On the rewarding art of not stopping (others will drop like flies)

A curious thing happens when you’ve been in the game for as long as I have.

You’ll encounter people with tremendous talent.

You’ll be inspired by incredible work ethic.

You’ll be suffocated in self-doubt at the skills of some of your peers, many of whom are younger than you.

You’ll lose sleep over how much more money others are making than you.

You’ll be hit by relentless waves of worry as you contemplate quitting for the one-hundredth time.

But, if you’re like me and stay in the arena long enough, you’ll have encountered something else that’s also curious…

People who were doing great quit.

They just stop.

They burn out.

They drop off cold.

Maybe they got tired.

Maybe they thought they were too old.

Maybe they had a baby and used that as a reason.

Maybe they themselves had self-doubt in the face of newcomers who they deemed more talented than they were.

Maybe they saw their views drop, and they decided to pivot platforms or even industries.

Some people sink into the shadows and are gone for so long you’re prompted to do a Google search for their obituary.

People quit all the time.

And when they do, all the benefits of accumulation stop too.

This includes exponential growth, which comes only when you’re willing to brave the most dismaying setbacks after a time.

Quitting is easy when you have yet to see the traction.

But it was quietly building all the time if you’d just had the patience to see it through.

Because the gold really is in the accumulation of output and the build-up of repetitions you put into the process.

You stop, and the potential for traction dies.

You stop, and so does your personal growth.

Masters can’t afford to quit.