Yesterday I watched the movie Hustle with Adam Sandler. It’s about this NBA scout who discovers a talented Spanish guy and tries to get him into the NBA.

One question came up again that’s been on my mind since forever.

Are successful people successful because they are good, or are they good because they are successful?

Chicken and egg problem.

In other words, is it skill that kickstarts a successful career, or is stumbling on success (good timing, connections, luck) that pushes one to get better and better at their skill and become world class?

It came up because, as I was watching the main character in the movie train 24/7 and sacrifice his family and time for what he wanted to do, I couldn’t stop telling myself “Well if I had someone discovering me back when I was 14 or 16 playing basketball and literally pay for me to train 24/7, I could be that guy!”.

But really?

Back in 2020 I started replacing the gym with bodyweight workouts, exclusively outdoors. Full covid times, so it made sense and I wanted a challenge.

One challenge was to do at least 300 burpees and 300 pushups every day for a month (I usually do minimum one-pushup burpees so it comes together).

I ended up with a total of 9,350 burpees, 15,180 pushups in 31 days.

Why the hell would I be that crazy?

In one word, which I think kind of answers my chicken and egg question…

…consistency.

I truly believe that to be successful at something, you have to embrace being consistent with it, first.

And to test my previous assumption, would have I loved playing basketball 8 hours a day for a year (of which the majority could have simply been technical and physical drills, no actual playing)?

Probably not. Basketball was and still is synonym with fun times and a cool group / team activity.

Not something I would do day in and day out.

And I’ve been playing for almost 25 years now, so I’m pretty sure.

I was successful with my workout challenge not because with luck I stumbled on it or because I’m naturally gifted physically. I just embraced being consistent and made it my new normal.

I think it’s the same with your marketing and copywriting efforts.

When you make research consistent, asking for feedback, looking at your market and thinking deeply about what your prospects want, that’s when you start making it the new normal. When that’s part of your systems and processes, you make it a success.

And others will watch you, wondering if they could be in your place.

A lot of my clients don’t have these processes in place. That’s another big area where I help them. So they know what questions to ask, what to learn and when.

Need help figuring it out? Get in touch.