Going Pro: Why we quit the wrong things at the wrong times.

Greatness, simply put, is consistency driven by a deep love for the work. - Maria Popova

Where do ideas come from?

We often seduce ourselves into thinking they come from watching Youtube videos or the latest show on Netflix.

“I just need one more episode of Mad Men, then I’ll get a brilliant idea”.

Well, good ideas have to come from somewhere.

They rarely come from watching tv.

They sometimes it comes from a course we take, or a lecture we listen to.

They always come from bad ideas, and lots of them.

Once you have a lot of bad ideas, a good one naturally evolves from the bad ones.

We see this in nature and science all the time.

The next flu virus will evolve from its bad predecessors who couldn’t handle the flu vaccine.

But the market doesn’t care about ideas, good or bad, because the world is full of them.

The market only rewards action.

Ideas are meant to be free, and worrying about patents, trademarks, and equity is just a form of hiding from the only thing that matters; doing the work.

Unless ideas come out and join us they are doomed for death.

Even if they're ugly fledglings, they must come out into the world to survive.

Ideas guarded to ourselves have no chance of interacting with the market, they have no influence, and they die a forgotten death in our head.

Being the Best

My mentor from a distance, Seth Godin, wrote a book called “The Dip”.

People think it’s about the perseverance it takes to get through the hard part of a project, the dip. That you push through when you start a project, but that’s not what it’s really about.

It’s a book about quitting.

When we have an idea we feel strongly about, we want to make it real and the best.

But best doesn’t mean the most expensive, or the most deluxe or even the most fanciest.

It just means the one they will pick. The one they will pick for their budget.

And “they”, be it consumers, friends, family, etc. are who this is for.

The goal as real professionals is to be the best in the world, and with the internet that has never been easier.

I’m not talking about the wide world, I’m talking about “your world”. 

Being the Best in the World (Your World)

A seasoned medical device executive once told me about a CEO he mentored "You know why he made it? Because when he said he was going to do something, damn it, it was done. Even if he stayed up all night, it was somehow always done. He delivered on his promises."

Down the street from me, are a couple of bars called Hanson’s Shoe Repair and Herman’s Loan Office. The mixologist behind the masterpieces in both establishments is Rene Nygun.

In my world, he’s the best. And to others, he’s the best in their world too.

He's the best because he makes a promise of the best craft cocktails in the city.

And he delivers on that promise.

Time and time again, he shows up, he ships, and he keeps his promise.

So why isn’t everyone the “best” even in just “their world”?

It’s because it’s scarce, and somewhere between the moment we get excited about our idea, actually make it real by acting on it, and what we determine the end is, we quit.

I’m not talking about just launching businesses, I’m talking about projects (losing weight is a project).

Premature Celebration

In our society, starting stuff is celebrated.

When I told my family, “I’m pre-med,” people celebrated and applauded.

When we join a CrossFit gym we already feel healthier. All we did was swipe our credit cards.

 There’s this sense that going down a new road is exciting.

A fresh notebook. A blank canvas. A new slate.

Lot’s of people start stuff and almost nobody finishes stuff.

This is why very few pre-meds end up becoming spine surgeons

Most startups end up failing.

Etc etc etc.

There are a lot of things we say we are going to do every morning, or once a week. But then next month comes around and we’re not doing it anymore. We quit.

When you analyze this, it’s easy to see that because these outcomes are scarce, they’re also valuable.

There aren’t a lot of spine surgeons, which is why surgeons get paid a lot of money.

Bad Timing

Seth teaches that there are two things to know about quitting.

1. Quitting is vastly underrated.

We quit things all the time. Most of us don’t have our football pads and ballet tutus.

That’s just part of what it is to do things, you eventually quit.

2. We quit the wrong things at the wrong time.

We quit our workout schedule right before it’s something that’s about to become a habit and actually help us lose weight and be healthy.

We quit writing blogs right as people are beginning to notice our work.

We quit the marathon, not at mile 2 when everyone’s cheering us on and throwing confetti, but at mile 22, which is when everyone quits because nobody is watching.

But if we just went a little further, dug a little deeper, push through the dip, we get all the benefits of finishing.

What Seth taught me, and I want to teach you is simple;

Don’t start anything unless you’ve invested what it’s going to take to finish it.

I’m not talking about hobbies or trying out new things.

I’m talking about projects, be it personal development, health, or business.

Don’t start a project unless you’re prepared to go to the end, and it is vital to define what the start and end are (which can be tricky).

Being disciplined to do this creates a lifestyle rooted in a practice that states

“When I publicly declare that I’m doing this, I’m going to finish it. I will get through the dip, and even though it’s really hard, I will do it because I’m committed and disciplined to it”.

The Old Man and the Sea 

When you're a sailor, you sail. That's what you do.

So when you start, you stay close to shore so you don't get lost.

But once you learn how to be obedient to the discipline of using and trusting the compass you can go anywhere in the world in your ship.

You ship out, and because you've publicly declared that you are doing this it makes you keep that promise.

You know it won't be easy, but you're not tied to the shore anymore because you've now tied yourself to the promise you made and the discipline you keep fidelity to.

You trust the compass. You trust the process. You respect the promise.

And a lot of it is emotionally laborious, in that it involves both fear and excitement.

Places you've never been and don't know what to expect.

Dips that you might go through.

That's freedom.

That's what it means to feel alive.

And as professionals, that involves showing up every day and subjecting ourselves to the emotional labor of "the new thing that might not work".

Evolving

The feeling one gets from doing the new thing, from “this might not work,” is what rewards us as humans.

In studying evolution, this is correct.

As humans, we evolved and adapted because we tried new things that might not work.

Things like fire, forming tribes of people who aren't blood related, and more.

All things that involve questions poking the "might not work" pain point.

What if you built in another week of time so you could add a feature into the project that might not work?

What if you invest an enormous amount of time and energy to do something in your world that might not work?

What professionals do is they stay professionals by regularly doing things that require emotional labor—regularly doing things that are outside their comfort zone.

The Meaning of it All

The feeling of doing the new thing gets close to the real purpose of our existence and why we've made it this far as the human race.

Our purpose as people has nothing to do with launching a company, opening a nonprofit, or become a doctor.

I believe the meaning of living and who we are as people is to do the new thing and dance on the edge of the cliff failure.

We ship something into the world, and stare into the abyss.

It's scary, and we feel fear and shame, yet we keep moving forward. We push through the dip.

And this feeling, pokes us in a way that is new and unnatural.

Yet it's familiar, and exciting and frightening at the same time.

That's when we feel most alive as people.

What's Left

When you discipline yourself to show up, deliver on a promise, ship, you become a person whose actions solidify your character. That becomes your destiny.

Its about doing things with vulnerability, generosity, and conviction.

You wait to get motivated to start, but you have it backwards; start, and then you'll be motivated.

Then, you become a person who shows up every day, no matter what, and you stay on it all day.

You don't over identify with the job, the work, the art, whatever your thing is.

You have a sense of humor, and every day push to master the techniques of the work.

In the end, all that's left is the promises you make, the discipline to start, and the obedience to see that the work is finished. 

You cannot live without dying. You cannot innovate without failing

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Omar M. Khateeb is an unorthodox and innovative marketing leader with a background in science and medicine. 

He publishes an article a week on LinkedIn and draws from various experiences.

His interests reside in sales psychology, neuromarketing, and self-development practices. He often reads 2-3 books a week and combines concepts to execute strategies in new ways.

Check out his virtual bookshelf here to find your next great read, and connect with him on Twitter or SnapChat.