Obsessive Consistency is a product of Rejection
If you can’t sit on your desk all day long, frustrated and angry — the reason is not lack of enough discipline. In the beginning it is due to lack of sufficient rejections.
Some people got huge victories and secured quick riches — but in all honesty who really made it to success?
It was Muhammad in year 633. When he rose from nearly no existence to ever lasting presence.
It was in Steve Jobs when he rose from a garage to a billion dollar industry — that is still making riches.
It will be people who did not get heard and started their own thing. People who wanted to leave an impact, overcome rejections and leave a mark — got the chance to last longest. [ I being muslim, strongly believe, these people get their rewards even after their deaths. ]
Grow into a Consistent person
If you do not find your people listening to you. Or finding your talks too sober / raw or strong — to get an ear in the evening talks — build a brand. A place where you can talk and no one hears it.
Either become too clever — mould yourself so much — become what your customers want. Or become too to-the-point, that you are able to live with out your customer’s validation.
In the middle, it is just mediocrity. On the easy side — people need laughters, booz and fun. On the rough side — people need a touch of brilliance, honesty and humility.
Give people not what they want. Be bigger, give people what is right for them. Do not ship out your product unless you have polished it. Unless you have removed the dirty work underneath that breaks apart a year later.
Crazy hard things are hard to maintain. Make it simple enough that you can sit and create it everyday. Without worrying about its failures, bugs, responsiveness or A/B tests.
Slowly build one thing, build it simple, nice and easy — and you will find yourself becoming consistent.
Expose yourself a bit wider
It will lead to people hating you. Hating your brand. It will lead to worst rejections.
Closest to you, will go farthest. Elements of honesty from across the world will start surfacing. You will start building a space, where only true to you will be closer to you.
Exposing as in writing journal everyday and putting it out for the world to judge you. Or making a video, and sharing it out, for the world to label you. Or starting a newsletter. Or taking a class everyday and uploading its recording on youtube.
Hard hit people usually try to grow consistent on the riskier works. Things that take significant guts to share. They usually are able to look beyond the lens of people’s eyes. And mostly they are least worried about the rejections.
Find a model to bluntly walk upon
End of the day, we are still human beings. We can not stay strong on one road, one path or one agenda. We need a formula. A certain topology. Mechanics to seek inspiration.
Role models can not be a business, a book or a philosophy. It is a human in its true essence. Choose a person, you know, lived the life according to your definition of success, find his hidden formula, and walk his path.
I take my inspiration from Muhammad PBUH. You can find a person, like Muhammad, and walk his path. It will give you the wider view of what the world is — and how it is working.
Hold on to a rope
At the end — I would suggest find a rope that defines your baseline of life. Things beyond which you can not mend your ways. A dead line below which you do not compromise. Some place where you do not exist.
It is not always ‘motivation’ that keeps you afloat. It is neither rejections. It is usually an inner belief that defines your reality.
I managed to quit smoking, through change of belief of my world’s view. I managed to fight some people, after change of perspective. I have lived through worst failures and rejections — through holding onto my baseline rope.
Every morning I sit, read Quran, find its meaning and live my religion my way. I am not muslim, not a cleric, not even a good guy — say — a badly rejected guy — discovering meaning underneath my failures.
Thanks for reading.
