75. Go for first

or don’t try at all.

When you look at pieces in a collection of art, athletes in a race, or businesses in a certain sector- there is very little that separates first from last.

Maybe it is just a colour that draws you in, someone a second quicker than the competition, or a few more clients acquired. Whatever it may be, it usually is only a small thing that can seemingly be the thing to elevate one above another in a group.

This means two things:

1) Becoming good is easy

2) Becoming the best is hard

So if this is the case why do you need to lose blood, sweat, and tears over the marginal improvements? Surely you can just be an adequate artist, athlete, or business person?

The honest answer is… well yes, you can be adequate, you can be mediocre, but do you want to?

You must recognise that being first is 100x better than being second.

Who was the second person ever to land on the moon? Who was the second-fastest person in the world? Who was the second person to climb Everest?

The answer? (Unless you hold specific knowledge in that area) You don’t know.

‘Excellence transcends any medium, sector, or geography’

The requirement you have for marketing disappears, the constant second-guessing you receive disappears, the lack of trust from others disappears.

When you are the best- you hold authority and your word carries weight.

But you may be wondering whether becoming the best is even possible?

The answer is yes.

As stated earlier; the difference between the first and last place is very small- therefore easy to get in the top group.

So, to start with, aim to be amongst those good at what you do. Like anything, you will have a massive surge in progress but then plateau- this exposes whether you really want it, so embrace this hardship.

Here you must choose to stick at it or stop- remembering the fact that you will instantly be amongst the top 10% if you continue.

All you have to do is simply stay consistent, it’s not complex, it’s not tricky. And as you are going to do something every day why would you want to be mediocre?

Use the snowball effect of momentum to spur you on.

Seeing improvement (however small) can breed motivation to sustain continuous consistency in practice.

“Ninety percent of success can be boiled down to consistently doing the obvious thing for an uncommonly long period of time without convincing yourself that you’re smarter than you are” - Shane Parrish

So what you can do is:

1. Choose a craft, and

2. stick to it.

3. Remember that being first is so much better than second and, therefore, you

4. don’t settle for mediocrity.

Within no time you will be amongst the top group from simply staying consistent. So why not at least try and reap the benefits of being the best- or what’s the point?