Moving the needle

TLDR:

Once you’ve embarked on your entrepreneurial journey, the hardest part has to be moving the needle.

That being, having to put the hard yards in constantly for a long period of time.

But what do those hard yards look like exactly, and how long a period of time is really defined?

The hard yards are committing to taking specific actions you have to take to get the needle moving for x days (the time period), which can be 100, 365 or even longer depending on your vision.

If you want to reach the level of greatness, you need to have a daily practice system in place.

Once the system is in place, recognize that at least 90% of the time, your output will be crappy before reaching that level. But if you aren’t willing to, then how else do you think you will?

No matter how hard it may be to expend brain energy to fulfill your end of the contract with the craft you’re working on that day, as long as you have something, you’re getting closer, even if it’s very minuscule in the grand scheme of things.

Take writing for example.

To write that 1 masterpiece where you can pat yourself on the back proudly, you need to have written at least 50-60 bad articles to have climbed the ladder that high, for each step you take, you’re familiarizing yourself more with what it takes to successfully reach that altitude.

As David Perell says, “you have to accept the messiness of your initial creations, knowing that excellence is born from the sisters of patience and iteration.”

That is the biggest piece of moving the needle, one that which you can only wholeheartedly agree with if you reach your desired outcome and get your hands dirty.