🏓 10 Years to Middle-of-the-Pack Success

“Most people were startled to find out there were books that preceded Game Of Thrones.
I’m a case of working forty years to be an overnight success.”
—George R. R. Martin

Forgive me for how naive this is going to sound, but in the weeks leading up to my ten-year biziversary on July 5, 2022, I actually thought something big might happen. My third book, Free Time, launched four months earlier, and I had gone all-in on this project in a way I never had before.

“It really does take ten years to be an overnight success!” I imagined myself saying from the stage while laughing effusively, wearing some fabulous new outfit that my skyrocketing book sales money bought. I’d point to my ten years in business (and five years of side-hustling before that) as evidence that I had earned this “overnight” moment.

Chapter 14 asks, “Are you ready for your big break, or would your business break?” I was secretly hoping that the book launch would put these principles to the test.

Maybe this book would become the runaway bestseller of my wildest dreams! Catching fire among the small business masses while MAKING! ALL! THE! LISTS! The ping pong balls in the mousetraps of momentum would have an unstoppable, contagious bounce!

This imaginary big break—ten years to overnight book marketing success—would shatter the earnings ceiling I had reached, catapulting me into a new category of comfort, where my material needs abundantly met without so much as a bead of worry sweat. I would have ample room in the budget for a long-overdue wardrobe upgrade (the clothes, not the shelves) and finally make some important fixes around the house. I would fatten my retirement account back up, instead of robbing it of its compound interest potential for far longer than I expected after first striking out on my own.

But alas, there was no one big break. No trumpets blaring as they announced my “ten years to overnight success” vibes. Instead, I have this feeling I became the cautionary tale among some of my business owner friends. I imagine them looking at where I am now with this face: 😬

There have been an embarrassment of riches in smaller ones that I am deeply grateful for, and I know that success is an inside game. No charts will ever generate the feeling. The charts will always be out of reach—that’s the nature of big goals (and the hedonic treadmill).

It’s less that I felt I deserved a big break, and more that I held a flicker of hope that it would flash across my path eventually, that the lightening of good book sales fortune might just strike again. That even though I wasn’t on social media, and that even though I was admittedly spotty at sales and marketing, I could offer people a new and different way that Heart-Based Business could be done—with the incredible results to prove it.

Alas, there was no hockey stick magical moment in any of my charts that year—book sales, podcast downloads, licensing deals, or top-line revenue—nor has there been one in the two years since. If anything, just a hockey stick facing the other way. 😂

Whenever I get caught up in comparison or wondering why things haven’t taken off quite like I hoped, I remind myself:

1. You would be lucky to ever experience the publicly recognized appearance of “overnight success.” Most people won’t.

2. Even the ones who do break through aren’t always happy once they get there, especially if they made too many compromises along the way.

3. Success can breed its own problems. For example, the retired man I met in a Miami coffee shop telling me how complicated it had become juggling the upkeep of his three homes. His new mantra: “Pleasure not pressure.”

4. Of the people who appear to have overnight success, they have often been working at it for much longer than ten years.

5. It takes 10-20 years to be an overnight smashing success if you also have massive talent and drive, hit a trend wave, and/or work at exactly the right things.

I have been building a platform online for over eighteen years, and so many things have happened beyond my wildest imagination because of all the serendipity seeds planted—one post, one podcast episode, and one friendship at a time.

Just the other day, I was invited to a pinch-me publishing lunch in New York City as a result of putting Free Time into the world. That one event was worth all the risks that went into creating the book! Not to mention all the kind notes from readers for whom it has genuinely helped create more ease, joy, and efficiency in their businesses too.

There’s a reason I scrubbed Pivot of as many mentions of the word “success” as I could. Because success is relative, and it’s too easy to get caught up in other people’s definitions of it, myself included.¹

Just yesterday, after Michael and I both had serendipitous and divinely guided days in New York City career-wise he said, “We’re rolling in Doh—and our Doh is happiness.”

So maybe we can revise the adage to something like:

“It takes at least ten to years to reach middle-of-the-road small business sustainability,
and that alone is a miracle of mind-boggling proportions.”

It doesn’t have quite the same ring to it, but it does feel more true.

What would you update the adage to?²

❤️

1. If you enjoyed this post, you might also appreciate:

2. Apropos of nothing, if you just need a pick-me-up reminder about how delightful the simple joys in life can be, please see exhibit A, B, and C:

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