how bad do you want it?

if you want something, but don’t have it yet, you aren’t good enough.

that’s a belief i have, not a belief i like.

it’s cold, it lacks nuance, it’s easily misinterpreted, & it’s just plain mean.

but it’s true.

& i’ll say that with 1 key clarification:

when defined operationally (i.e. based on actions), ‘good enough’ = having the required skills to achieve a desired outcome.

so i guess a friendlier way of saying it could be “if you want something, but don’t have it yet, you lack the required skills to achieve it.”

but that would be boring.

so let me put it in context with a question:

what does it take for an NBA player to stay an NBA player?

let’s ignore the decades of work that it takes to become part of the 0.0001% of basketball players who even make it to the league — let’s look at what it takes to just stick around.

1 player’s answer:

make 1000 shots a day, every day, 6 days a week, for 13 years straight.

there are no typos in that sentence.

that’s the offseason training plan of a 0-time All Star, JJ Redick.

here’s the full thing:

2-3 workouts per day
- make exactly 342 shots per workout
  - 20 spot twos x 7 = 140
  - 20 spot threes x 7 = 140
  - 3 shots off dribbles going right x 7 = 21
  - 3 shots off dribbles going left x 7 = 21
  - 20 free throws

so in other words, JJ took more shots in 1 day than most of us will ever take in our entire lives.

& he did it 6 days a week, every week, for 13 years straight.

that’s just his O-F-F-S-E-A-S-O-N.

now, i don’t expect you to give a shit about basketball — i just wanted to illustrate a point:

JJ’s training isn’t an exception in the NBA. it’s the norm.

that is the standard of excellence.

to be truly great at anything, the bar is so ridiculously high that you can’t even see it.

that might sound demoralizing, but whether you like it or not, it’s reality.

because here’s the thing:

with whatever it is that you’re trying to succeed at, you’re indirectly competing against that thing’s version of JJ Redick.

want to make YouTube videos for a living? no problem — you just have to fight for clicks against MrBeast, who’s dedicated almost every waking hour of his life to *getting clicks* for the last 10+ years.

want to win a bodybuilding competition? easy — you just have to beat the guy who’s been measuring every gram of food he eats & training for hours in the gym every day since his balls dropped.

here’s a real one:

want to get the girl of your dreams? light work — just be a better choice than the guy who’s confident in himself, kind to others, takes care of his body, has a charming personality, & is financially stable.

growing up as a kid who was generally pretty good at stuff, i thought i had an idea of what it took to be great at stuff.

i was wrong.

the people ahead of you aren’t doing 2x as much as you, or even 5x as much as you.

more often than not, they’re doing 10x, 100x, or 1000x as much as you.

you just don’t see it.

MrBeast made thousands of videos before getting much traction.

Arnold Schwarzenegger did millions of reps at the gym before winning anything.

the guy who got his dream girl?

well… i just got lucky.

(lol hi Emma)

i think Charlie Munger said it best:

“the most reliable way to get what you want is to deserve what you want.”

which brings me back to the belief i started this off with:

if you want something, but don’t have it yet, you aren’t good enough.

it doesn’t mean you’ll never be good enough.

it doesn’t mean you have to be the best at anything.

it just means that everything you want in life comes with a cost, & if you’re willing to pay that cost, you can be/do/have those things.

that’s it.

everything comes down to the simple calculation of:

what do i want?
what does it cost?
am i willing to pay that cost?

maybe it’s a bit of a robotic way to look at things, but it’s helped me a lot.

there’s just 1 problem:

how do we determine what something ‘costs’ if there’s no real price tag?

to find that answer, i’ll turn to one final quote here, from Henry David Thoreau:

“the price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.”

many people want to be great, but few people realize how much work it takes to be great.

as soon as you learn the answer (i.e. a lot more work than expected), your choice is to either pay the cost, or to move on.