The oft-ignored downside of “finding out what works” is learning what doesn’t.
When you put time and energy into something, it’s easy to be blinded by love and optimism. But it’s important not to conflate your own feelings with what you think your audience cares about; they will outright tell you.
The benefit of creating in public–as a writer, creator, or business owner–is the rapid-fire feedback loop that almost everyone is ready and willing to give you.
I don’t like that.
Do it this way.
That really resonated.
These are all data points showing you what’s working. And what isn’t.
Break up with “decent” ideas.
It’s easy to accept success (fuck yeah! That worked! Do that again!)
It’s easy to accept complete and utter failure (Oh Fuck! Never again!)
It’s much harder to admit partial failure (Well, that kind of worked…)
As Sahil Lavingia (CEO of Gumroad) says, “Every idea is a potential business, but not every idea is a million dollar idea.”
Be able to recognize the signs of a bad “Idea Relationship” and break-up with that idea before it becomes toxic to your trajectory.
Be ruthless with your standards; break up with the 95%+ that aren’t home runs.
You’ll thank yourself later.
