These Five Actions Will Effortlessly Get You Ahead of 99% of People in 6–12 Months.
And why you might not want to get ahead of most people.
Photo by Caleb Jones on Unsplash
Uncommon actions lead to uncommon results.
By that definition, if you want to get ahead of 99% of people, you have to be willing to do what the 99% of people aren’t willing to do.
Do what others won’t, so you can live like others can’t.
Here are the five uncommon actions that will effortlessly get you ahead of 99% of people, and why maybe you don’t want to be ahead of people too.
#1 You don’t ask for this.
Permission is fear disguised as a question:
“What equipment do I need to get?”
“Can you review my blog post if I write it?”
“How do I even start a YouTube channel?”
All these questions are implicitly asking for permission.
Nothing more than procrastination masturbation.
You already know the answers. Or you can Google it. If you can’t figure it out via Google that already tells you a lot. Maybe a side hustle isn’t for you?
Either way, if you’re asking yourself these questions more than once, you’re asking for permission.
There are no blogging gatekeepers, podcasting gods, or YouTube bodyguards.
You could start all of them (I would suggest focusing on one) today with the square brick in your pocket if you wanted to.
99% of people wait for someone to give them permission.
The 1% take action, make mistakes and ask for forgiveness later.
#2: You don’t wait for this.
What about qualifications?
I don’t have a writing degree. In fact, I got below average in English in High School. Yet, I make thousands of dollars per month from writing.
I don’t have a business degree. Yet, I own a procurement and supply chain consultancy. This small business crossed the six-figure mark in 2022.
I never studied marketing or copywriting. Yet, I’ve got a LinkedIn Branding & Ghostwriting business. I have a list of clients that are business owners and high-net-worth individuals.
Unless you’re becoming a lawyer, doctor, nurse or engineer, qualifications are meaningless.
The internet has taken qualifications and thrown them in the blender.
Your real-world experience and achievements are all proof of the work you need.
As Jim Rohn once said,
Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.
The only ‘qualifications’ you need for the internet are:
Something interesting to say.
Consistency.
Resourcefulness.
Growth mindset.
People over-emphasize their qualifications and their under-rate mindsets.
99% of people wait to receive an expensive piece of paper to tell them what they can do.
The 1% see opportunity everywhere and leverage the internet to create their own future.
#3: Being a correct contrarian.
Outliers have these things in common:
Having contrarian ideas.
Being right about the contrarian idea.
Executing ruthlessly on the contrarian idea.
Warren Buffett invests in companies that are fundamentally sound but people undervalue.
Steve Jobs had a contrarian view that there will be a personal computer in every household.
The challenge?
Nobody likes contrarians. Steve Jobs had a lot of haters. Warren Buffett has detractors. Get used to being disliked for your opinions.
You’ll be wrong a lot. Contrarian views are contrarian for a reason. They go against the grain. You’ll get a lot of things wrong. But you only need one idea to be right.
By definition, you can’t outperform the majority of people if you think like the majority of people.
99% of people have ideas given to them by the mainstream media or society.
The 1% read widely, ignore most and form their own contrarian view.
#4: You don’t ask what you need to learn, but rather who you can learn it from.
Learning from people jumpstarts your growth.
BUT…
Only listen to people who have achieved what you want to achieve.
Sounds simple right?
I still see so many people take advice (and criticism) from people who know close to nothing about what they are trying to do.
Free advice is cheap in the short term, but expensive in the long term.
Expensive advice costs a lot in the short term but is cheap in the long term.
99% of people take advice from brokies around them who have achieved nothing.
The 1% build their network, and spend money to access people with a proven track record.
#5: You take calculated risks.
Fear of failure or judgment keeps people from taking risks.
So they stay remain the same.
Year after year, nothing changes. Or worse, they regress.
You can’t grow without taking risks. But not all risks are created equally.
You can get ahead of 99% by taking risks that have limited downside, but unbounded upside.
The best example is writing online. You can only lose time and maybe a bit of money (i.e Medium membership fees). But that’s it. You can’t get negative views on your articles or lose your house.
But the potential payoff is incredible. Your article could go viral. You could build an audience engaged with your message.
Once you have an audience, you can build any business you want.
The biggest risk you can take is never taking any risks.
99% of people never take risks because of fear of failure and judgement.
The 1% of people put themselves out there. Win, lose or fail.
Why you don’t want to get ahead of 99% of people?
This is your warning.
By definition, getting ahead of 99% of people is lonely.
You see, view and interact with the world differently.
You challenge strongly held conventions.
You push against expectations and the status quo.
Be prepared to be disliked, ridiculed, and judged. It comes with the territory and there is a cost to everything.
Are you prepared to pay the entrance fee to get ahead?
———————————————————————————————————
If you enjoyed this article, you can sign up for my Living a Limitless Life Newsletter, HERE.
You can also support more of my work by becoming a Medium Member using my referral link: michael-lim.medium.com
