Letter 7 - If you're still here, you still have a chance...
surviving on the road to success...
Dear Reader,
Happy New Month! Can you believe it? 8 months of the year gone just like that. 66.66% of 2024 is already in the past! It’s a new beginning, but for some of us, it might be a challenging time.
We could be thinking:
Where did all the time go?
What have I achieved? If I’m to achieve all the goals I set at the beginning of the year, I’d have to work twice as hard and be three times as good. (Insert slight mental chaos).
I hope this letter brings some encouragement.
I like numbers, not necessarily crunching them, but finding the insights they offer. Statistics reveal some very interesting things about life and human endeavours.
Some sources say 80% of podcasts don’t go beyond the first 10 episodes. What that means is that if you’re able to get to episode 11, you’re already in the top 20% of podcasts (for longevity, that is). By simply surviving, you’ve skewed the odds in your favour that your podcast becomes a success.
Other sources say close to 50% of businesses fail within the first 3 years. (The 10 year survival rate is very interesting).
It’s quite noteworthy how the first step to competitiveness, or success, or total world domination (depending on how you look at it) is something as simple as survival.
Anyway, speaking of total world domination, let’s take a musical break…
Tears for Fears’ ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World’ is a classic, with performances by esteemed supervillains like the Powerpuff Girls’ Mojo Jojo and Despicable Me’s Gru. (It’s also quite a politically conscious song.)
I disagree with the statement in the title though. Most people do not want to rule the world (unless they have megalomaniac tendencies - which is a textbook supervillain trait). However, we all want to be successful in whatever we’re doing.
Success has many components. Some of the things we need to succeed are things that we do not know about, and often, we aren’t even aware of the full extent of our ignorance.
Surviving gives us the opportunity to refine our execution while we learn these things.
As long as we keep putting one foot in front of the other, working hard, learning and growing, and absolutely refusing to give up, we’re likely to make it.
There are different schools of thought about how long it takes to become an overnight success. Some say 20, some say 10, and some say 3-5 years is the mark. No matter how long it takes, I hope success comes for all of us very soon. But for now, we keep moving forward.
Happy new month! May this be your best month of 2024 yet!
With good vibes always,
Nana
P.S.
Of course I couldn’t leave without dropping Tauren Wells’ cover of Earth, Wind and Fire’s September. What a happy song!