Why QUANTITY will eventually lead to QUALITY - Beginner's guide

[heavy_industry]

Target audience:

This post is primarily aimed at starting entrepreneurs, that are still in the "don't know what business to start" phase.

Judging by the large amount of posts which express this dilemma, it's safe to assume that a large amount of the new fastlaners are in this category, or deal with this problem to some extent.

Although this post is primarily aimed at beginners, others might find it interesting as well.

---

I'm currently in the process of developing a better daily schedule and process for improving my work output.

I've stumbled across this quote:

"Quality is a probabilistic function of quantity."


Every single day that you spend wondering what is the optimal path to creating your ideal business, is robbing you of the life experience you need in order to be able to see the path and create a proper plan. It's a catch-22.

You don't know what you don't know.

Stop trying to find the answers by thinking about them, because you cannot.

The human mind can only think through analogy.
You're stuck with the ideas you have now, until you will add more data into the system.

Asking for guidance on the forum and reading high quality books is great, and I would actually recommend this as the first step in your journey. A step that will have to be repeated along the way.

Why? Because what you need is a general framework and a mindset which is conducive to being successful in life and business. And this forum, as well as MJ's books, are one of the very rare sources of said high-quality information.




So even though the theory is very important, and should always be learned and relearned - by beginners and veterans alike, nothing is going to be able to replace the hands-on real life experience that you get from actually doing stuff.

You can read 100 books on how to play baseball, you can write a PhD thesis on how to throw a ball, but until you will get on the playing field and actually practice the game, you will never know how to do it.

And does not apply only to athletics, but to all human endeavors - including business.

This is the basic reality of how our nervous system is functioning. The only knowledge that actually sticks in the long term, is the one that we are proving ourselves experimentally, which means, by doing.

(Similar idea discussed in the thread about wisdom)


"What I hear, I forget. What I see, I remember. What I do, I understand." - Confucius 550 BCE (a long time ago)




By no means am I encouraging you to take stupid risks, engage in reckless behavior, or follow the idiots that tell you that "you NEED to fail first in order to succeed later", because that is demonstrably false, and it's a very stupid way to go about living life.

What I am saying however, is that as long as you are financially responsible, and are intensely focused on the task at hand, there is no such thing as "failure".

Every. Single. One. of your projects and businesses will bring you a wealth of experience that cannot be gathered in any other way. Even if the thing that you're working on doesn't end up being profitable, you have nothing to lose, but everything to gain:

• skills
• life experience
• domain-specific knowledge
• improved discipline, confidence, ability to execute
• and most importantly: you see for yourself that nothing bad happens when you "fail"

All the success stories that I've ever heard of, including MJ's, begin with a series of previous attempts at starting a business.

Once you start to understand that all those previous attempts were not "failed attempts", but rather the foundation and the building blocks for the success that followed, the ridiculous "fear of failure" idea will completely disappear from you mind, because now you see the full picture of how exponential success begins.



So stop asking yourself inopportune questions, pick a direction, any direction.

And just (F*cking) start.

And you do not stop until you either:

1. Get the results that you seek
2. Reach a dead end: Pause, adjust the plan, go back, START AGAIN



Skills will be acquired.
Discipline will be built.
Competence will improve.
Lessons will be learned.
The horizons will broaden.

And eventually...

Success will happen.

 

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[Subsonic]

Target audience:

This post is primarily aimed at starting entrepreneurs, that are still in the "don't know what business to start" phase.

Judging by the large amount of posts which express this dilemma, it's safe to assume that a large amount of the new fastlaners are in this category, or deal with this problem to some extent.

Although this post is primarily aimed at beginners, others might find it interesting as well.

---

I'm currently in the process of developing a better daily schedule and process for improving my work output.

I've stumbled across this quote:

"Quality is a probabilistic function of quantity."


Every single day that you spend wondering what is the optimal path to creating your ideal business, is robbing you of the life experience you need in order to be able to see the path and create a proper plan. It's a catch-22.

You don't know what you don't know.

Stop trying to find the answers by thinking about them, because you cannot.

The human mind can only think through analogy.
You're stuck with the ideas you have now, until you will add more data into the system.

Asking for guidance on the forum and reading high quality books is great, and I would actually recommend this as the first step in your journey. A step that will have to be repeated along the way.

Why? Because what you need is a general framework and a mindset which is conducive to being successful in life and business. And this forum, as well as MJ's books, are one of the very rare sources of said high-quality information.




So even though the theory is very important, and should always be learned and relearned - by beginners and veterans alike, nothing is going to be able to replace the hands-on real life experience that you get from actually doing stuff.

You can read 100 books on how to play baseball, you can write a PhD thesis on how to throw a ball, but until you will get on the playing field and actually practice the game, you will never know how to do it.

And does not apply only to athletics, but to all human endeavors - including business.

This is the basic reality of how our nervous system is functioning. The only knowledge that actually sticks in the long term, is the one that we are proving ourselves experimentally, which means, by doing.

(Similar idea discussed in the thread about wisdom)


"What I hear, I forget. What I see, I remember. What I do, I understand." - Confucius 550 BCE (a long time ago)




By no means am I encouraging you to take stupid risks, engage in reckless behavior, or follow the idiots that tell you that "you NEED to fail first in order to succeed later", because that is demonstrably false, and it's a very stupid way to go about living life.

What I am saying however, is that as long as you are financially responsible, and are intensely focused on the task at hand, there is no such thing as "failure".

Every. Single. One. of your projects and businesses will bring you a wealth of experience that cannot be gathered in any other way. Even if the thing that you're working on doesn't end up being profitable, you have nothing to lose, but everything to gain:

• skills
• life experience
• domain-specific knowledge
• improved discipline, confidence, ability to execute
• and most importantly: you see for yourself that nothing bad happens when you "fail"

All the success stories that I've ever heard of, including MJ's, begin with a series of previous attempts at starting a business.

Once you start to understand that all those previous attempts were not "failed attempts", but rather the foundation and the building blocks for the success that followed, the ridiculous "fear of failure" idea will completely disappear from you mind, because now you see the full picture of how exponential success begins.



So stop asking yourself inopportune questions, pick a direction, any direction.

And just (F*cking) start.

And you do not stop until you either:

1. Get the results that you seek
2. Reach a dead end: Pause, adjust the plan, go back, START AGAIN



Skills will be acquired.
Discipline will be built.
Competence will improve.
Lessons will be learned.
The horizons will broaden.

And eventually...

Success will happen.

Gold here.

The first time I learned how business actually works is when I started cleaning windows. No book could have given me the experience I got.

Now I am learning the next lesson, which is that doing a business with no barrier to entry that is not really needed, takes my physical time to make profit and has too low margins to really scale sucks a$$.

 

[Matt Lee]

This reminds me of something I recently read by following the breadcrumbs left by @MTF in his post here.

I found out about a copywriter named John Carlton(possibly a non-PC, real, and kickass writer I've read thus far besides MJ and VP). He says this in one of his chapters from one of his books:

"You're anxious before you get good at anything, from mountain climbing to painting happy little life-like clouds. Like a rookie should be... if you're not anxious when you suck, you're not engaging in reality. With writing everything, of COURSE your early efforts gonna gag. But if, if you apply yourself, your next effort will be better, even if only a bit. And the next one after that will be just that small bit better again, and so on".

He then talks about a writer(John D. MacDonald) who bangs out 10 books in his first year because the learning curve, or learning how to write well, was about 10 books in.

What does this mean? You gotta pay your dues in sweat equity to get good. Some people don't have to pay that much because they have talent but that just means you have to do 10x the work. No biggie. No complaints. Just drilling for the killing.

 

[wade1mil]

Reminds me of this parable:

A ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right solely on its quality. His procedure was simple: on the final day of class he would bring in his bathroom scales and weigh the work of the “quantity” group: fifty pound of pots rated an “A”, forty pounds a “B”, and so on. Those being graded on “quality”, however, needed to produce only one pot — albeit a perfect one — to get an “A”. Well, came grading time and a curious fact emerged: the works of highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity. It seems that while the “quantity” group was busily churning out piles of work – and learning from their mistakes — the “quality” group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay.

 

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[Andy Black]

Reminds me of this parable:

A ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right solely on its quality. His procedure was simple: on the final day of class he would bring in his bathroom scales and weigh the work of the “quantity” group: fifty pound of pots rated an “A”, forty pounds a “B”, and so on. Those being graded on “quality”, however, needed to produce only one pot — albeit a perfect one — to get an “A”. Well, came grading time and a curious fact emerged: the works of highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity. It seems that while the “quantity” group was busily churning out piles of work – and learning from their mistakes — the “quality” group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay.

You beat me to it. I love that parable.

 

[heavy_industry]

Reminds me of this parable:

A ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right solely on its quality. His procedure was simple: on the final day of class he would bring in his bathroom scales and weigh the work of the “quantity” group: fifty pound of pots rated an “A”, forty pounds a “B”, and so on. Those being graded on “quality”, however, needed to produce only one pot — albeit a perfect one — to get an “A”. Well, came grading time and a curious fact emerged: the works of highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity. It seems that while the “quantity” group was busily churning out piles of work – and learning from their mistakes — the “quality” group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay.

Thanks for sharing.

I've just had a flashback from many years ago, when I've learned this exact story from one of John Sonmez's videos.
(He also did an interview with MJ, and that's how I've discovered the forum.)

It's crazy how knowledge that you've acquired years ago gets stored in your mind, but stays dormant, until you finally wake up one day in 2023 and write a thread on something that you've been knowing for years, but never had the wisdom to implement it to its fullest. But this changes now.

Makes me wonder how many life-changing lessons we already know, but for some reason we refuse to apply them in our lives.

 

[Andy Black]

Makes me wonder how many life-changing lessons we already know, but for some reason we refuse to apply them in our lives.

"What if you already know enough?"
(Craig Desorcey)

NOTABLE! - What if you already know enough?

The most obvious danger of consuming too much is that it turns you into a consumer. A lot of that “free” (and paid) content out there is designed to turn you into someone else’s consumer. (And it’s not free btw... not unless you put zero value on the time it took to consume that “free”...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

 

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[ilrein]

Well written, elegant, captivating.

It's only when one reads superb writing, that one realizes how starved they get for eloquent language.

 

[heavy_industry]

Well written, elegant, captivating.

It's only when one reads superb writing, that one realizes how starved they get for eloquent language.

Wow, thanks for saying this.

My honest self-assessment on my ability to write is that is complete garbage.

It's nice to hear that I may have been a little bit too harsh. Will continue to strive for improvement regardless. Looking forward to getting to @MTF 's elite level.

 

[Raedrum]

I have the exact same conclusion from the past month. I've been a lurker on TFF for a while, and it's been a long time I'm trying to launch my business.

I've always been a perfectionnist, trying to figure out perfect roadmap and skillset, but did little action. A did some sales and learned a lot of skills in the process, but ultimately this attitude was an excuse.

Then I throw myself in financial stress sometime ago and begin to engage with the forum more. I find the new thread of Lex about his automatic website selling digital products and realize that where I was aiming at perfection, he was aiming at simplicity and then elaborate from there. I understand now why "action beat everything" is so repeated on TFF.

I tried to organize myself with to-do lists but ultimately they were incredible action jammer, pushing me to endlessly doing useless tasks.

Now I do that: when I have an idea, I write a list and delete everything that is not absolutely necessary. Then I end up with 4-5 core things instead of 20, and ask myself how to actionnate them in the most simple way possible. My results have already augmented.

80% of the problems you see are at best luxuries, at worst illusions. Perfectionnism is a real action killer, and an excuse for fear. Nothing beat action !

 

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[MTF]

Wow, thanks for saying this.

My honest self-assessment on my ability to write is that is complete garbage.

It's nice to hear that I may have been a little bit too harsh. Will continue to strive for improvement regardless. Looking forward to getting to @MTF 's elite level.

I'm sorry to tell you that but you'll always think that your ability to write is complete garbage.

I look at some of my favorite writers and I think they're doing the real work and I'm just a cheapo writer you can hire for $5 per article.

Writing is also very hard to assess. You can assess if you're a good powerlifter by comparing your lifts to the general population but there's no easy way to compare in a quantifiable way your writing skills. So you'll always think that you suck regardless how good your writing is.

 

[heavy_industry]

I'm sorry to tell you that but you'll always think that your ability to write is complete garbage.

I look at some of my favorite writers and I think they're doing the real work and I'm just a cheapo writer you can hire for $5 per article.

Writing is also very hard to assess. You can assess if you're a good powerlifter by comparing your lifts to the general population but there's no easy way to compare in a quantifiable way your writing skills. So you'll always think that you suck regardless how good your writing is.

There's this story about Arnold Schwarzenegger, that looked in the mirror after winning Mr. Olympia for the second, third, fourth... time.

Do you know what he said to himself?

"How did this pile of shit win?"

I believe that this is attitude has the potential to completely destroy your life, and I would never recommend to anyone to adopt this David Goggins mindset of self destruction and constantly tyrannizing yourself for not being perfect.

There are many lessons to be learned from both Arnold and Goggins. Both are people that I look up to, have learned a lot from, and Arnold is one of my role models.

But I believe that we need to find the right balance between being proud of our actions and achievements, but at the same time continuing to strive for improvement.

You will never "get there". Every peak that you conquer just makes you see the bigger peaks ahead of you. Your idealized version of success is a permanently moving target that constantly moves away from you, as you walk towards it.

It's like a star in the sky.

You will never be able to reach it. But by following it, you will, at the very least, move forward in life.

And at least it's a star that you're striving for. At least it's up there, in the heavens.

 

[Antifragile]

I believe that this is attitude has the potential to completely destroy your life, and I would never recommend to anyone to adopt this David Goggins mindset of self destruction and constantly tyrannizing yourself for not being perfect.

To each their own.

The little bitch voice in our heads prevents us from achieving great things. Shut it down whichever way works for you.

For me, Goggins mindset isn’t about self destruction - it’s about understanding you can do so much more but a little bitch voice in your head is the only thing stopping you.

Don’t try to conform, have courage not to settle for mediocrity.

 

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[heavy_industry]

To each their own.

The little bitch voice in our heads prevents us from achieving great things. Shut it down whichever way works for you.

For me, Goggins mindset isn’t about self destruction - it’s about understanding you can do so much more but a little bitch voice in your head is the only thing stopping you.

Don’t try to conform, have courage not to settle for mediocrity.

I will think very carefully about what you've written.

Thank you.

 

[Jobless]

"What I hear, I forget. What I see, I remember. What I do, I understand." - Confucius 550 BCE (a long time ago)

Killer quote. Lindy.

 

[Saad Khan]

Target audience:

This post is primarily aimed at starting entrepreneurs, that are still in the "don't know what business to start" phase.

Judging by the large amount of posts which express this dilemma, it's safe to assume that a large amount of the new fastlaners are in this category, or deal with this problem to some extent.

Although this post is primarily aimed at beginners, others might find it interesting as well.

---

I'm currently in the process of developing a better daily schedule and process for improving my work output.

I've stumbled across this quote:

"Quality is a probabilistic function of quantity."


Every single day that you spend wondering what is the optimal path to creating your ideal business, is robbing you of the life experience you need in order to be able to see the path and create a proper plan. It's a catch-22.

You don't know what you don't know.

Stop trying to find the answers by thinking about them, because you cannot.

The human mind can only think through analogy.
You're stuck with the ideas you have now, until you will add more data into the system.

Asking for guidance on the forum and reading high quality books is great, and I would actually recommend this as the first step in your journey. A step that will have to be repeated along the way.

Why? Because what you need is a general framework and a mindset which is conducive to being successful in life and business. And this forum, as well as MJ's books, are one of the very rare sources of said high-quality information.




So even though the theory is very important, and should always be learned and relearned - by beginners and veterans alike, nothing is going to be able to replace the hands-on real life experience that you get from actually doing stuff.

You can read 100 books on how to play baseball, you can write a PhD thesis on how to throw a ball, but until you will get on the playing field and actually practice the game, you will never know how to do it.

And does not apply only to athletics, but to all human endeavors - including business.

This is the basic reality of how our nervous system is functioning. The only knowledge that actually sticks in the long term, is the one that we are proving ourselves experimentally, which means, by doing.

(Similar idea discussed in the thread about wisdom)


"What I hear, I forget. What I see, I remember. What I do, I understand." - Confucius 550 BCE (a long time ago)




By no means am I encouraging you to take stupid risks, engage in reckless behavior, or follow the idiots that tell you that "you NEED to fail first in order to succeed later", because that is demonstrably false, and it's a very stupid way to go about living life.

What I am saying however, is that as long as you are financially responsible, and are intensely focused on the task at hand, there is no such thing as "failure".

Every. Single. One. of your projects and businesses will bring you a wealth of experience that cannot be gathered in any other way. Even if the thing that you're working on doesn't end up being profitable, you have nothing to lose, but everything to gain:

• skills
• life experience
• domain-specific knowledge
• improved discipline, confidence, ability to execute
• and most importantly: you see for yourself that nothing bad happens when you "fail"

All the success stories that I've ever heard of, including MJ's, begin with a series of previous attempts at starting a business.

Once you start to understand that all those previous attempts were not "failed attempts", but rather the foundation and the building blocks for the success that followed, the ridiculous "fear of failure" idea will completely disappear from you mind, because now you see the full picture of how exponential success begins.



So stop asking yourself inopportune questions, pick a direction, any direction.

And just (F*cking) start.

And you do not stop until you either:

1. Get the results that you seek
2. Reach a dead end: Pause, adjust the plan, go back, START AGAIN



Skills will be acquired.
Discipline will be built.
Competence will improve.
Lessons will be learned.
The horizons will broaden.

And eventually...

Success will happen.

Gold.

 

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

[Kevin88660]

Target audience:

This post is primarily aimed at starting entrepreneurs, that are still in the "don't know what business to start" phase.

Judging by the large amount of posts which express this dilemma, it's safe to assume that a large amount of the new fastlaners are in this category, or deal with this problem to some extent.

Although this post is primarily aimed at beginners, others might find it interesting as well.

---

I'm currently in the process of developing a better daily schedule and process for improving my work output.

I've stumbled across this quote:

"Quality is a probabilistic function of quantity."


Every single day that you spend wondering what is the optimal path to creating your ideal business, is robbing you of the life experience you need in order to be able to see the path and create a proper plan. It's a catch-22.

You don't know what you don't know.

Stop trying to find the answers by thinking about them, because you cannot.

The human mind can only think through analogy.
You're stuck with the ideas you have now, until you will add more data into the system.

Asking for guidance on the forum and reading high quality books is great, and I would actually recommend this as the first step in your journey. A step that will have to be repeated along the way.

Why? Because what you need is a general framework and a mindset which is conducive to being successful in life and business. And this forum, as well as MJ's books, are one of the very rare sources of said high-quality information.




So even though the theory is very important, and should always be learned and relearned - by beginners and veterans alike, nothing is going to be able to replace the hands-on real life experience that you get from actually doing stuff.

You can read 100 books on how to play baseball, you can write a PhD thesis on how to throw a ball, but until you will get on the playing field and actually practice the game, you will never know how to do it.

And does not apply only to athletics, but to all human endeavors - including business.

This is the basic reality of how our nervous system is functioning. The only knowledge that actually sticks in the long term, is the one that we are proving ourselves experimentally, which means, by doing.

(Similar idea discussed in the thread about wisdom)


"What I hear, I forget. What I see, I remember. What I do, I understand." - Confucius 550 BCE (a long time ago)




By no means am I encouraging you to take stupid risks, engage in reckless behavior, or follow the idiots that tell you that "you NEED to fail first in order to succeed later", because that is demonstrably false, and it's a very stupid way to go about living life.

What I am saying however, is that as long as you are financially responsible, and are intensely focused on the task at hand, there is no such thing as "failure".

Every. Single. One. of your projects and businesses will bring you a wealth of experience that cannot be gathered in any other way. Even if the thing that you're working on doesn't end up being profitable, you have nothing to lose, but everything to gain:

• skills
• life experience
• domain-specific knowledge
• improved discipline, confidence, ability to execute
• and most importantly: you see for yourself that nothing bad happens when you "fail"

All the success stories that I've ever heard of, including MJ's, begin with a series of previous attempts at starting a business.

Once you start to understand that all those previous attempts were not "failed attempts", but rather the foundation and the building blocks for the success that followed, the ridiculous "fear of failure" idea will completely disappear from you mind, because now you see the full picture of how exponential success begins.



So stop asking yourself inopportune questions, pick a direction, any direction.

And just (F*cking) start.

And you do not stop until you either:

1. Get the results that you seek
2. Reach a dead end: Pause, adjust the plan, go back, START AGAIN



Skills will be acquired.
Discipline will be built.
Competence will improve.
Lessons will be learned.
The horizons will broaden.

And eventually...

Success will happen.

There are a lot of trendy problems to solve in new industry. Absence of legacy giant competitors. Sufficient high barrier of entry that needs nerds like knowledge.

1)AI application in literally every field.
2) Crypto payment, scaling(zero knowledge), content generation, wallet solution, privacy solution..
3) Biotech, health and life extension

 

[heavy_industry]

The first time I learned how business actually works is when I started cleaning windows. No book could have given me the experience I got.

Case in point.

@piano This is what I was talking about when saying that all the skills that you build right now are going to carryover into the future 5, 10, 20 years from now.

And some of the best skills to gain when you're young are sales and communicating with people. Both of which you will get plenty from getting customers for cleaning windows.

Gain as much experience as you can.

Everything will pay off tenfold, in ways in which you can't even imagine right now.

 

[imntsatisfiedyet]

And just (F*cking) start.

And you do not stop until you either:

1. Get the results that you seek
2. Reach a dead end: Pause, adjust the plan, go back, START AGAIN



Skills will be acquired.
Discipline will be built.
Competence will improve.
Lessons will be learned.
The horizons will broaden.

And eventually...

Success will happen.

"The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing." Socrates​

Your journey begins when you accept the immensity of what you don't know and take the first step toward learning. Don't be afraid of failure, you don't have to prove anything to anyone. It's you vs you. The more you fail, the closer you get to success

Very good and necessary contribution!

 

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