"Five minutes each week that might change your life."
In 2008, I quit my investment banking job after three weeks. I thought I was destined to get rich online.
Six months later, I had made… about $40.
That summer, I was broke, sleeping on a friend’s couch, convinced I’d ruined my life.
The next year, I had to move back in with my mom, and ask my friends to buy me beer.
Eventually, I launched my first successful product and scraped together enough money to move to Argentina and live my dreams as an international playboy-writer-rich guy. Except, I wasn’t rich, I was barely a writer, and I failed at being a playboy.
Three months later, I came home broke and embarrassed again.
It took me four years to make enough money to pay rent. It took me over 1000 articles and blog posts to be able to live off my writing. It took me eight years to build an audience to get my first book deal.
Yeah, the secret to “overnight” success is that it never really happens overnight. It takes years of risking everything, questioning and second-guessing, and then doubling down anyway, over and over again.
I’m in another season of doing just that right now.
Six years, four books, and three launches is what it took to realize my purpose isn’t in writing bestsellers or selling products, but in risking everything—my time, money, even sanity—to create things that actually change lives.
You’re never as doomed as you think you are.
And you’re never as far ahead as you want to be.
Wherever you are in life, the answer is always the same:
Just keep going. I did. And soon we’ll find out if I was crazy for taking another big swing… or right on schedule.
Next Thursday, I’ll reveal what I’ve been working on “overnight” this whole year. I think it might be the best thing I’ve ever made. I can’t wait to share it with you.
See you Monday,
Mark
