don’t sue me
disclaimer — the title is a joke, i’ve never stepped foot in a casino & i lost $20 on sports betting the one time i tried it (count your days Lebron). bet on yourself instead. i’m not responsible for anything you do or don’t do blah blah blah ok you get the point.
this is what you came for
have you ever seen a slot machine, like they have at casinos?
imagine that you had one of those in your living room.
like all slot machines, the way to use it is simple:
you put in money
you pull a lever
the machine spins
you either win or lose money
obviously, casinos set the odds up so that on balance, you lose more than you win.
but for the sake of this thought experiment, let’s imagine that this slot machine in your living room is a magic one.
it’s free to play, but still gives you cash prizes.
so, i have 1 question:
how many times would you pull that lever?
answer:
as many fucking times as you could.
it doesn’t take a genius to know that, even if the odds of winning are low, if you pull the lever enough times, the odds begin to stack in your favour.
now unfortunately, i have some bad news for you:
nobody is gonna put a magical slot machine in your living room any time soon.
but i also have some good news, too:
you already own a magical slot machine.
& the only reason you didn’t know about it is because there’s a hidden cost to pay every time you pull the lever.
so what is that cost?
it’s simple.
instead of paying money before you pull the lever, the cost is the time it takes after you pull the lever for the results to show.
which leads me to the 1 big lesson for today:
the results will always lag behind the effort.
one of my favourite analogies for this comes from — surprise — Alex Hormozi.
he talks about how in the movie Rocky, the only thing standing between the main character being an average guy & being the best boxer alive is a 5-minute training montage.
we’ve all heard that music before.
& we love stories like it.
we love seeing a regular person, just like us, ‘lock in’ & work so hard that they become undeniable — because they remind us that we can do the same.
but when we look at Rocky & stories like it, we’re being sold a lie.
in that movie, the hard, exhausting work only lasts 5 minutes, & then success follows soon after.
but in real life, the hard, exhausting work can take weeks, months, years, or decades.
& the worst part?
the entire time, you have no idea if the work will be worth it.
the results will always lag behind the effort.
like a slot machine, success isn’t guaranteed.
but unlike a slot machine, you won’t know your results immediately.
so where does that leave you?
stuck in no-man’s land.
starting can be hard, but once you get the ball rolling, it’s pretty easy to make a bit of fast progress.
but then it really gets hard.
progress slows down, motivation wears off, & you end up stuck in a place where you want something to happen, but nothing is happening.
so you take a day off.
then 1 day turns into 2.
& before you know it, you’ve fallen off & convinced yourself that the thing you were doing ‘doesn’t work.’
that’s why you’re stuck in this loop where you find your ‘next thing,’ try it, fold when it gets hard, & then go off searching for the ‘next-next thing.’
and we all know where that one’s gonna end up, too.
so let me jump back to the slot machine analogy, because this is the biggest thing to understand if you want any chance of breaking that cycle:
slot machine: you put in money.
life: you take a risk.slot machine: you pull a lever.
life: you take action.slot machine: the machine spins.
life: you wait patiently.slot machine: you either win or lose.
life: you either win or learn.
step 3 is where you fold.
you’re not patient enough.
slot machines spin for a few seconds.
the Rocky cutscene lasts a few minutes.
but accomplishing anything meaningful in life takes such a ridiculous amount of work that it’s hard to even wrap your head around it.
& while there’s no shortage of content on the internet that will tell you to keep working harder, there’s not as many people telling you to keep working longer.
that’s because it isn’t sexy.
it’s not a morning cold plunge & a 12 hour grind sesh & a skincare routine before bed.
it’s the little, boring, difficult shit, done over a really long time, that makes all the difference.
going to the gym once is easy. going to the gym every day for a year is hard.
eating a healthy meal is easy. eating healthy meals 3x a day, every day, is hard.
making a YT video is easy. making a YT video every week for as long as it takes to get viewers is hard.
it’s hard because the progress happens slower than you want it to happen.
but progress is progress, & that’s just what it takes.
the hardest part is being patient enough to keep doing what is required, even when you’re not in the mood for it.
i know it sounds like i’m mixing up ‘patience’ and ‘hard work’ here.
but what is patience, really?
Hormozi’s definition:
figuring out what to do in the meantime.
you can feel like the most impatient person in the world, but if you do the thing that a patient person does (i.e. figure out what to do in the meantime), by definition, you are patient.
Charlie Munger said that all the money he earned from the stock market wasn’t made when he bought the stocks, & it wasn’t made when he sold them either.
it was made from the wait in-between.
but obviously, you can’t just sit around waiting for life to happen to you.
so that leaves us with 1 final question:
how do you figure out what to do in the meantime?
to answer that, let me give you a real example from my own life right now.
my goal is to make a living by creating stuff that can help people — like this.
the way i do that is by creating as much good, useful stuff as i can.
& the way i do that is by creating as much as possible, for as long as possible.
so in my case, ‘patience’ just means ‘more of the same.’
sure, i could optimize my routine & make a better content planner & buy some better equipment & blah blah blah.
it would all help, but nothing would help as much as just showing up, day after day, & doing the work that’s required.
because what nobody tells you about success is that just by doing the things that it takes to be successful, you’re already successful.
only, it doesn’t feel like it in the moment, because
the results will always lag behind the effort.
some things i learned
the word ‘amateur’ comes from the Latin word ‘amare’ which means ‘to love.’ to do things for the love of it
is that not what we all say we want? maybe we shouldn’t run away from it.on X, 97% of political posts come from the most-active 10 percent of users
even if we filter out bot accounts & stuff, that’s still insane. it’s yet another example of the 80/20 rule, which suggests that 80% of outcomes come from 20% of causes. in my life, that’s been an understatement.2 weeks without internet on their phones made people’s attention spans way better
the effects were similar to being 10x younger. it also improved their mental health & subjective wellbeing.
cool stuff i found
a website that’s basically like the Library of Alexandria, but for music
i used the search bar to find out that ‘chill drill’ is a genre that i accidentally made an entire playlist of, & this website helped me find more songs like it.a copywriter’s website that i really like the design of
it’s a simple example of the power of words. writing is a thing that most people can do, but very few people can do well.this quote
that’s all for this week!
in case you missed it, here’s the link to my latest YouTube video!
oh, & we’re about to hit 10,000 subscribers there.
i still can’t really wrap my head around how many people that is, but all i can say is thank you from the heart of my bottom (that’s the expression, right? lol).
just the fact that you give me a few minutes of your time — your most valuable asset — means the world to me.
i’ll always do my part to make it worthwhile for you.
my next video is already in progress!
go out there & make yourself proud this week.
~ liam
PS - if you’re in the YouTube game yourself, or want to be, check out @RavSol on X. he knows what he’s talking about, & has the resumé to back it up.
Embarrassment is an under-explored emotion. Go out there & make a fool of yourself.
~ Austin Butler