work.
Here is extremely important you make minimal bets. Assume you’ll fail by default. You’re learning and still don’t know what you don’t know, so keep your risk at a minimum. - Improve. Shape a system that fits you.
We are not all equal. Everyone has distinct circumstances and pursues different ends. Assuming a system can work for everyone in all situations is a naive perspective. You need an approach that matches your particular context and goals. Once you’ve learned the foundations, this is what you should aim to achieve. - Scale.
Optimize your system to earn more money and/or free up more of your time to do more of what you intrinsically value or other things that help you get there.
Remember, the right steps, in the right sequence, are essential to succeed.
Say it out loud. Is there anything you disagree with? Anything missing that you’d like to add? If so, I’d love to hear your thoughts so, please, leave them in the comments.
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Have a creative time.
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