Unfair Advantages Don’t Matter - Anyone Can Be Successful

[Andy Black]

As I said I've always considered myself unlucky, I'm the guy who gets on or off trend at the perfectly wrong time. For instance my doomed import business went wrong at a time Bitcoin was beginning to rise. I had spent the last six months convincing my friends to buy Bitcoin.

The business, folded, my beloved sister died, meaning I needed cash and fast. I sold my 2.1 Bitcoin to help pay bankruptcy and funeral fees. I got $1800 total. Just a month later Bitcoin was $18,000 each a couple of months after that it briefly hit $60,000. This is the story of my life.

I'm so sorry to hear that. I lost my brother a few years ago and know how painful losing your sister must be.

That aside, I don't think you're inherently unlucky, and think it's harmful that you do.

Could it be you're following trends rather than focusing on helping people or adding value? And/or not executing well enough?

My worry for you is that labelling yourself unlucky *may* lead you to not continuously try to incrementally improve yourself as a business operator.

 

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[Roli]

I'm so sorry to hear that. I lost my brother a few years ago and know how painful losing your sister must be.

That aside, I don't think you're inherently unlucky, and think it's harmful that you do.

Could it be you're following trends rather than focusing on helping people or adding value? And/or not executing well enough?

My worry for you is that labelling yourself unlucky *may* lead you to not continuously try to incrementally improve yourself as a business operator.

Thanks man, sorry for your loss to. Losing a sibling sucks

I only mentioned my luck in the context of this post, I actually try and tell myself how lucky I am each day. I have great genetics, I'm fit and healthy and almost never get sick.

My mum had twins who died in stillbirth just before me, I could have been one of them. I could also have been born in Lagos, Nigeria in the 1950s and not London in the '70s. These and many other reasons make me "lucky".

You are right about following trends though, my last business was exactly that and that is why it failed spectacularly.

Nowadays I'm concentrating on my writing, will have my first book finished and out in the next few weeks and another a couple of months after that.

I'll market them and hopefully I'll be lucky enough the right people see it and blow it up ;-).

Cheers Andy.

 

[Andy Black]

Thanks man, sorry for your loss to. Losing a sibling sucks

I only mentioned my luck in the context of this post, I actually try and tell myself how lucky I am each day. I have great genetics, I'm fit and healthy and almost never get sick.

My mum had twins who died in stillbirth just before me, I could have been one of them. I could also have been born in Lagos, Nigeria in the 1950s and not London in the '70s. These and many other reasons make me "lucky".

You are right about following trends though, my last business was exactly that and that is why it failed spectacularly.

Nowadays I'm concentrating on my writing, will have my first book finished and out in the next few weeks and another a couple of months after that.

I'll market them and hopefully I'll be lucky enough the right people see it and blow it up ;-).

Cheers Andy.

Swap the word "lucky" for "blessed" if it helps. You're blessed to have been born in London in the 70s.

What are you doing to help get your book in front of the right people?

 

[Roli]

Swap the word "lucky" for "blessed" if it helps. You're blessed to have been born in London in the 70s.

What are you doing to help get your book in front of the right people?

Good substitution.

As far as the book, I have limited funds so I am going to set up a landing page and some social media stuff.

I'm releasing on KDP, Apple, etc. and will follow the advice from the excellent book "Write Publish Repeat" as far as marketing on those platforms.

I doubt I'll have more than about £100 to market which will bring my total budget up to around £300 which is my limit really. Hopefully I can make at least that back.

By the end of the year I should have a minimum of three completed books and two more ready to send to beta readers/editors.

 

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[Kevin88660]

The problem with unfair advantage is people tend to associate it with natural talent or family background (daddy's money and connections).

An unfair advantage over others could be earned. If you have worked in an industry for five years, you have a head start in it to start a business in the same industry.

An "unfair advantage" is a powerful concept but is often misunderstood to be a limiting belief.

Extreme poverty could also be an unfair advantage sometimes. Manny Pacquiao might not be a world-class athlete if he didn't born into a slum.

 

[Andy Black]

Good substitution.

As far as the book, I have limited funds so I am going to set up a landing page and some social media stuff.

I'm releasing on KDP, Apple, etc. and will follow the advice from the excellent book "Write Publish Repeat" as far as marketing on those platforms.

I doubt I'll have more than about £100 to market which will bring my total budget up to around £300 which is my limit really. Hopefully I can make at least that back.

By the end of the year I should have a minimum of three completed books and two more ready to send to beta readers/editors.

Maybe focus on marketing the current book before creating more books? Marketing can start before you create anything (by marketing I mean finding out what people want to buy, and how to sell it to them profitably).

 

[Roli]

Maybe focus on marketing the current book before creating more books? Marketing can start before you create anything (by marketing I mean finding out what people want to buy, and how to sell it to them profitably).

I think that's sound advice for any other kind of product, but greats such as Stephen King and the Write Publish Repeat guys, advocate for forging ahead. That way you don't get too precious about one book, plus of course, if it is good, you want readers to be able to find another book by you.

I will of course market, but like I say, I have limited funds. My market testing is more a case of writing across a few different genres (and pen names) and seeing what sticks.

Only one of my books is non-fiction, the rest are fiction therefore writing for the market is not as valid. But hey, we'll see, I can only try and get better with each one.

 

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[Cameraman]

As far as the book, I have limited funds so I am going to set up a landing page and some social media stuff.

I'm releasing on KDP, Apple, etc. and will follow the advice from the excellent book "Write Publish Repeat" as far as marketing on those platforms.

I doubt I'll have more than about £100 to market which will bring my total budget up to around £300 which is my limit really. Hopefully I can make at least that back.

By the end of the year I should have a minimum of three completed books and two more ready to send to beta readers/editors.

From my own experience selling books on Amazon, my website, Apple, Google etc, 60% of sales come from Amazon. If I wasn't selling through my website as well that would be over 80% on Amazon.

If I were just starting out again, I would focus all my efforts on selling the book on Amazon initially. I would though still set up a website/lead magnet to collect reader emails and direct people to it from within the book (start and end). Build this from day one and cultivate these people. They will buy your future books.

With fiction consider going with Kindle Unlimited. It will prevent you from selling the book elsewhere but there are a lot of advantages. It's more of an uphill struggle otherwise and you can always remove your books later to sell elsewhere.

If you can promote through Social Media do so but personally, I've never had much success. The same goes for Google Ads and Facebook Ads which I've been testing out for the past few months. They drive eyes to the sales pages but they don't seem to convert - even Amazon doesn't seem to be able to convert them (I'm sure there must be a reason). Amazon Ads on the other hand have been much cheaper for me and drive a lot of sales every day - I would suggest starting with those, especially if your budget is limited.

Remember, when you are planning your marketing, Amazon likes to see consistent and growing sales. They tend to ignore that 3-5 day sales spike most authors can generate. If you can plan your marketing to start and then keep the sales going for around 45 days Amazon will recognise and begin to promote the books for you.

Sorry if I'm telling you stuff you already know but I thought some of this may help.

 

[Roli]

If I were just starting out again, I would focus all my efforts on selling the book on Amazon initially. I would though still set up a website/lead magnet to collect reader emails and direct people to it from within the book (start and end). Build this from day one and cultivate these people. They will buy your future books.

Obviously I don't want to put all my eggs in one basket but they are the biggest player so it only makes sense to put at least 80% worth of effort into them.

With fiction consider going with Kindle Unlimited. It will prevent you from selling the book elsewhere but there are a lot of advantages. It's more of an uphill struggle otherwise and you can always remove your books later to sell elsewhere.

What's the difference between Unlimited and the usual Amazon/KDP platform? Or are they one and the same? I'm only doing a digital release at first, maybe a few paperbacks for ego purposes.

If you can promote through Social Media do so but personally, I've never had much success. The same goes for Google Ads and Facebook Ads which I've been testing out for the past few months.

I've suspected as much, good to hear your experience.

Is Goodreads advertising any good?

Remember, when you are planning your marketing, Amazon likes to see consistent and growing sales. They tend to ignore that 3-5 day sales spike most authors can generate. If you can plan your marketing to start and then keep the sales going for around 45 days Amazon will recognise and begin to promote the books for you.

This is it, I don't have the money to be pumping a 45 day campaign, plus I don't think I have ever bought a book via an ad and I have a lot, I mean a lot, of books.

Sorry if I'm telling you stuff you already know but I thought some of this may help.

Never apologise for passing on advice my friend! Much appreciated :-D

 

[Cameraman]

Obviously I don't want to put all my eggs in one basket but they are the biggest player so it only makes sense to put at least 80% worth of effort into them.




What's the difference between Unlimited and the usual Amazon/KDP platform? Or are they one and the same? I'm only doing a digital release at first, maybe a few paperbacks for ego purposes.



I've suspected as much, good to hear your experience.

Is Goodreads advertising any good?




This is it, I don't have the money to be pumping a 45 day campaign, plus I don't think I have ever bought a book via an ad and I have a lot, I mean a lot, of books.




Never apologise for passing on advice my friend! Much appreciated :-D

The Kindle Unlimited programme allows subscribers to read you book for free. In return Amazon pays you per page read. Some types of books can earn a lot from this. The Amazon algorithms also boost you up the popularity charts in comparison to non-KDP authors. The downside is that you have to be exclusive with Amazon. There’s a lot more information in the Amazon help pages.

I don’t know about advertising on Goodreads as I haven’t tried it yet.

with Amazon advertising you will never spend the sort of money you are talking about in 45 days (unless you do it completely wrong). Do some reading on this and test it out. I think I only manage to spend £200-£250 a month in ads but I get about a x5 return. I wish I could scale it more but it’s a struggle.

Also don’t forget the basics. The book cover and title need to be great As does the sales text on the book page. Be sure you get the keywords well refined on the book page as well. If you’re not sure how there are some good articles on the Kindlepreneur website.

 

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[Kirk84]

As far as I see, this book is absolute poison for the entrepreneur. It argues against the “myth of meritocracy”, and instead says that success is both a matter of luck and hard work. And the key to using this is tapping into your “unfair advantage”… those circumstantial factors that can’t easily be replicated by others, that are ultimately the effect of luck.

Have you read "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell? It is basically the same message on steroids. I felt my energy being sucked out of me as I finished the audiobook and it took me a couple of weeks to get it back.

Of course, the reality is more nuanced, similar to that Veritasium episode.

On the recent Lex Fridman podcast episode, Marc Andreessen reflects on this and states that he attributes at least a portion of his success to the fact that he was part of a school trial, where they learned how to work with computers early on. He clearly states this being an advantage.

But in my current stage, I do not want to focus on the 5 % luck and circumstances as long as I have not put in the 95 % of hard, dedicated work.

This is why I see it as follows:
I would rather believe I have complete control over my life and be wrong than believe that I am controlled by my circumstances and be right.

The latter belief system has no advantage to my current state.

At the same time, this does not mean I close my eyes to the aspects where I might have an advantage.