If you decide to pursue anything worthwhile and you go into it—prepared for utmost difficulty and expecting it will not be easy but worth fighting for— I believe you will find that you stand a significantly much better chance at finding success in said pursuit than most people.
Most people do not expect that their pursuits will be hard, even though nothing suggests it shouldn’t. In fact, empirically, we know the opposite is true —nothing worthwhile is ever as easy as it seems.
Why then do humans behave so? Excess optimism? Blind luck? Using hope as insulation from disappointment? Unknown entitlement? I’m not sure anyone really has the answers.
The advantage then—for anyone who choses to acknowledge it— becomes: being able to determine what is worthwhile. Because this is critical in order to justify bracing ourselves to pursue the things we pursue.
Most people do not know what is worthwhile. Perhaps sometimes they do, but they do not believe it. This is soon evidently expressed by how they flunk at the first sign of trouble. Abandoning ship at the first turmoil.
If you have found something worthwhile and worth pursuing, but you’re worried that it is not special enough; draw strength from the knowledge that pursuits in themselves do not possess significant enough differentiators. You will not stand out merely because you’re in pursuit of something. The real differentiator soon comes down to conviction and approach.
Conviction largely decides what approach is adopted. Low conviction will inspire a weak approach that expects no resistance, and flees at the first sign of trouble. High conviction will demand preparing against the risks and bracing for the difficulties.
Not a lot of people have the mental stamina for protracted difficulty. Even if they know a pursuit might be hard, they do not necessarily have the stomach for it. Inevitably, they will abandon ship. Sticking to a difficult mission is difficult and not many people can do it. Which means the few that do are most likely to find results—whether good or bad.
Which is why it is highly important to define why any of it matters, if at all it does. Is it worthwhile? Is it worth pursuing?
It is no use anticipating what there are no preparations for. It is not enough to anticipate difficulties, are you equipped for them? Anticipation without preparation is as good as uncertainty.
Think of pursuits as a greenfield. The potentials are immediately obvious to most people. But it eventually comes down to conviction and approach. Some will expect the process to be easy; others will anticipate difficult labor and prepare to work hard.
As soon as the pursuit for potentials in the greenfield starts, it soon becomes obvious who would eventually see success in realizing the fields potentials. One person sees the prospects, but cannot get themselves to accept that difficulty and hardship is a necessary part of something so promising. Whilst another accepts that if they embrace the difficulty, they can power through and see their vision happen. But first, the difficult part has to be tackled.
If you expect it will be hard and have braced for it, most people don’t and haven’t. They expect it to work because they have identified and committed to it. They cannot fathom the sheer amount of difficulty grit the pursuit should present? Because why should they? After all, they think, if you could achieve it, why shouldn’t they?
They have been inundated by the grandness of their plans, optimism and unending hope for the best; grounded on their conviction that if it is theirs, it will be easy—if it is difficult, then it isn’t for them.
It is easier than ever to achieve success, because the bar has been significantly lowered. Not because the challenges got any easier, but because the world progressively expects easier. You have a material edge if you know the world doesn’t get easier when it comes to pursuing the things that are truly worthwhile. But first, be sure it is worthwhile. That should be the easy part, right?
