Stop Searching for Shortcuts

There’s no such thing as a shortcut to success. Sure there’s optimizations you can make along the way, productivity you can improve, efficiencies to be made. You can automate the repetitive work, and outsource what you don’t want to do.

However, when it comes to the work that’s fulfilling, that’s hard, there’s no shortcut.

Rand Fishkin puts it better than I ever could, when it comes to making carbonara:

“There’s years of attempts, of knowledge-seeking, of failures and mistakes and learning. There’s interrogations of Italian friends and the occasional friendly chef in a trattoria. There’s hours of online research. There’s shopping trip after shopping trip to Italian specialty stores and orders from online retailers and taste-testing and eventually… after a long process, there’s the realization one day, at a restaurant that serves incredible carbonara… that yours is even better.”

If you want to do work that matters, then it’s going to be difficult. Fulfillment in your work is directly effected by your input (alongside a variety of other factors, including not being burned out and having work that you actually enjoy).

It’s simple, but difficult. That’s what makes it worth it. Keep persevering. Keep enjoying the journey. Have fun, do work you love, put in the effort, and take breaks as you need them.

Questions, comments, or want to start a discussion? I’d love to know your thoughts! Let’s chat over on this post’s Twitter thread.