There’s No Such Thing as an I’ve Made it Moment

John Lee Dumas, host of Entrepreneur on Fire asks people “have you ever had an I’ve made it moment? ” When he asked me that question it was 3 years ago.

I don’t believe there’s such thing as an I’ve made it moment. It’s a myth that’s fabricated by people who think they haven’t made it.

Since then I’ve accomplished a lot of long term goals

• A 2 book deal with Penguin Portfolio
• An animated series with Soulpancake
• I was the keynote speaker for podcast movement
• Our audience at The Unmistakable Creative doubled in size.

There are probably a few other things, but those are my personal highlights from the last few years. And I still don’t think I’ve made it. If anything I think my work is just starting.

• Your startup getting funded doesn’t mean you’ve made it. You still have to build a company that’s profitable and provides a return for your investors. And assuming you do that, you still have to run the company to make sure it stays in good shape.
• Signing a contract with a publisher doesn’t mean you’ve made it. You still have to write the book and make sure it’s the best work of your life.
• When an actor wins an Oscar that doesn’t mean they’ve made it. They now have to do the really hard work of making sure they don’t become a one-hit wonder. If anything they’re going to work even harder than they did before.

The goal of a creator, artist or entrepreneur isn’t for the work of a lifetime to be finished. It’s to be able to keep doing the work.

There’s no moment of arrival when you’re going to be sitting in a hammock drinking mai tai’s for the rest of your life. When you think you’ve made it, your work starts to suffer, gets watered down, and commoditized.

When Sam Jones asked the actor Ed Helms about success in the Offcamera Podcast, he said “Life is a series of false horizons.” What you might perceive as an I’ve made it moment is a false horizon.

In an interview on The Unmistakable Creative, Tucker Max told me something that I try to keep in mind each time I accomplish a major goal

Success gives you the conditional opportunity to try again.

The minute you think you’ve made it you’re screwed.

I’m the host of The Unmistakable Creative Podcast. Subscribe to it via iTunes