52 Weeks Straight

The only way to mitigate not being successful is to commit.

In today’s economy, what is underrated? What doesn’t get enough love? What isn’t taken seriously enough?

The first things that populate the mind might be a long walk on the beach, a good book, a company’s stock, and the connectivity of the world. We could go on for hours. There are certain commodities in this world that may not be in demand as much as they should be. They are overlooked and undervalued. We live in a world that allows for much to be underrated because we have never had so many options.

What to eat? Don’t worry we have an insane amount of restaurants per capita.

What to watch? Netflix has thousands of shows for you.

What to do? Open your phone and the possibilities are endless.

Perhaps, the sheer number of options we have makes determining what is underrated hard. There are too many things to choose from. Options, options, and oh yeah, more options.

In a world littered with choices, you can frolic through life accumulating more options. It is almost the norm now. Always be optimizing for more. Always be optimizing to allow yourself to have as many choices as possible. So in a world full of options what is underrated?

Commitment. 

Commitment is underrated. Optionality is not an end in itself. Commitment is why any person can retire. Commitment is how people get rich. Commitment is what makes great people great.

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There was a stage in my life where I was a devout podcast listener. I continually searched out episodes of those whom I admired and would binge-listen to everything I could on what they said. I took notes looking for some secret potion on what made these people tick, what made these people successful. Except, I was looking for something that didn’t exist. I was overcomplicating things.

On one of the podcast episodes I was listening to, Steven Bartlett of The Diary of A CEO asks Seth Rogen for actionable advice he could give to any young creator.

“Unfortunately, the only way to mitigate not being successful is to not quit. 

That’s it.

If you don’t quit, you might make it and if you quit, you definitely won’t.”

The statement is followed by laughter and he continues to build on his point, 

“Honestly, I think after all the years, I’ve seen people make it and not make it, the only common denominator is, is that.”

It is almost as if Steven asked the question for me as Seth laughed at the idea of there being a secret sauce to ever doing anything great. If you polled a vast majority of successful people and asked them why they were successful, it would all be pretty simple. They just didn’t stop. They remained committed. There are no frills to it, no elaborate plans, no five-step processes. It’s commitment to the process and it’s highly underrated.

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Commitment does not come without doubt. It is moving forward despite the presence of doubt. It is easy to show up when things are going well. However, those who persevere through the turbulent times will come out on the other side better. They will be one of few. You can’t control the family you were born into, the place where you were born, or the decade in which you were born but what can you control? How much you continue to work on something despite accolades that might never come. 

There is a somewhat infamous stat that circles Twitter every so often. It goes something along these lines.

There are two million podcasts.

90% of podcasts don’t post more than three episodes. 1.8 million quit.

Of the 200,000 who do post three episodes, 90% will quit after 20 episodes. 180,000 fewer people to compete with.

So to be in the top 1% of podcasts in the world, you need to publish 21 episodes.

The competition is not the 2 million podcasts. It’s the 20,000 podcasters who don’t quit.

In this case, it could be as simple as posting 21 episodes to begin to get noticed. Few can make it there.

Commitment is one of the cheapest and most readily available competitive advantages. In a world that continues to innovate and grow, competitive advantages begin to shrink. Everything is cheaper, more efficient, and more effective than ever before, making it hard to stick out in a crowd. However, one of the advantages that will forever be maintained is simply outlasting your competition. The longer you last the fewer people you will have to compete against. 

There are numerous examples of this in sports but perhaps my favorite is Jimmy Butler.

A man who pours his heart into his game. The picture encapsulates that. Image courtesy of TSN.

He wasn’t heavily recruited out of high school and landed himself at Tyler Junior College before moving to Marquette. He would then go on to become the 30th overall pick in the NBA draft but only averaged 2.6 points in his first NBA season.

Then 8.6 points in his second season.

Then 13.1 points in his third season.

Then 20 points a game in his fourth season.

It is a commitment to the craft and a commitment to never quitting. Now, he has been an all-star six times despite the long path it took him to get there. In a world full of options, Jimmy committed to one. He is considered one of the fittest players in the game and few could rival his work ethic. It is a commitment to a craft.

There is a degree of commitment to everything we do in life. There is a degree of commitment required to let your 401k work. You must let it sit and let it compound while not interrupting it unnecessarily. Everyone can do this, but just because everyone can does not mean that they do. Barring unforeseen circumstances, some ride off happily into the sunset and others do not. The difference between those that do and those that don’t is commitment. It is a simple formula but it is hard in a world full of options. Shiny Object syndrome convinces us we should bounce from option to option but that is never how anything ever works.

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As I hit publish on this piece, I have now hit send on Substack for 52 weeks in a row. I have committed and fought off Shiny Object syndrome. 52 weeks is kind of a long time. A lot can happen in that time period. In a dark world full of options, commitment illuminates because few do it. This is not meant to boost myself up either, although I would be lying to say I wasn’t at least a little proud of myself. It is to say sometimes commitment is all you need to get noticed, not some crazy credentials, five-step process, or exclusive connection.

Let me explain. 

I have been having a bit of an internal debate with myself on if I should get an MBA to further my career. It is quite a point of contention for me. Part of me is led to believe I should chase it and seek out those credentials while I am young. It is a big part of the “If not now then when?” I am young with few responsibilities, and I would like to think there is no other time that I might be so able.

My MBA would provide me with a key to a new world, a new land of opportunities. But it does not come without sticking points. The soaring costs of higher education, wanting to chase other priorities, wanting to just focus on work and get more work experience, not itching to go back to school, and wondering if it is something I really want to commit to. Timing is a funny thing and amidst my internal debate, I stumbled on a piece by Adam Singer, a very insightful piece by the way.

In Adam’s post, he writes on MBAs and includes a snippet from an Eric Friedman piece on why you should write a blog. In the piece Eric says,

“One of the things that stands out to me the most during a pivotal second round interview I had at Union Square Ventures. I sat down with one of the partners Brad Burnham, and presented my resume. He told me to hang on to it and he just wanted to chat.

When I pressed him as to why, he responded with something I will never forget which went something like this; ‘You can work really hard on crafting a well written, organized, resume with bullet points of accomplishments – but you can’t fake 500 blog posts.’

I was struck by this because I had never thought of things this way before. He was more interested in how I viewed the world (and subsequently the companies in it) rather than my list of things I think went well. Furthermore, he had already done his own homework seeing my previous employment history on the web (on LinkedIn).”

“You can work really hard on crafting a well written, organized, resume with bullet points of accomplishments – but you can’t fake 500 blog posts.” This was a quote by one of the partners of a renowned venture capital firm that has backed startups such as Twitter, Etsy, and Coinbase. You can’t fake 500 blog posts. You can fake a resume. He didn’t care about the accolades but instead cared more about the proof in the pudding you can’t fake. And what do 500 blog posts show? An unwavering commitment. Commitment is that, underrated.

This is not to say MBAs are not worth it either. That is relative to each person. I know amazing people who are doing big things getting their MBA. They are doing it the right way and they are deeply committed to it because it is right for them. For me it is more of, I may not know what I want to do when it comes to getting my MBA but maybe the most valuable thing is showing the world you can follow through on your commitments and do hard things. It shows a divergence in a world that optimizes accumulating options. It is one of few. For now, maybe I focus on remaining committed to what I have six inches in front of me, this newsletter, and the rest, getting my MBA, will figure itself out later. Worry about other options down the road.

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Options are great until a point. Options convince you to settle. Options rationalize moving haphazardly through life in the belief something better will eventually come along. If you are forever accumulating options, you will never commit to anything.

There have been a lot of days, I don’t feel like going to the gym but I never regretted walking through the front door. There have been many times I didn’t want to apply sunscreen, but I never regretted not getting sunburned. There have been countless nights I wanted an ice-cold beer, but I never hated the way I feel the next morning when I have water instead. There have been countless times I haven’t felt like writing, but I never hated hitting publish that week. 

Commitment is how we are here. It’s the same thing over, and over, and over again. There’s nothing flashy about it. The world is flooded with options but those who do great things are those who commit. Why? Because commitment is underrated and few do it. Commit because few others will.

Appreciate you reading.

-Scantron

P.S. Here is the post that started it all. Fun to see how far I have come.