You Don't Need To Outwit Your Competition (Do This Instead)

Atomic Essays by Growth Currency

You’ve heard about the tortoise and the hare. But have you considered applying it to the online “game” we’re all playing?

Your creator journey needs to resemble the tortoise’s approach, not the hare’s: slow, steady, constantly moving toward your goal.

There’s an MKBHD (Marques Brownlee) YouTube video from 2009. He’s maybe 15 or 16—and was excited to have published his 100th YouTube video to 72 subscribers. Marques persisted as his millions of YouTube subscribers would now indicate.

Many wiser minds before me have proposed: you don’t need to be the smartest marketer, most talented creator, or biggest business—you just need to stick around longer.

So how do you do that?

I don’t have all the answers. But when I started my newsletter, I committed to publishing 100 editions before I’d choose to quit or continue. I made that commitment to myself.

I believed publishing 100 weekly newsletters in a row would be something that a very small % of creators actually do. So I just need to outlast the good ones who quit after 5 or 10 editions. But I'd also need to improve.

My mindset for improvement: nobody puts out 100 shitty versions of something. You either get better—or you quit. Let the quantity of your work lead to quality, as David Perell has said.

Your consistent efforts compounded over time are likely to win out against the competitor who scales up quickly with flash and polish, but does not or cannot maintain that trajectory.

In essence: you don’t have to be the smartest + most experienced + most polished + most talented.

You need to be consistent, persistent, and resilient. These traits will win out over high-end talent, knowledge, and polish.

You don’t need to outwit, you need to outlast.