How to Become an ‘Overnight Success’
I’ve continued to notice a pattern over the last five years, as I start to see people more and more infrequently who I’ve known for a long time. With a larger block of time separating meetings, changes, good or bad, are more easily recognised. Its the same reason why your distant relatives always made reference to how tall you had grown (or how short you used to be) during your teenage years at every annual family event, everything to them seem to happen ‘overnight’.
However, what I have noticed is that this logic also stacks up when it comes to things that you can control. Like a sudden growth spurt, it’s hard to notice a large difference between someones achievements and the rest of a field over the short term, but over the long term (7-10 years), you really notice the gap that forms between those who stuck to their goals, compared to the rest of the pack.
There tends to be a moment of recognition
The moment of recognising this gap presents itself in many forms, it can be a moment where someone will point it out directly, “hey, how’d you get so good at this”, almost in surprise, or, it’s simply a moment that you’re able to realise yourself upon reflection over a long period of time.
This creates a clear moment in time where you can distinctly see someones achievement to the average of a cohort. It’s a moment of clear recognition.
The moment of recognition can be anything
Recognition comes in many forms (good and bad); education, subject matter expertise, a technical skill, fitness (or neglect of fitness), people skills, late nights, a poor diet, ongoing extra curricular nighttime activities, or simply financial wellbeing. These moments are everywhere and they’re endless.
The common thread is time and repetition
The underlying theme to these moments of recognition is two-fold, showing up to put in the practice and exercising it over a long period of time. This isn’t weeks or months, this is years of repetition, practicing the same thing over and over, it requires a complete lifestyle commitment. Each person and each activity takes a different amount of time, and it’s impossible to predict how long it will take, but the two key themes remain, time and repetition.
The process of building is what matters most
With time and repetition, you can continue to lay bricks before it becomes a tower that is recognised. Building Recognition Towers is the goal, however, the true value isn’t in the outcome of the tower, but the process of building the tower over a long period of time.
By stacking up towers, brick upon brick over a long period of time, no one will see the majority of the bricks you lay, they’ll only recognise the tip of the tower once its been built. It’s your job to build the tower and continue it over time.
Key takeouts on becoming an overnight success:
Don’t underestimate the power of time and patience when building anything. Most people give up too early, before the moment of recognition.
Make it a permanent lifestyle commitment and attach it to your identity, this can’t be a temporary solution, as you'll never see it through.
You can’t build towers for everything, you simply won’t have the time. However, you can build them around each pillar of your life (eg. Work, Wealth, Wisdom, Wellbeing and a Weld (a social life)