You gotta get going

In most professional spaces, there’s three key steps for success.

🎯 You’ve gotta get good. There’s only so much mediocrity any market niche can sustain. At some point, like Steve Martin said, you’ve gotta “be so good they can’t ignore you”.

️⭐ You’ve gotta get known. Nearly everyone I know who sells their expertise as a lawyer, accountant, consultant, or professional of any kind, tells me that their preferred (and often only) form of marketing is ‘word of mouth’. Which means people need to know who you are.

🚂 You’ve gotta get going. There’s no point being good at something, and known for it, unless you’re gonna put in the effort to make something of that opportunity and reap the rewards thereof. You’ve gotta put yourself out into the market and see what you can make of yourself.

Basically anyone who does these three things can succeed as a commercial professional.

… HOWEVER …

Most professionals want to do them in the order presented above. We like to lock ourselves away in a proverbial ivory tower until we judge ourselves to be good. Once we’re good (and not a moment sooner), we’ll start to slowly reveal ourselves to the public until we have received enough external positive reinforcement to convince us that we are known and trusted by others. Finally then, and only then, do we really get going to leverage our skills in the marketplace.

By which time you’re, what, 50? 60? More? There’s potentially decades of successful commercial activity lost, and for what? The whole thing is an elaborate strategy enacted by our fragile egos (don’t worry, we all have one) to avoid ever having to face an uncomfortable truth about ourselves. (That we don’t know everything. That we have blind spots. That our skills can be improved. That no matter how good we are, we will not receive approval from everyone. Etc etc, the list goes on).

It’s true, if you want to be a successful professional, you’ve gotta get good.

It’s true, if you want to be a successful professional, you’ve gotta get known.

However, making those two things your goal will often prevent you from doing the one and only thing that can truly set you on the path of improvement:

You’ve gotta get going.

Put yourself out there. Adopt a growth mindset. Be bold and brave with your strategies. Learn in public.