Why advice from successful people often falls short

So much advice from successful people hasn’t been helpful to me. 

• "Just do it"

• "What do you have to lose”

• "Live like it’s your last day"

• "You have nothing to fear but fear itself"

☝️ All mean well. All true in some way. But not helpful.

The fears that stand between your life today and a better one require ongoing confrontations. They're not like a bungee jump where you need just a split second of courage. They're harrowing moments over and over and over again, for years! And even after years, they're still scary, just not paralyzing. 

Instead of this "Just jump" advice, I've found it more helpful to take the "What else you gonna do" advice. It says, "Well, your current situation sucks. And changing it is going to suck too. But what else you gonna do?” This approach acknowledges that you don't have any good options (your back is against the wall). All roads lead to short-term shit, but only one has the possibility of long-term upside. You might as well choose that and get to work. Also the “What else you gonna do” advice makes no judgement about you, it just says get to work! The “Just jump” advice makes you feel like there’s something wrong with you – i.e. “Why aren’t you doing this?"

Nearly everything I've had to do to get my app off the ground has been extremely uncomfortable and scary for me. I thought about giving up countless times. The one thing that kept me going was that I had no choice. What else was I gonna do.