Being book-smart isn’t the best skill to have anymore
Have you ever wondered how overthinking might be the biggest limit to your online success?
I’m the person who was one of the best in school. I was proud, and it’s part of my identity that I’m smart.
I’m ambitious, so I read a lot of books and attend conferences to learn.
When I started writing and reading online, I figured really quickly that being book-smart was not helping me be successful.
I’m the one having a hard time growing and taking risks because I’m overthinking everything.
A hard lesson to learn
Smart overthinkers like me have to stay strong now:
stupid people taking risks have an easier time online.
The internet is all about showing up, no matter how perfect the output is. Less perfection is even better because it’s more relatable.
Looking for strategies, reading books about marketing, and overthinking the topic will make you feel like you are making progress, but you aren’t.
It’s procrastination. Been that, done that.
Getting the growth and success you want is not about knowledge but about taking action and figuring it out along the way.
Instead of analyzing and finding the best tweet to post, just post a lot of unfinished drafts, and your followers will tell you what works. (by analyzing the statistics afterward)
That’s how you find out what works and why stupid people just start and find success soon.
Book-smart won’t make you wealthy
You can be the most knowledgeable person in the world. The most ambitious professor at Harvard. It will not make you wealthy.
Or why do you think this person is not the richest person in the world?
The wealthiest in the world are not the smartest or the best in school.
Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Bill Gates… They are all smart, but they took action and risked looking stupid by establishing their companies.
They didn’t read all the books in the library. They are not book-smart. They were not the best in school.
They know:
- how to take action
- when to take risks
- how to sell
And they learned that by taking action, failing, getting up, failing again, and getting up again…
Consistent action, not giving up, and iteration are the things wealthy people do right.
The Harvard professor is teaching the same thing every year. It’s enough for his students. He researches a bit, and then he is comfortable with his status, money, and knowledge.
The wealthiest people are not getting comfortable. They are still taking risks, implementing new things, and improving their companies.
Online business
This is the strategy that works: taking consistent action, failing, and iterating.
This is a hard lesson I had to learn because I don’t like to fail. Who does?
All through childhood, we learn that mistakes are bad. We get praise for having the fewest mistakes on tests. Instead, I overthink the tasks to find the best solution to submit.
So now we have to unlearn that belief system to be successful in the online entrepreneur life. It’s not as easy as it sounds.
Posting online is a big step out of our comfort zone, and if we do that, we want to look smart, relatable, fun…
So, instead of trying and posting a lot to find what works, we are overthinking the first one and don’t post anything.
A hard lesson to learn: your first post will be bad. No matter how much you’re gonna think about it.
It will not get much or any likes because nobody knows you.
But let me tell you a secret: it’s a good thing!
In the beginning, you won’t have many followers. So whatever you are posting, not many will see it.
You can use this advantage of unpopularity by testing, trying out new things, taking risks, and having fun.
That is the most fun part of building an online business: trying out new things and finding your voice.
Conclusion
Instead of reading the 10th book about marketing or buying the 3rd online course about Instagram, try taking a risk and start posting.
How many of you have unpublished posts? Are you afraid of publishing them?
I know the feeling very well. Do you want to know what happened when I hit publish anyway? Nothing.
I didn’t have enough followers and nobody read it, or I only got positive feedback. The story helped people with their problems.
The biggest lesson I learned is that overthinking is a waste of time.
Us book-smart people are doing too much of it, and then more stupid people are making progress and being successful without thinking at all.
Let’s get more stupid and just start doing it!
Less Stress. More Time. Less Overwhelmed!
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