The (not so) secret for success.
Reverse engineering success in an attempt to make it repeatable.
I’d thought my success had been a result of my hard-work. Surely it was my output that had resulted in my success.
Recently, I’ve been doing some soul-searching. I’m leaving Medicine and my job as a full-time doctor from July onwards, for at least the year. It’s the first time since ever that I’ll almost have a blank slate professionally and creatively.
In my attempt to decide what I want to spend that year doing, I’ve been reverse-engineering some truths – personal meditations.
And although they sound simple, they’re truths that have gotten lost in the noise along the way.
To achieve big, the single thing that matters most is quality.
Ground-breaking, I know.
If whatever your thing is – is incredible, it will find its way to the right people and places. Public documentation of incredible work I’ve found is the best and easiest way to grow your network in unimaginable ways.
And to make something truly great, to the extent that it’s remarkable can be broken down into a few more simple truths.
When I say remarkable, I’m using Seth Godin’s version of it, to mean ‘worth making a remark about,’ that’s how good it has to be.
If you’re going to make something or do something of truly remarkable quality, it often doesn’t take a greater monetary investment. It often doesn’t take much more effort each day. These are all incredibly reassuring truths.
It often requires a deeper appreciation for the craft, a deliberate intention to create that thing you decide is worth creating.
This is a challenge that has become more difficult by the year because popular advice tends to be volume-shooting content, projects and interactions as a means of gaining notoriety.
But to make something seismic, remarkable, and noisy (in a good way) just requires a little bit more time. Deliberate time. And not too much more time at that.
A little bit more each day, for longer, with a depth and intent that we’re losing to the fast-food culture of today.
Everything is being made to hold people’s attention for three seconds so they don’t continue their endless scroll, leaving your work in the algorithmic abyss.
But pair intention and time with a true willingness and grit to finish that thing until it is done results in exponential success.
UMIR.
Note: I wrote for GQ (three times) with no journalistic qualifications after the Editor-In-Chief reached out to me following a blog post I wrote about the Muslim fan’s experience and interpretation of Morocco’s World Cup campaign.
This was a really deliberate, meticulous piece I had enormous faith in. It took me a fair bit longer to write than most of my regular work, but I made it truly good. The little bit of extra effort resulted in a lot of extra everything else.
Contrarily I could’ve written 3 quick, easier blog posts as per popular advice but the success that would’ve come from that approach would’ve been relatively minimal, I’m sure. That’s sort of the trap I’ve fallen into over the last year. This blog post is a reminder to myself.
Make remarkable things – all it requires is a deliberateness, intention, and a willingness to finish the thing.