The Follow-Through: 99% Of People Don't Make It There

[Jakeeck]

If you can follow through, you are THE MAN or THE WOMAN!

I was just going through a thread and I've noticed a trend that I knew was prevalent in the general population, but I'm very surprised at how common it is on this forum as well.

I was just reading through a thread made by a very reputable member of the forum, and he gave people a very valuable series of steps to follow to get started on a venture. Two people in that thread said they were going to follow these steps through to the end. I looked up at the # of pages the thread had, and when I saw it was only 4 pages long, I knew these peoples' updates were not going to be coming for long. Both of them disappeared within a week or two, no follow-through.

Believe it or not, this encourages me. Even on a forum with people who are serious about starting their own businesses, majority of them don't follow through. I'm not trying to insult the people who haven't followed through, I mean hell I've done it countless times. The point I'm trying to make is that if you ACTUALLY follow a plan diligently to its end, you are among the very, very few. You are ahead of 99.99% of people out there.

I always read this article and that article about how so-and-so works 14 hours a day on his business. This always discouraged me because I'd think, "14 hours a day? How the hell am I gonna be able to do that consistently?"

What I'm beginning to realize is that people are blowing their "achievements" up to make themselves look good. That guy who says he's working 14 hours a day on his business could have given up after 2 weeks for all we know. Him or her working 14 hours a day doesn't mean SHIT unless he or she made it to the end of their plan. I'd bet 99% of them don't. We have evidence of that phenomenon all over this forum. People posting extensively of the action they are taking, and then all of a sudden they disappear after a week or two.

When I first joined this forum a couple weeks ago I was pretty intimidated by all the people working on their own ventures. It's like "damn there are so many smart people here, am I smart enough to do this?"

Now I see how hard it is and how rare it is to find somebody who has started a plan and followed through with it. You don't have to be a genius, you just have to take consistent action and follow through! Whatever the reasons for not finishing, it doesn't matter. I hope everyone can find comfort in the fact that if you actually follow through with a plan, you are the 1% of people ON THIS SITE, and the .01% of people in the world.

I hope I worded this in a way that doesn't seem like I'm insulting the general populous of this forum. Obviously there are a lot of successful people on this forum providing great value to everyone here. I just found this to be motivating because I sometimes have doubts about whether I'm smart enough to accomplish great things. I now believe that you don't have to be really smart to start a business. You have to take consistent action and follow through, and through that you will become a lot smarter as a byproduct.

 

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[Harti]

This. I am really just at the start and facing some where-to-go problems but one thing I know for sure. No matter what comes: I. will. not. quit.
I would rather move in a direction that's not optimal than stopping this, giving up and trying to succeed on the slowlane. There is no other way.

Harti

 

[Ryllban]

Great post.

One thing I have started to notice about this topic is regarding to youtube videos that are divided into 3 or more parts.

I watched an interview with Richard Branson today and it was divided into 4 parts. And when you look at the number of views after each part, they just get lower and lower.

Ofcourse not everybody will like an interview or video and stop watching. But common, if Richard Branson is giving advice on startups and business and life in general, there is ALWAYS something you can gain from that.

And its not just with this particular interview, its a trend I have been noticing.

 

[TheHawk]

Definitely agree with this. Over the past couple of months I've really attempted to adjust my mindset to follow through with everything I do, whether it be my own personal business venture, going to the gym or even following through with mundane plans which I no longer feel like doing.

I think this has been the toughest learning curve for me, as I've always been a "quitter" at pretty much everything I've done. When looking around, it becomes very apparent that successful people in any field are at that level because of the commitment they have to their goals.

Does it really just boil down to one person having more commitment and passion compared to another person? Or is it more a combination of this with their upbringing and attitude to work and success in general?

 

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[Jakeeck]

Definitely agree with this. Over the past couple of months I've really attempted to adjust my mindset to follow through with everything I do, whether it be my own personal business venture, going to the gym or even following through with mundane plans which I no longer feel like doing.

I think this has been the toughest learning curve for me, as I've always been a "quitter" at pretty much everything I've done. When looking around, it becomes very apparent that successful people in any field are at that level because of the commitment they have to their goals.

Does it really just boil down to one person having more commitment and passion compared to another person? Or is it more a combination of this with their upbringing and attitude to work and success in general?

I think upbringing definitely plays a part. Imagine if you had parents putting the fastlane ideology in your head since you were 10 years old. You would have made it there a lot quicker. I believe attitudes and behaviors can be changed, but it is one of the hardest things in the world to do, and requires drastic changes in some cases.

For example, a lot of people on this forum say they had to move far away from home and start over with nothing in order to have the drive to become successful. 99% of people don't have the guts to do something like that.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

he gave people a very valuable series of steps to follow to get started on a venture. Two people in that thread said they were going to follow these steps through to the end. I looked up at the # of pages the thread had, and when I saw it was only 4 pages long, I knew these peoples' updates were not going to be coming for long. Both of them disappeared within a week or two, no follow-through.

You're describing the event/process dichotomy w/respect to follow-thru. Process is the dirty work. My favorite process analogies come from the fitness world as you cannot buy a body that would appear on a cover of a magazine, it must be earned -- and earned every single minute of the day through diet and exercise.

Another great example are many of the intros on this forum. Go browse the intro forum and you'll find a literal plethora of broken dreams and empty declarations. Some folks have ONE post, and it's their INTRO. In that INTRO they post how excited they are to read a book and feel like something has changed. They post because posting their declaration feels like action, it feels like doing something. Yet after that's over, there is no follow-thru -- no process. The following day the alarm clock goes off, they knot their tie, hop in their car, fight traffic, and do what they've been doing for the last ten years.

 

[Nadia]

Hypnotic Rhythm. Outwitting The Devil by Napoleon Hill describes this perfectly.

 

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[brewster]

Not following through on consistent action can be seen just about everywhere in life. Working out, continued education after graduating school, healthy food choices, etc., etc.

People in general are going to do as little as possible to get by and call it a day.

 

[Jakeeck]

You're describing the event/process dichotomy w/respect to follow-thru. Process is the dirty work. My favorite process analogies come from the fitness world as you cannot buy a body that would appear on a cover of a magazine, it must be earned -- and earned every single minute of the day through diet and exercise.

Yes the fitness analogies are awesome. If people could stick with an exercise and diet routine for even 3 months, they would see results. The results probably wouldn't be what they were expecting because fitness marketing has people believing they can look like J-Lo in 12 weeks, but if you can just SEE some kind of results, you are going to want to stick with it that much more. Most people give up after a month because they didn't get the "Secret and Amazing Results!"

I've been at it for 6 years now and it has become a part of me. I can't imagine how terrible I would feel if I gave up and had to watch my figure disappear to what it was pre-working out. I assume sticking with anything like that would yield the same kinds of results in mindset, including business ventures.

 

[IAmTheJeff]

I don't think you should be worried about offending anyone on this site. I would have gotten mad about your post a week ago, but that's because a large part of my life has been filled with not following through. For some people, it's a given. Others have to work on it. Posts like this probably do more good than harm in the big scheme of things, because this could make some people come to the realization that other people are watching them fail. That's discouraging, and embarrassing to most. I see only good things to come of this if many people read it.

Action faking be damned! Glad I came out of that shit!

 

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[RogueInnovation]

 

[tafy]

People posting extensively of the action they are taking, and then all of a sudden they disappear after a week or two.

I also have a graveyard of fizzled progress threads..

Sometimes your exited to start something and post a progress thread too early, then when you get into it and find out your idea is crap/unfeasable/unworkable/other then it dies and you look for another idea.

Most progress threads start with the idea phase, then moves onto execution then onto traction where something is actually happening. Most die on idea or early execution stages.

I dont mind if progress threads just die, they are off the radar of the forum unless you go searching for them. If it keeps getting updated with updates then I love reading them usually.

Main thing is perseverance, not on a particular idea or thread as persevering on a crap idea is still a crap idea. But keep pushing on finding the fastlane, it may be your 10th idea or your 2nd.

 

[Joe Cassandra]

It's much like Seth Godin talks about with THE DIP. SOmething I've been guilty of many times as well. You start off excited, getting positive feedback. That drives you, but soon you hit the dip where the hard process really starts and it becomes also a black hole for the 99.9% you reference where everything goes to crap and we throw in the towel.

It's not easy or everyone would do it. Most would rather coast at a limited energy for limited reward as it's safe. Myself included.

 

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[DeletedUser12]

Some of it is this:

Repeated psychology tests have proven that telling someone your goal makes it less likely to happen.Any time you have a goal,there are some steps that need to be done, some work that needs to be done in order to achieve it.Ideally, you would not be satisfied until you had actually done the work.But when you tell someone your goal and they acknowledge it,psychologists have found that it's called a "social reality."The mind is kind of tricked into feeling that it's already done.And then, because you felt that satisfaction,you're less motivated to do the actual hard work necessary.

http://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_keep_your_goals_to_yourself

 

[GuestUser113]

 

[Tommy92l]

You guys have talked about this quite a lot in the past and I think you all agreed that the initial post of telling everyone how great your venture is = the reward, in a sense.

They get the positive affirmation without even really attempting it, the 12 paragraph essay they write is about as far as they get.

 

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[Morethan1]

Also just cause people don't post online doesn't mean That they are not working or following through.