I thought I depleted my store of self-discipline early in life…
During those years, I spent hours and hours practicing the piano… and later the pipe organ. Practicing means “playing perfectly,” and so that’s what those hours were about.
I made mistakes, I fixed them. I made some more mistakes, I fixed those too.
I did this for about 18 years straight. Practice, practice, practice.
My First “Instant” Success
Around 1997, little old me won a national music competition where I competed against musicians probably twice my age.
From the outside, it looked like a little punk (as much of a punk as you can be when you play the pipe organ) from nowhere Pennsylvania just swooped in and stole the show. An instant success came out of the shadows.
It’s a nice story, but it’s not the truth.
The truth is that my success was hardly instant. It looked that way from the outside, but from the inside, getting there took forever.
My Second “Instant” Success
After a few years in the real world, I realized that life as a church musician wasn’t for me. It wasn’t really the music that was the problem, it was the people. Working in a church just wasn’t what I was cut out to do.
So I basically stopped practicing. I hadn’t depleted my store of self-discipline though. I had just lost interest in the goal I was pursuing.
A few years went by where I tried to figure things out. I worked as a banker, a car salesman and a tech consultant.
Eventually, I opened up a copywriting and marketing business. I made more money that first year than I’d ever made in a single year before in my life.
From the outside, it looked like another instant success.
But it wasn’t instant. It took me 30 years of my life to even figure out that’s what I liked to do.
The Most Important Thing I’ve Learned About Success
Over the years, I’ve come to some conclusions about success.
The most important one is that success never feels like you think it’s going to feel before you get there.
Before you get there, you only think you know what it’s going to feel like to reach that goal.
When I started my copywriting business, the largest salary I was every paid as a church musician was $31,500 a year.
So making $100,000 in a year was a bit outside my reality.
Before I made $100,000 dollars in a year, I thought that reaching that goal would make me feel awesome.
But once I got there, making $100,000 in a year… well, it didn’t feel too much different.
I was still the same person after as I was before.
Fast forward a few years and I’m finally beginning to wise up.
So What Does All of This Success Talk Have to Do With Blogging or Running a Business Online?
It has everything to do with both of those things.
And the reason is that we’re all pursuing something. We all have some goal for our business, our website, our subscriber list or our revenue numbers.
Everyone is extremely focused on measuring the progress towards a goal. But you don’t hear too much talk about the quality of your life during that pursuit. That matters because you’re not getting any of that time back. Once you spend it, it’s GONE.
In fact, much of what you hear in the business world gives you the idea that sacrificing the quality of your life in order to achieve a goal is a badge of honor.
I don’t consider that success at all.
Here’s the idea I want to keep in the forefront of my mind:
Getting there fast isn’t as important as getting there the right way.
But you don’t always know what that “right” way is, so it’s best to stop trying so hard to figure it out and just enjoy living your life.
This might sound silly but it’s not. Here’s the reason:
I spent 18 years of my life learning to be a musician. Believe it or not, those skills are what make me unique as a business owner, copywriter and marketer.
The seeds for my “instant success” as a copywriter were sown in those years of effort sitting on an organ bench.
If I had made it my goal to pursue success as quickly as possible, I wouldn’t have bothered to spend the time in the trenches like I did. It’s that struggle which built the foundation for my future. I just didn’t know it at the time.
The Problem With “Instant Success” Isn’t That It’s Impossible, the Problem Is That It’s Not a Goal Worth Pursuing
Chasing after instant success means you’re investing a ton of energy into something that can only be found in your future. In other words, you’re putting energy where it can’t do you any good right now.
When your only goal is to “get there as quickly as possible,” you fix your gaze on that imaginary point ahead of you and ignore everything else… including the huge opportunities that are right in front of you.
The worst part about this is that the pursuit of “instant success” can make you extremely unsatisfied with how things are… right now.
I don’t know about you, but my definition of success includes me actually being happy. And that will only ever happen if I’m OK with things right now, as they are.
There are great things in your future and you will reach them. But you never know how experiences, relationships and other major life events will play into your future.
Leave the chase for “instant success” to the other guy. You’ve got real places to go.
So take one step at a time building your business or working on your website or blog. Go forward with your eyes wide open, a single step at a time.
You never know what you might discover if you’re paying attention.
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{ 49 comments }
I hate when stuff comes easy!
Seriously though, sometimes instant success creates instant complacency which creates sudden failure.
Personally I know that any success I had that was worth anything came with a lot of black eyes and broken noses.
Great post!
Hey Jason, great run down on success.
I believe that most people understand that “real”, true and fulfilled success takes work… And it takes doing something that you love.
And there are lessons to be aware of every step of the way.
DO
Freethinking Renegade
Excellent, excellent post!
Very seldom, if ever, does success come wrapped as we think it should.
For some it comes wrapped in the form of a sudden turn of events. For others, it is the “Progressive realization of a worthwhile dream.” as was mine and yours.
However, whether it be instant or via long process, success is not the goal. In the end…
“Success is a result of pursuing a worthwhile dream!”
Again, great post.
God bless,
James
Hi Jason
With this awesome article you made my day! Surely I subscribed to your newsletter
Thanks from Switzerland,
Monika
Great article Jason, thanks for sharing.
I have relatives that have spent 30 plus years doing something they hate in car factories and they look at my sporadic career path and shake their head!
I look back at the accumulated knowledge gained from being a regional sales rep, stock broker, journalist, business owner, operations manager, web designer, copywriter, marketing manager and author and feel empowered to take on the day – wherever it leads.
Turns out I was ahead of my time:)
There is a more open attitude to what is expected to be a productive member of society. We have a diverse economy that offers amazing opportunities.
I commend your focus and discipline. That is where many fail, they don’t work through the tough stuff to get to the rewards.
Life requires persistence and Optimism.
Very well said Jason.
I came to that same conclusion after 5 months of starting my blog. All signs indicated I was achieving what I thought I wanted — more money! And in fact I did cash in my first $1,200 affiliate pay check in 3 months. But then I reallized that it didn’t change my life and that I actually needed to focus more on the “now” and less on the “once I have”…..and I also figured out that I needed to focus more on how I spend (and save and give) the money I have now BEFORE I try to go make more and more and never enough.
Thanks for the great post.
Love your first “instant” success at the Pipe Organ Competition. I don’t think you could be any more hilarious! I’ve been working at a church for the past 5 years and completely understand what you mean about just not being cut out for it. Looking towards launching my own design business. Thank you for the reminder to not be obsessive about success; it was so timely.
Love this post. I usually feel bad when I am being pressured; I stop enjoying what I am doing. It is not easy t get rid of the pressure, but it sure makes life more enjoyable.
I loved this post, it felt real. And effort, calm and taking things easy… well, I like to believe they always pay off in the end.
I LOVE this post and identify with it a lot. I hate all of business advice that preaches you have to work constantly and devote 100% of your free time to your biz. Don’t get me wrong, I work my ass off and love what I do, but I also love relaxing and spending time with friends and family too. I don’t think you should spend years ignoring your own happiness for some elusive long-term future-happiness that might not ever come.
Great advice for anyone involved in blogging and building a successful online business and a blogger.
This was such an awesome post, and one I needed to read right at this moment in time. Focus on the now and not reach for the future. The Future is always out of your grasp, but the now is here for the taking. That’s pretty profound. I definitely signed up for your newsletter.
Hard work and dedication can take you any where, life tells us many lessons, just keep on moving and everything will be fine. This story is really inspirational and expecting to taste an “Instant success” in my life.
I’m a musician pursuing the copywriting/freelance writing path as a way to raise money.
Music isn’t something I want to give up, because I don’t want to live the rest of my life not knowing if I could have done something with it.
On the other hand, living with roommates or mom and dad for the rest of my life, constantly going on the “more education” treadmill, or going back to work for a company for the prestige/perceived security isn’t worthwhile either.
Entrepreneurship/Freelancing can be a great path for a creative type, and creative thinking can help solve problems in a way facts and figures do not.
Being a creative oriented person gives you a different perspective than being an engineer or an MBA does.
Great article Jason and insight to perceived “instant success”.
Your’re right, it’s all about enjoying the now, the journey and know where you’re going.
Very well said. You have to pool in all your efforts to become what you do at a time, which is sometimes longer than you expect.
Excellent article, Jason!
What a great explanation of “instant” success taking a looooooong time, and I love how you talk about how *all* of your experiences contribute to your success at a given endeavor, even though they may seem unrelated on the surface.
Great post, and thanks for reminding us to smell the roses and enjoy the journey!
Susan
This was such a great read. I am a mom, and it resonates with me so much when you say “you can’t get that time back.” I think there needs to be a balance between focusing on projects and investing time in living a full life with right where you are. Variables in life are always changing, so we can be in the rat race for success for a long time. And at what cost? Broken marriages, no time for fitness and health, ignored children. Not worth it. I have to remind myself to not get lost in projects and letting them consume all of my time. I think we get lost because we are looking for the kind of success that will give us more free time and more money to spend time with those we love. But there is no true timeline that you can look at to really tell how much time it will take to get there. So yes, continued practice and baby steps.
I agree with you and I was brought up on this belief since I was a child to enjoy every moment and not to let life pass by while trying to reach for things. Also I’ve always believed that financial success cannot ever put us in such a honest and true state of satisfaction because our search does not end. For example when my daughter was born, that state I was,, no amount of cash could match that state of happiness.
Thanks for this article, it’s good to be reminded about these things.
Wow, thanks for this article! I know it sounds weird, but it’s fantastic to see another professional church musician finding a different path. *raises hand*
The pool of information about Web and social media optimization is vast, and deep. Diving into it is overwhelming! Your post inspires me to instead test the waters and immerse myself gradually. Then I’ll be more apt to swim than sink.
“Life is a journey, not a destination.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson
This quote works perfectly with this too, “Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not. Nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan “Press on” has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”
—Calvin Coolidge
Great post Jason!
Another problem with us getting so caught up in that intense working for future goals is that when we do go spending some time enjoying the present is that we even feel guilty about that too. How sad is that!
Hi Jason,
Thanks for the great post, good to be hier.
All the best,
Vlad
Love it!
Thanks Jason
Hi Jason,
Great post! I know what are you talking about. It looks like we have many things in common…
I am also pianist, I play the piano already 20 years and I am living out from it.
But last few years I started to concentrate more on internet marketing and it’s very diffcult to get to the level where you get $100 000 a year. I am not there at all yet, but I know, that it is very long way and hard work.
Your story is very similar to mine, but I am just on the half way of your story…
Jason,
You’re absolutely right. We need to pause a little and think what’s the meaning of our lives. Being successful instantly or even after a lot of struggle won’t fulfill the real meaning of life. The material world just can’t bring true satisfaction.
Sean
JASON,It was an very interesting and well written article. Now there were a number of great points that I enjoyed, but what I found so much fun was the first part about the piano and Organ. You see, I have been a Professional Piano Tuner for 40 years now.
Great Article
Ross
Great article. Life is not a destination – it’s a journey. And although it might seem like hard graft from time to time with little to show for it, if you keep working at it, it’s often worth it in the end, even if, as you say, it doesn’t pan out like you expect it to.
It really got this. For years, as a salesman, I was aiming for the next target and the next target and each time I achieved it, there was another to go for. Whilst life was good and income was rising, and I has lots of assets to show for it, something was missing. You see, I was expecting to ‘enjoy life’ once I’d reached the goal, but the goal kept moving. When I realised that ‘life is the goal’, everything changed. Life became fun, pressure was eased and success was attained. Thanks Jason.
Thank you very much, Jason. It was a wonderful post.
I look forward to hearing more from you.
Georg
VERY, VERY awesome post. It crystalyzed in my mind thoughts that I yet could not express. Some real keeper quotes in here for sure. Thanks.
Thank you all for reading and leaving comments. Much appreciated.
It’s awesome to be able to share things like this and hear that they make an impact.
You have a great community here!
Great post, I believe in passion, if a person has an inner passion then the goal can be accomplished, attained, etc…
Thanks
Great article. You have reminded me that it’s not all about the money. I had a couple of really good years where I made a lot of money and I was miserable because I had no time to enjoy it. There’s not much money coming in now. I’m enjoying my journey looking for the next thing in my life I can get passionate about. I’m sure the money will follow if I stick with it. God Bless–Denise
In this era with so many seeing the realization of Andy Warhol’s proclamation that we all seek our “15 mins of fame” via YouTube, “Reality TV” and Internet nonsense, it’s good to remember there are many quiet hours invested by the great ones studying and applying themselves. (I include those in the top of their fields in sports, business, entertainment, etc).
I remember a sales manager told me once when I was quite over-whelmed and under-performing, for my standards, “Al, just keep showing up, do your best each day, and good stuff will happen.” By showing up and performing our best, we never know whom we might impress, which may open that next door.
Jason, I subscribed to your “The Client Letter.” Afterall, how could anyone refuse getting “. . . the best politically incorrect daily e-letter for independent service providers on the planet”?!
I’m all-over most anything ‘politically Incorrect’ these days.
Hey Jason, excellent insight on Success,
I actually did the opposite….I had a successful banking career for 20+ years and making over 100k and retiring from that career and staring my WordPress Custom Design business brings me more happiness and that actual time to enjoy my success.
Of course I miss the income but I enjoy the freedom and the “time” than the income. After all in another year or two I’ll be at the income level again….but I don’t have to work 12 hour days to make it.
That brings a smile to my face as well as my wife of 30 years.
I liked your perspective, but I would add one more thing. You can’t stay on top of the heap for ever; if you start there, you almost always have to face the fall eventually (or at least the struggle to stay there). For most of us regular folks, ; ) the progress itself is satisfying when you look back over your career.
My daughter is dancing solos competitively for the first time this year and she’s unhappy with her scores. I’ve been trying to explain to her how miserable she would be if she started out with platinum-level scores right off the bat…and then never could quite get back to the top again over the years. At least she has something to work for!
This helpful. Thanks.
I think what most people call “success,” instant or otherwise, is very superficial.
The truth is that you’ll never really know whether your life was a success or not because it is not possible to determine what sort of ultimate influence your life had on others, or on the world, until after you are gone.
Let those who survive you call your life a success or a failure if they like. Meanwhile, just live life to the best of your ability and try to do as little harm and as much good, as you understand those things, as possible.
Looking at all the responses, it is needless to say that this is a gemstone in the online world overflown with too much of nothingness…
Well done and thanks of the fine tuning!
I think the thing about uber enthusiastic entrepreneurs who work 20 hours a day, at least the ones I have met, is that they love what they do. So this kind of effort really does make them happy!
I’m with you though, I know that working at that kind of rate won’t make me happy. I’m always going to be an employee, I make a good wage, and I get to spend plenty of time with the family and I quite like my office job!
For me building websites is a fun hobby, and the money I make from it is a great bonus. It pays for a good holiday, the new car etc.
Actually I was fortunate enough to have a real over night success as the first site I built went from 0 to 5000 hits overnight and helped pay off a chunk of the mortgage! I was fortunate to build the first site around a new product that became massively popular.
Was in the right place at the right time.
I don’t think yours was instant success at all, or could even be construed as a problem. Yes, there are discipline issues with getting to the top, but instant success is more being born into wealth or winning the lottery, neither of which was mentioned in your post.
You’re a lucky man
I wish I could be instant successful like you, now I must know this problem before trying 
Hate to be the contrarian, but the author seems to violate his own rules. I clicked on his link, signed up for content about setting rates, and then was directed to other sites where he pitched himself and his book. I never could find the info about setting fees. In general, not great content for me.
Hey Neil,
I’m sure I do violate my rules from time to time. I am in fact human. You got me there.
But the promised content you were looking for was on the web page you were directed to. It was in the large font, highlighted in bright yellow. I explained that in the private email I sent you when you questioned me on it.
“Pitching” myself and my books, products and services is what I do. In fact, I do it almost every chance I get because I believe in it.
If that doesn’t work for you, no harm no foul.
Jason, I can really relate to your post. As a classical musician myself for 20+ years and then changing my career, I know what it’s like to strive for perfection- and never get there.
The message I take from your post is that it’s important to focus on the journey and process of development- and that includes falling flat on your face and picking yourself up again.
I lose sight of that sometimes while striving for perfection and fast success, but you’ve reminded me that it doesn’t work in the long run.
What works is discpline, application and enjoying the development of yourself and others. Thank you!
You can always make more money… but you can never make more time.
The quick fix will give you the illusion of success, but the only way to make sure that you KEEP it is to build it, one brick at a time.
I learned this in my own personal weight loss journey of dropping from a size 12 to a size 2, and once I finally let go of the “diet pill” or “quick fix” mentality, I was able to keep it off. It’s been over ten years now, and I’m grateful for every step along the journey.
Thanks for the great article and sharing the TRUE secrets of success – patience, persistence, and PRACTICE.