It Takes Six Years to Become An Overnight Success
I was reading a post written by Seth Godin where he mentions that “it takes about six years of hard work to become an overnight success”. I’ve never quantified the amount of time it takes to become successful but Seth has a very good point.
We often look at companies and people and say “wow, that guy made millions overnight”. There are plenty of companies who were not heard of for years and then all of a sudden, they are the talk of the town. They are in the news, at the top of digg.com and somehow connected to everyone’s facebook profile. We look at these people, get inspired and decide that we are going to be the next overnight success. We think of an idea, put it to work and hope for the best. The unlucky person has little success and after a while gives up. The lucky person has very little success but continues to push through and work harder at every stage of the game. It can take years but in the end hard work pays off and if you give up too early, you will never know the meaning of success.
I don’t know if six years is an accurate amount of time or if it is some sort of average but the number does make a lot of sense. If you want proof that it takes years to become an overnight success, just do a little research. Go to Google and search for all of the overnight successes you can think of and you will learn the truth about how long it takes for overnight success. It doesn’t have to be a company, it could be actors too. Jim Carry was an overnight success but it took years of failed stand-up comedy and living in his car to finally achieve his “overnight success”. Now getting over $20 million per movie for playing with his rubber face is natural.
I decided in July 2007, almost exactly a year ago that I want to be successful. I’m not exactly there yet but I am an infinite times closer that I was back then. Now I have ideas that I am putting into place, I have goals that I am working toward and I have a drive to get there. I don’t know if it will take another 5 years but I am most definitely willing to put in the time.
Are you willing to put in 6 years of hard work to be successful or make it big?
After posting this, i read Brian Armstrong’s most recent post on Startbreakingfree where he talked about Ronald Jenkees, “an “average” guy in small town America who happened to really enjoy playing music” and started posting his songs to Youtube and then selling his cds. Brian mentions that it takes 7 years to become an “overnight success” but more importantly, the only reason that Ronald stuck it out was because he enjoyed doing it.
Find something you enjoy and stick to it for your 6-7 years. Best case, you will be the next overnight success and worst case, you will have spent 6-7 years doing something that you love.
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June 30 2008 09:58 am | Self Help and Start a Biz
Great post. Some really important lessons that should be learned very early in life.
Thanks Steve. I often wish that I knew what I know now when I was younger (like the song) but all we can do is continue to learn and push ourselves so that one day we can look back and be amazed at what we have done.
Interesting stuff. You hear all the time that you can become an expert overnight but never think about the actual time it takes. I am working towards financial freedom but am quite impatient!
Seth Godin is one of my inspirational blogger. Most of his posts are very information and covered almost 100% of what he is talking about.
Story about Jim Carey is very inspirational too. I’m just venturing in blog earnings and other online earnings. I hope not to give up now and keep on trying.
Whenever we read some inspirational blog posts or some motivational articles, it can boost up our drive and that what we need to keep doing what we are doing without giving up.
How I Increased My Luck in Just One Year | GET LUCKY on 08 Jul 2008 at 10:27 am #
[...] wrote in my last article that it takes 6 years to become an overnight success. Just yesterday I read an article by Mobhappy who quoted Joseph Licklider that “People tend to [...]
Adam,
Don’t give up or get impatient. Read my newest post “How I increased my luck in just a year”. I have been working on becoming financially free for a year now and although I am not that close yet, I am able to take pride in measuring my progress over the last year. I know that after putting in the work and time, i will accomplish my goal.
Anitz,
You are right. Motivation is half the battle. It is sometime what lets you put in all the time an effort. Just stay motivated and you can do wonders.
40 Ways to Increase Your Luck (100th Post) | GET LUCKY on 12 Aug 2008 at 1:21 pm #
[...] Don’t Give Up – Too many people give up right before they are about to hit success because they have unrealistic expectations of how long it should take to be successful. It takes years of hard work before you can become an “overnight success”. Keep trekking on and you will be successful. [...]