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What could the secret be
It’s urgency
A major differentiator between successful and unsuccessful people is urgency.
Some people are too relaxed.
They've misinterpreted the ‘slow and steady’ ‘good things take time’ and ‘rome wasn’t built in a day’ ideologies
They have 5 year plans for goals that could be done by summer, they waste a week stressing over a task that takes 20 minutes to slap a bow on
In short, they’re snails
You may be familiar with the fact that facebook bought instagram a few years ago for $1B.
What you won’t be familiar with is how Mark Zuckerberg actually bought it.
Kevin Systrom founded instagram.
He had previously worked with twitter founder jack dorsey at another startup
As instagram started gaining traction, jack saw its potential and offered kevin $500 million to buy the company.
Since Kevin and Jack were friends, it seemed like an easy close.
Mark got to know that Instagram might be sold.
He texted Kevin and pushed for a meeting.
Kevin hesitated because it would obviously piss Jack off.
Mark insisted and arranged a meeting at his house on a Friday, when Jack was relaxed because there were no visible signs of a threat
Mark offered the same amount as Jack, and Kevin said no.
Mark then doubled down and offered $1B.
This was the biggest offer ever made for a mobile app at the time. For a company with zero revenue and a handful of employees, the deal seemed absurd.
Kevin was sold
Mark worked with lawyers over the weekend to finalize a deal that would typically take a year
By the end of the weekend, Instagram was sold for $1B to Facebook.
Jack never saw this coming.
An obvious deal was snatched from him because of a lack of urgency and an excess of patience.
Urgency is the most powerful muscle you can develop
When i look back at my journey, the only thing i wish i wouldn’t had done is wait
Wait for the right time, the right plan, the right move, because there is no such thing as a right ….
Nothing will ever be perfect, everything has its wrongs, the faster you’re aware of them, the faster you’ll figure out how to avoid them
“The problem is you think you have time.”
Most people live like tomorrow is guaranteed, like there’s always another year, another opportunity, another shot.
But reality isn’t that kind.
There comes a point in life where nothing except focus and experimentation can save you
You've learned a lot, you've mapped out the plan, you know every step you should take but if you keep looking for the answers, keep searching for an easier replacement, you will keep living the same year every year
Time will pass, the opportunity will vanish, you will get busier, you will lose every chance to fix your mistakes
And the goal, the goal will become an excuse, a lie, a regret you'll have to carry for the rest of your life
If you don’t force urgency into your life, you’ll look back and wonder what went wrong because you always knew what you needed to do, you even created a cute routine, that aesthetic calendar, but why didn’t anything get done?
The reason a person avoids urgency, despite knowing they will do it, is uncertainty, and to cover their fear of uncertainty, they start to justify stagnation
What if it doesn’t work out?
What if i embarrass myself?
What if i need more information?
What if i’m not capable?
All these justifications may be true on their own, but they will never not be true
If you think they’ll ever go away, nope
You have to live with them, you have to embrace them, i know it’s not easy, in fact it’s horrible, but that’s why success is rare, that’s why it’s so difficult to succeed, to achieve, to become.
See you next week