Luck has surface area.
The more you try, speak, build, share, prep, review, think, work... the larger the surface luck has to collide with.
Most people don’t succeed because they bat 100%.
They succeed because they take thousands of swings instead of dozens.
Then add the dedication to show up each day and work on prep and review... showing up every day long enough to improve the batting average/odds.
Luck isn’t static.
It compounds around action, repetition, and grit.
The so called market wizards almost all, 95%+ blew up, with multiple years of trial and error before they got lucky.
In that sense, compounding is the universe’s way of scaling luck.
Liftoff takes the most, enormous energy.
Escaping gravity takes continuous focused energy.
But once trajectory and escape velocity are achieved, compounding does much of the heavy lifting with risk systems in place.
The hardest part is surviving long enough to reach that phase. The light at the end of the tunnel, small and dim but there yet.
An email from Coach Sommer I revisit often:
Hi Tim,
Patience. Far too soon to expect strength improvements. Strength improvements [for a movement like this] take a minimum of 6 weeks. Any perceived improvements prior to that are simply the result of improved synaptic facilitation. In plain English, the central nervous system simply became more efficient at that particular movement with practice. This is, however, not to be confused with actual strength gains.
Dealing with the temporary frustration of not making progress is an integral part of the path towards excellence. In fact, it is essential and something that every single elite athlete has had to learn to deal with. If the pursuit of excellence was easy, everyone would do it.
In fact, this impatience in dealing with frustration is the primary reason that most people fail to achieve their goals. Unreasonable expectations timewise, resulting in unnecessary frustration, due to a perceived feeling of failure. Achieving the extraordinary is not a linear process.
The secret is to show up, do the work, and go home.
A blue collar work ethic married to indomitable will. It is literally that simple. Nothing interferes. Nothing can sway you from your purpose. Once the decision is made, simply refuse to budge. Refuse to compromise.
And accept that quality long-term results require quality long-term focus. No emotion. No drama. No beating yourself up over small bumps in the road. Learn to enjoy and appreciate the process. This is especially important because you are going to spend far more time on the actual journey than with those all too brief moments of triumph at the end.
Certainly celebrate the moments of triumph when they occur. More importantly, learn from defeats when they happen. In fact, if you are not encountering defeat on a fairly regular basis, you are not trying hard enough. And absolutely refuse to accept less than your best.
Throw out a timeline. It will take what it takes.
If the commitment is to a long-term goal and not to a series of smaller intermediate goals, then only one decision needs to be made and adhered to. Clear, simple, straightforward. Much easier to maintain than having to make small decision after small decision to stay the course when dealing with each step along the way. This provides far too many opportunities to inadvertently drift from your chosen goal. The single decision is one of the most powerful tools in the toolbox.
Two quotes to embody my thoughts:
"Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars." - Les Brown
"The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today." - Franklin D. Roosevelt
I could have stopped dreaming at 100k, I could have stopped at 1mil, I could have stopped at 10mil, I could have stopped at…
See the pattern? It can be YOU!