How long is too long?

[Beebop27]

Jim Rohn once famously said that 'one should make measurable progress within a reasonable time'.

MJ DeMarco speaks about the lonely area of success. That F*cking desert of loneliness in making and developing... those long F*cking lonely nights working away at some 'crazy' idea you have, while your instagram feed is filled with people celebrating and enjoying their lives.. All that F*cking piss.

My question relates to process.

How long do you guys thing is 'long enough', before either calling it quits or moving onto the next idea.

Yeah, I know its a general and vague question, and it would depend on a 'case by case' basis. Maybe time is not the metric to measure things by.. maybe its the amount of things you have executed...

I mean, a year of smashing your F*cking head against the wall... .is that long enough?

or do you guys have the 'get rich or die trying' motto..

Just want to put this question out there. I am keen to hear what people's real thresholds are with this journey.. cause I found it so dark and exhausting.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Pain Brain]

I mean, a year of smashing your F*cking head against the wall... .is that long enough?

I'd say one month at the most. If the idea is hardly profitable after 4 weeks, why push for a whole year? It may be that the idea wasn't very valuable to the market you're pitching towards.

If no substantial progress is made, there needs to be significant changes. You get a good idea of how your idea will pan out during lead gen and marketing. How your offer is received will tell you where to invest your time.

 

[SSTrey]

Jim Rohn once famously said that 'one should make measurable progress within a reasonable time'.

MJ DeMarco speaks about the lonely area of success. That F*cking desert of loneliness in making and developing... those long F*cking lonely nights working away at some 'crazy' idea you have, while your instagram feed is filled with people celebrating and enjoying their lives.. All that F*cking piss.

My question relates to process.

How long do you guys thing is 'long enough', before either calling it quits or moving onto the next idea.

Yeah, I know its a general and vague question, and it would depend on a 'case by case' basis. Maybe time is not the metric to measure things by.. maybe its the amount of things you have executed...

I mean, a year of smashing your F*cking head against the wall... .is that long enough?

or do you guys have the 'get rich or die trying' motto..

Just want to put this question out there. I am keen to hear what people's real thresholds are with this journey.. cause I found it so dark and exhausting.

This is a hard one. I often ask myself the same question.
But truthfully only we know if we have tried everything we possibly can or if there's more to try.
Time to time there are moments of promise when someone finds your on Google or when you see a glimpse of things. those are the doors to push a bit more.

 

[Beebop27]

Yeah it is a difficult question, which is why I am curious to reach out and see everyone's threshold, what ever that looks like.

But those days or nights when you are like "is all this F*cking effort even worth it?", it a struggle. There's only so many bullshit Instagram quotes / reels one can watch / listen to, to inspire you.

A new paradigm I am looking at, is to just accept that the push is part of life. The process. Maybe just accept it or embody it as part of my life now.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[johnp]

Not sure if this helps but..

Hitting my first consistent $10K MRR took me 4 years with my business.

But realistically it took me 10+ years to get to that point when you count my failed stuff.

Other people seem to do it 10x faster than me.

So this leads me to the answer you prob don’t want.

Long is as long as you want it to be.

Also, a business goes through multiple phases of during its lifecycle and you’ll land in that desert multiple times.

 

[Beebop27]

Not sure if this helps but..

Hitting my first consistent $10K MRR took me 4 years with my business.

But realistically it took me 10+ years to get to that point when you count my failed stuff.

Other people seem to do it 10x faster than me.

So this leads me to the answer you prob don’t want.

Long is as long as you want it to be.

Also, a business goes through multiple phases of during its lifecycle and you’ll land in that desert multiple times.

Hey John,

I appreciate the honesty.

I welcome any answer and have grit and resilience. Its mainly the dark thoughts from working and trying and seeing no real end or potential, which is depressing.

Your answer is solid and realistic.
10k / month is also my goal.

 

[johnp]

Your answer is solid and realistic.
10k / month is also my goal.

To be completely honest, even at $10K/mo I still struggle with this feeling that I'm making no real progress and still wonder if I'm working on the right thing at times. This got really bad when I spent time on social media, seeing people younger than me apparently growing 6-7 figure SaaS businesses practically overnight. Then when I got off social and looked around, I noticed that 99% of the people around me are stuck and miserable and a $10K/month business isn't that bad, even if it's happening way slower than I want.

So the point is focus on making progress. Shoot for 1% gains daily. Put on blinders to the people around you and be realistic. Can you build a business fast? Do you have the skills? Seriously, some people are just better at this stuff and building a business is hard. I was slow to get there because I wasn't a dev and wanted to grow organically. I was okay with that because I had that realistic convo with myself. And you also need give yourself time to make that progress. Then have check-ins. If you aren't where you want to be by X date, check-in with yourself... ask yourself, is this the right thing? Have I truly exhausted all options and angles? Can I do this for another month? If yes or maybe, then keep pushing forward.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Beebop27]

To be completely honest, even at $10K/mo I still struggle with this feeling that I'm making no real progress and still wonder if I'm working on the right thing at times. This got really bad when I spent time on social media, seeing people younger than me apparently growing 6-7 figure SaaS businesses practically overnight. Then when I got off social and looked around, I noticed that 99% of the people around me are stuck and miserable and a $10K/month business isn't that bad, even if it's happening way slower than I want.

So the point is focus on making progress. Shoot for 1% gains daily. Put on blinders to the people around you and be realistic. Can you build a business fast? Do you have the skills? Seriously, some people are just better at this stuff and building a business is hard. I was slow to get there because I wasn't a dev and wanted to grow organically. I was okay with that because I had that realistic convo with myself. And you also need give yourself time to make that progress. Then have check-ins. If you aren't where you want to be by X date, check-in with yourself... ask yourself, is this the right thing? Have I truly exhausted all options and angles? Can I do this for another month? If yes or maybe, then keep pushing forward.

Hey man,
I appreciate the reply.

You should be proud of 10k / month

Great achievement

Agree with you about Instagram. It's full of noise and shit to consume and cloud your mind. Bugattis and hot chicks and people who "are using AI tools to make100k /month", bullshit. All smoke and mirrors.

I think 4 to 5 years is a realistic timeframe to achieve something decent.

I revisited Unscripted , in particular chapter 15.

To kind of reinforce my "F*ck this" moment. Reminding myself of why I started and the alternatives if I don't do it... Help with the motivation.

For me, it's not so much lethargy and laziness... It's those dark and negative thoughts that surface and the loneliness of working so many hours with little to show.

I guess it's about embracing the process and making it a part of ones life.

 

[Kevin88660]

Jim Rohn once famously said that 'one should make measurable progress within a reasonable time'.

MJ DeMarco speaks about the lonely area of success. That F*cking desert of loneliness in making and developing... those long F*cking lonely nights working away at some 'crazy' idea you have, while your instagram feed is filled with people celebrating and enjoying their lives.. All that F*cking piss.

My question relates to process.

How long do you guys thing is 'long enough', before either calling it quits or moving onto the next idea.

Yeah, I know its a general and vague question, and it would depend on a 'case by case' basis. Maybe time is not the metric to measure things by.. maybe its the amount of things you have executed...

I mean, a year of smashing your F*cking head against the wall... .is that long enough?

or do you guys have the 'get rich or die trying' motto..

Just want to put this question out there. I am keen to hear what people's real thresholds are with this journey.. cause I found it so dark and exhausting.

Depends on whether the original hypothesis that you get into the business is being nullified.

Or if you have found potential pivot points that can move on.

I have a friend who started shopee in the beginning of the pandemic and he was making 1-2k a month., and now he found a product breakthrough into 4-5k usd a month. He is focusing a niche product type used for housing renovation made in China and getting them shipped to Singapore.

It is not a lot of money by a developed country's standard, but he is stationed in Shanghai China where he could hire an assistant to scale his business for 700 usd per month.

If you are operating in a big market like e-commerce, there is always product pivot points.

If your original idea is only relevant to serving a small market, then it is very difficult to find good pivot points.

Another factor to consider is the opportunity cost of giving up your current idea. If the market feedback is bad and you have almost zero revenue and there is no pivot point then I think it is good to quit the old idea to move on to new ones.

Time is also precious.

 

[The-J]

Jim Rohn once famously said that 'one should make measurable progress within a reasonable time'.

What he meant is: what can you measure daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly?

This thread answers your question.

GOLD! - IDEA - The great way of testing any idea!

The success of a business is based on variables. IF you can buy an item for $0.50, spend $0.20 more and sell it for $2, you have a GREAT BUSINESS. IF you can only buy that item for $2, spend $0.50, and can only sell it for $2.30, you have a TERRIBLE BUSINESS. Better to just donate your money...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Beebop27]

Depends on whether the original hypothesis that you get into the business is being nullified.

Or if you have found potential pivot points that can move on.

I have a friend who started shopee in the beginning of the pandemic and he was making 1-2k a month., and now he found a product breakthrough into 4-5k usd a month. He is focusing a niche product type used for housing renovation made in China and getting them shipped to Singapore.

It is not a lot of money by a developed country's standard, but he is stationed in Shanghai China where he could hire an assistant to scale his business for 700 usd per month.

If you are operating in a big market like e-commerce, there is always product pivot points.

If your original idea is only relevant to serving a small market, then it is very difficult to find good pivot points.

Another factor to consider is the opportunity cost of giving up your current idea. If the market feedback is bad and you have almost zero revenue and there is no pivot point then I think it is good to quit the old idea to move on to new ones.

Time is also precious.

Hey Kevin,

Thanks for the reply and info. Helpful and wise.
I think I need to reassess my course of action and process.

@The-J - Thank you for the thread. It was also valuable and filled with good info.

As an update...

I re-read unscripted and realised I needed to remember my 'F*ck this' event. Without remembering this, you lack stamina and resolve. The price to pay for not trying is greater than the price for trying.

I realised that also focus is my sword in all of this. My weapon that can fend off the endless shit that comes my way.

So that means reducing time on Instagram and not getting pulled into these vortex's of fake lives and overnight millionaire kids and hot chicks.

It means spending time this week to refine my process. What will I be doing, at what time, for how long, on what day of the week. Plan, plan and write it down.

then EXECUTE

Then just accept it as my life. Embrace it. "embrace the suck' as Goggins says.

If the path to mediocrity is the path of least resistance, then the path to fast lane requires more resilience and the ability to push against the resistance, internally and externally.


As a caveat though too... I think mental health is important and something that shouldn't be dismissed... or negated as being 'weak'. Toughness is required in this, but so is compassion. I guess its about finding ones own inner thresholds, but also to keep pushing and seeing how far you can surpass them too

 

[emavery176]

This is an excellent question. For me, it took about 3 months to make my first sale. I think what's more important is that your business follows the C.E.N.T.S. commandments.

Also, maybe it would help to look at other people in your industry. How long did it take before they became profitable? You can easily become profitable with a service-based side business within 90 days. However, a product based business could easily take 3-12 months.