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Hey Legend, The ultimate paradox of success is this: It changes nothing. Or rather… It changes none of the things you’d expect. At least, that’s how it’s always been for me. When climbing the mountain, I can’t help but imagine how incredible it’s going to feel to get to the top. At last, the suffering grind will come to an end and I can finally just take a deep breath and enjoy the view. But that’s never really what ends up happening, is it? Instead, I crest the summit and the feeling is always the same. A brief hit of joy. I re-learned this lesson awhile back after a video went viral. See, up to that point I’d been grinding on the content hamster-wheel… I’d published HUNDREDS of videos over the course of a couple years and all I had to show for it was 200 subscribers and a couple dozen views on any given video. And then, one day… something hit. 1M+ views in the span of a week. Since then, I’ve had a couple dozen videos and articles hit a similar level of virality and the aftermath always follows the same trajectory: At first, you’re high as hell. Refreshing analytics like a degenerate day trader. Every refresh delivers more views than your entire previous body of work (combined). And then something strange happens. You acclimate. And then, something even worse… You go numb. I mean, when your normal post gets 5,000 views What does it even mean? The numbers lose all sense of context and meaning. And so, after a few hours (or a couple days at most), you stop checking altogether. Because… why bother? It’s already an overwhelming success, right? (key word there is overwhelming) Here’s where things start to take a turn for the worse: First, you start judging every new video against that previous impossible benchmark. Which will really screw with your mind. ‘Cause ya know, when you’re first starting off and none of your content is hitting, it’s easy to blame the algorithm and pretend you’re shadow-banned… But once you have objective proof that that’s NOT the case, that you DO have the ability to produce something “good” (whatever that means), then every time you fail to live up to that standard, it grinds at your soul. Here’s the second way things can take a turn for the worse after a big win: Whether that’s a piece of content going viral… On the backside of any big achievement, you’re likely to feel a bit of emotional whiplash. And that can really mess with your head. You’ll think: “What’s even the point when getting the thing I wanted feels so empty?” My buddy Kevin broke X the other day with a mega-viral post. Here’s what he had to say on the topic: Before going viral, sweep the floor. The point isn’t a clean floor. When your sense of worth comes from what you do, rather than what you achieve, then you inevitably become immune to the emotional volatility of external “success”. TLDR: the joy is in the climb, not the peak. Stay Hyperfocused, My Friend. P.S. hit reply and tell me what’s the coolest thing you’ve seen on your climb in 2025? Here’s some more things ya might dig: 1. High Agency people DOMINATE in the game of business (and life)… Watch this video to learn how to train yourself (and your team) to become High Agency. 2. Want a business that doesn’t collapse the moment your focus slips? If you’re hovering around ~$30k/month and feel capped by chaos, context-switching, or sheer mental load… Hit reply with “escape velocity” and I’ll send you the details on the private program I run to help founders build a durable, systems-driven path to $100k/month—without burning out or white-knuckling every week. 3. Setting small goals is dangerous. Here’s why. |
