Hacks don’t work! Period.
Let me start by saying that the entire purpose of this article is to prove once and for all that every person on this planet is a poop throwing chimp and I’m ready to (physically) fight anyone who says otherwise.
I’ve just started out in the article/copy writing business, which means bada boom bada bang — I’m a beginner. And what do you do, when you have no idea what you’re doing but want to make unhealthy amounts of money? You ask daddy Google.
There I was, typing “How to start a lucrative copywriting business” into the almighty knowledge machine and LORD HAVE MERCY…this is what I’ve gotten:
“How to build your business in 1 month”
“Earning 5k/mo in 3 days”
“Becoming a good writer fast”
or my all time favorite
“What NO ONE KNOWS about becoming a successful business owner”
I could go on forever. I didn’t even have to look them up whilst writing this, I could just recite them from memory. You can also translate this to any topic you like:
How to get ripped, how to lose weight, how to grow your hair, how to learn a language, how to blaaaaablaaaaa. Read, fart, die.
On YouTube this is usually accompanied by a thumbnail which looks like a used car sales ad from the early 90s. Someone’s dumb shocked face with open mouth, next to something that says “the ONE RULE for success” or whatever.
Did I click on it? YES OF COURSE I CLICKED ON IT. I want moneeeeeh and all of the other things while we’re at it.
I clicked on the weightloss hacks, the passive income hacks, the hair growing hacks, the getting shredded hacks, the language learning hacks. And now, am I a rich, long haired, muscle flexing polyglot bitch? NO!
But why not? Am I not able to follow these simple rules? The 7 rules of language learning, the 5 rules to get shredded, the bla rules to bla? It’s a hack, after all. It’s the secret no one knows that separates the fat, bald, poor and uneducated sheep from the winners.
Watching all these video hacks, reading those hack blog articles and still not having moved an inch closer to my goals, I am wondering: what’s not working here?
I understood something and, for all you hack-fans out there, you’re not gonna like this.
For the love of god, SLOW DOWN
I’m an adult and I don’t have time to waste on things like learning and hippie bullshit like growing as a person.
I need to lose 20 pounds by tomorrow. How I’ll sustain that weightloss I’ll somehow figure out on the go. Skinny me will have an epiphany and it’ll all make sense.
But I need the success first.
I want to speak another language, but I cannot possibly dedicate 2 hours per day studying. I have work, I have kids, I have a husband/wife. By the end of the day, I am drained. There’s gotta be something I can do where I learn it without really making an effort. I’ll listen to TV shows in Japanese, I’ll switch my phone to Spanish and it’ll just make sense one day and POOF — fluent.
After having tried all of the above, I have only learned one thing:
True change usually takes an uncomfortable amount of time. Change that is easy is either not sustainable or a delusion.
The thought of learning a million awesome things by tomorrow that make you the most interesting person in the world and you didn’t even try is very attractive. That’s why these blog articles and YouTube videos do so well. It’s scratching an itch we all have. It’s cashing in on our collective feeling of inferiority.
And I’m not buying it anymore. Yes some of those tips can be very helpful, but mostly the content is shallow and simple and leaves you unprepared.
You know why someone who’s been overweight their entire life finally managed to lose weight and never gained it back?
They have learned to deal with hunger and food in a different way than previous. That’s a change of personality, of learned patterns over years and decades. It’s not a hack, it’s a life’s work.
You know why some people speak another language fluently?
They have developed a profound interest in the language and, more so, the cultures that speak said language.
But that’s not what we want. That’s too much effort, that’s too much priority on one thing. I want all the things and I don’t want to go the long path. I want them by tomorrow and these videos promise it’s possible.
They lie.
Enjoy the fucking journey, for crying out loud
But I don’t wanna do the journey!!! I wanna have the nice thing and not make an effort.
Please do yourself a favour and erase this irrational behaviour from your personality entirely.
Here’s a sustainable pause for you to do so….
Done?
Great! Now we can do the real work.
Now stop getting inspired by people who claim do be able to do it all in 3 steps and 3 minutes and start looking at people who are willing to dedicate a certain amount of time to do ONE thing only. And if you’ve found these people, please send me the link to whatever they’re putting out there.
Here’s one that leads by example:
Jonne Tiili, the creator behind the YouTube channel “The Unlazy Way” recently published a series about how he learns to swim a mile in ice water. (For everyone not familiar with this: it’s hard). This will take him a long time and is something that’s very contrary to the YouTube trend of doing everything quickly with no effort, so he says himself. He also said this:
“I just wanna show that, by taking small steps towards a big goal, you can achieve goals that are way bigger than you’d think you could ever achieve.”
Because surprise:
You cannot have anything worth having over night. I know people claim to have done it, but most of them leave out a lot of shit they had to do in order to even get the mindset and understanding what it actually means to be successful in anything.
The easy way doesn’t work and frankly, I also think it’s dangerous. It devalues a lot of achievements that, in truth, take a substantial amount of dedication and prioritisation.
But what I’ve seen it do to me is something even worse: it made me indecisive.
The illusion of quick and dirty made me believe I could have it all. I don’t have to decide, don’t have to let certain doors close. Bummer thought: making decisions is important, letting doors close is important. Prioritising certain things over others is important.
Trying to do it all left me with no skills whatsoever. I don’t speak Japanese, I am not ripped, I don’t have hair that could be used to wipe my ass and also let down my tower to help my prince find his way up (not necessarily in that order).
My final thoughts
I want to see slow progress more often.
I will obsess over the ice mile journey in a borderline unhealthy way and there is nothing anyone can do about it.
I will take my time to create my business and do it the best way possible, without the feeling of having to earn a six figure income by tomorrow.
We’re able to do great things. One step at a time, one thing at a time.
