7 Absolute Business Truths Everyone Learns the Hard Way

Stuff I Wish I Knew Sooner in My Career

1. It’s easier than everyone says it is.
2. You can get 80% of your growth from 1–2 growth hacks.
3. Sleep is for chumps.
4. Topline growth is all that matters.
5. The point isn’t to create value, it’s to create headlines. Then write the book.
6. Everything can be solved by tech. (Corollary: Raise/inherit as much money as you can before you build that tech.)
7. Most advice in the Advice Era is crap. (Including #1–6.)

I turn 31 today. If I live to 100, I am just about one-third of the way to what I will be, because what I am is my body of work. And the biggest difference between when I just started building that body of work and where I am in the journey today is the quieting of a panicked inner voice. It’s the voice that says, “You better click that headline! You better watch that talk! You might be missing something that makes or breaks your entire career!”

Instead, I’ve learned to question things when presented as absolutes.

If there’s one thing you learn with even a little bit of time and experience, it’s that there is no one way. There is no “secret.” Absolutes rarely exist, especially when you create things for a living. Instead, I think it’s important to walk that fine line between constant openness to and questioning of what others tell you.

Over time, you stop looking for absolute answers. Instead, you learn to synthesize others’ advice with your own experiences, not so someone else can decide something for you, but so you can decide for yourself.

Every situation is different, and every person is unique. So there’s no one way. There’s no absolute.

There’s only hard work, done with the right intent.

Work hard. Be humble. Keep learning.

And in the face of others’ absolutes, trust your intuition.