Client-Hunters (Who Game the System) Are Improving Much Slower Than You
When I say “gaming”, I mean “hacking” your way to success.
Hacks, tips and tricks are music in a beginner’s ears.
Again, why play the game the hard way when there’s an easier way? If a successful guru is teaching it, it would make sense to at least try it…right? Otherwise, you’d be tagged as someone with a “closed” mindset (the opposite of a growth mindset). Then when the “this feels spammy” surfaces, you convince yourself you’re not “spamming”, you’re just trying to be efficient.
I wrestled with that line of thinking for a long time!
Avoiding the hacks made me feel stupid. But reality almost always finds its way to tell you the truth. Most hacks I tried almost always turned out to be just another shiny object. More often than not, it’s not as effective as it seemed. It makes you wonder, “Is it me? Or is it the hack? Or both?”.
That cycle went on for about 4.5 years.
The price?
- My writing skills stayed the same.
- My mindset is still fixated on short-term rewards.
- None of the improvements I was hoping for came to fruition.
It only turned me into a better Google Searcher. None of it helped me build trust, credibility and confidence to serve a client. It was a waste of time!
The same pattern showed up when I used to sell life insurance (on the side) — to make good money as quickly as possible.
I belong in the same category of business-owner-wannabes who dream of being their own boss someday. But things didn’t pan out as quickly as I imagined. The process of getting a license took me about 1.5 years! I had to attend meetings and workshops, study laws and finance stuff, and pass the exam. But when I started educating potential clients (i.e. friends and family) about the importance of insurance, I quit after 3 months!
I couldn’t help but feel scammy.
I had a tough time convincing myself that I was helping other people. Almost all the time, I feel like I’m in it — more for the money than helping others. Why? I did not believe in the product I was offering. There was a clear misalignment between who I wanted to be, my conscience and my actions.
That’s when it became clearer that “gaming the system” or “hacking my way to success” does not bring me faster to my goal.
If I can go back in time, here’s what I would do instead:
- Get clear on my goals to avoid getting distracted by the next shiny solution.
- Identify the skills I needed to be successful.
- Develop the skills to a point where the quality of my work will do the selling for me.
All of it sounds cliche, which is why most underestimate how long it takes to gain clarity around them.
Finding clarity is not as simple as blocking a time of your day to reflect. The process requires an iterative approach. Iteration takes time. The further you get into the game, the more you realize how much you didn’t know.
Therefore, instead of spending your time to find the “secret” to success, it’s much more efficient to use it to level up to a point where everybody else looks mediocre.
Here’s the set of skills I needed to master to become a successful ghostwriter:
- Write in my potential client’s voice.
- Understanding the industry I want to pursue (inside and out).
- Be my own case-study.
- Marketing and selling myself (with confidence) online.
- Build systems that make my business run smoothly.
All of these take a lot of time and effort. It would be a big waste if I squandered my limited time on trying different hacks. I’ve been a beginner writer for more than 5 years now. The longer I stay in the game, the more and more I realize how:
There’s no other way around success other than hard work (and being patient with results).
