Stop Looking For Overnight Success, You’ll Never Find It
Instead, seek to surrender to the process
If you were Aladdin and Robin Williams granted you 3 wishes to fulfill your wildest dreams, would you turn down the opportunity?
Of course not.
You would be crazy!
Do you know what’s even crazier?
Believing the story of Alladin is real.
And you might be thinking, “Kevin, I don’t believe in fairy tales.”
Yet you buy into this fairy tale when you believe the myth of overnight success. They are one in the same. Overnight success is a fairy tale about rubbing a genie’s magic lamp and fulfilling all of your greatest desires.
What’s particularly frightening is you might be unconsciously believing this fairy tale without even knowing it. And until you come to recognize the ways you have bought into this magical tale you will be doomed to suffer from countless false starts toward your greatest desires.
Can you imagine suffering from these unconscious success inhibitors indefinitely?
Honestly, it’s a punishment I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemies. I know from experience, having been a victim of my own prison many times over.
Fortunately there is another way. And it’s surprisingly simple.
But before we get into the details of this simple plan I want to clear up a few misconceptions about success that may be unconsciously sabotaging your chances of attaining it.
Once you uncover these unconscious beliefs, it will prepare you for finding real success.
What is the myth of overnight success?
“I was an overnight success all right, but 30 years is a long, long night.” — Ray Kroc, Founder McDonald’s System, Inc.
A shooting star is as magnificent as it is mysterious. Appearing out of thin air and commanding every ounce of your attention as it blazes across the night sky. Yet these few captivating seconds account for less than 1/10th of 1 percent of its lifetime. You never see the millions of light-years it traveled to magically appear before your eyes.
Such is the myth of overnight success.
When someone successful bursts onto the world stage we become enamored with their current status yet never seem to notice the years of persistent hard work that brought them to this moment.
If you find yourself thinking (as I once did) “how lucky they must be,” that is the first sign you have an unconscious belief about overnight success.
Make no mistake, successful people are not lucky.
Unless of course you consider years of hard work and tireless preparation to be lucky.
Take Bill Gates for example:
The tech icon began his foray into computer programming at the age of 13. He then spent 10 years mastering computer programming before he founded Microsoft with business partner Paul Allen in 1975. And it wasn’t until 1987, at the age of 31, that Bill Gates became a billionaire.
His overnight success took 18 years.
Interesting, huh?
Why isn’t everyone wildly successful?
If there was such a thing as an overnight success, everyone would be just as successful as they desired.
Ripoff artists know this. They prey on the human condition. They know how to strike at the heart of your ego with empty promises. It’s calculated. And boy do they have a deal for you.
If you hand over $149.99 right now they will make all your wildest dreams come true in an instant.
Snap! It’s done. Congratulations, you’re a success!
If you believe the hype from these “success gurus” standing next to their bumblebee yellow Lamborghini selling exclusive snake oil, then this is the second sign you have an unconscious belief about overnight success.
Success has no shortcut.
There is no magic pill or formula that can change your lucky stars overnight.
“Anyone who wants to sell you overnight success or wealth is not interested in your success; they are interested in your money.” — Robert Foster Bennett, Former U.S. Senator
What does the myth of overnight success mean for you?
If you find yourself believing the myth of overnight success it represents a deep-seated resistance to the truth. But I know you. You don’t believe the myth.
You are not easily persuaded by success gurus and their ego-driven marketing campaigns designed to steal hard-earned money from your pocket.
You are different.
You know that you make your own luck with hard work and persistence.
You know that real success is purchased with patience and unwavering commitment.
The true path to success
When you seek overnight success you are focused entirely on the reward. It’s not necessarily your fault, it’s something you have been trained to desire, especially in our modern world where social media makes it seem as though overnight success is all but guaranteed.
But therein lies the problem. If you only focus on the reward, you will never receive it. It’s a strange paradox of success, but it’s true.
Focusing on a future reward pulls you out of the present moment and robs you of your capacity to engage in the mechanism that drives success: the process.
Can you imagine spending your whole life focused on the reward yet never coming close to receiving it? It would be terrible! Wouldn’t it? And still, it happens all the time.
It’s happened to me many times over.
This is what happens when we only concern ourselves with a future reward.
Fortunately, there is another way. One that doesn’t leave you disheartened and angry in your endless pursuit of success. As I mentioned before, it’s very simple, but not easy.
Still, I am certain you are equal to the task.
So here we go…
The journey is the reward
What does this crazy phrase mean? If you have spent your whole life envisioning grand success and lavish rewards for your efforts it may seem ridiculous to hear these 5 simple words. The journey is the reward. So why would I say it?
Let me answer this with another question.
Have you ever met a person of great success who doesn’t love what they do for a living?
I didn’t think so.
Here are a few examples:
Warren Buffet has been known to read for 8 hours a day in order to make the best-informed investment decisions possible.
Steph Curry makes (not takes) 500 baskets a day during the off-season to improve his shooting average.
Elon Musk has been known to work 120 hour weeks because he can’t step away from his companies.
I hope you are beginning to see the pattern…
Each one of these titans fell in love with the process. The journey became its own reward. It’s easy to verify this truth as well. Buffet, Curry, and Musk, all share one striking similarity.
Despite having secured all the trappings of worldly success, they still choose to grind it out every single day even though they could easily rest on their laurels and still reap an endless profit.
Why?
Because, they love the process.
“The journey is the reward.” — Steve Jobs
And you can learn to love the process as well. Joining the ranks of your hero’s and recognizing that the journey is the reward.
To do this, you must learn to surrender…
Are you willing to surrender?
“Surrender is actively moving forward with no attachment to the results.” — Sivvan Garr
Surrender is the ultimate level of patience. It reveals your willingness to move through the pain of the process. To live with it. To experience every excruciating moment along the way.
Surrender means to not only love the fun, easy, and exciting aspects of the journey, but to equally love the pain, heartache, and sacrifice.
I know what you’re thinking…
“Yes. Surrender sounds great and all, but Kevin, how the hell do I do it!?”
Okay, hold tight, here it goes.
You do it by accepting that you may never receive worldly success.
Look, I know this may come as a shock to you because you’ve been taught to chase the reward at all cost.
And right about now you may be thinking to click out of this article and throw in the towel, but stick with me, it will all make sense in just a second.
I promise.
Just think on this question for one moment.
If all the wildly successful people you admire learned to fall in love with the process, wouldn’t it seem critically important to follow in their footsteps?
Take a look at what Gary Vaynerchuk has to say about it…
So the question must be asked, if you don’t love the process, will you hold on long enough to taste success?
In my experience, the answer is a firm no.
As a recent graduate from the University of Illinois, there were a number of times I was moments away from throwing in the towel on my education. I cussed out my Macbook at least twice a week for 5 years, but somehow I persisted.
And it all came down to this one inescapable truth…
I was addicted to the mystery of the process.
I loved the challenge of juggling every crazy requirement of my Psychology degree, not knowing if I could do it. Not knowing if I would meet my deadlines. It was invigorating to ride the razor's edge of the pass/fail environment.
I loved it.
Without love, you cannot face the challenges that surely await you on your journey to success.
Obstacles become insurmountable, not because you can’t find a solution, but because you don’t love the process enough to fight for it. You still have not surrendered.
All of the most successful people in the world have known this truth. They didn’t start out earning money hand over fist or commanding the attention of the world, or possessing the most sought after talent in the market.
And they certainly did not find overnight success.
They let go of the need for external validation and surrendered to the process … which paradoxically led to worldly success.
I want the same thing for you.
And you can have it.
The things you do for love
You love your family, right? No, it’s not a trick question. Just humor me. I bet you would do anything for them. You call your grandma to check in and make sure she’s okay or visit your parents because you can't imagine life without them. You help your sister move into her new apartment and pick up her kids from school when she can’t get out of work on time.
You laugh and celebrate with them in times of joy, and you cry and grieve with them when there is sorrow. But you never give up. You never stop loving them. You never stop showing up. No matter how hard it may be. In fact, these difficult moments increase your love for them. The challenges rededicate you to your family.
These are the things you do for love. Not because you are expecting some sort of reward in return. Yet all of these actions are exponentially rewarding.
The journey to success unfolds in a similar fashion.
For me, as a writer, a day without bleeding on the keyboard is not much of a day at all.
When the words flow from your heart to your fingers you grin and laugh at the world with madness and a pleasure that tastes of ecstasy.
Sometimes though your mind can’t catch hold of a single idea, and you sit there and wait and wait and wait, endlessly, until somehow a few shitty words make their way to the computer screen.
But still, having gained nothing at all, you can’t wait to wake up tomorrow and die again for just a few more shitty words.
You never stop showing up because you love the excruciating madness of the game.
Ask yourself,
Do you feel that way about your journey?
Do you love the madness of the game?
Do you love the process or just the idea of the reward?
Let me leave you with this…
We covered a lot of ground together, and I want to make sure you keep the essentials fresh on your mind.
You learned that overnight success is a myth, so you can put that dream to rest for good. No need to bring it up again.
You also learned that the desire for reward is a barrier to success because it keeps you from engaging the process and accepting that worldly success is not guaranteed.
And now you know success comes to those who surrender to the process because they discovered the journey is the reward.
Finally, let me leave you with this.
If you truly love the process, I assure you, all else will fall perfectly in place.
It’s time to surrender.
