Eat dirt

Failure, Sturgeon's law and controlling your effort
Jan 13, 2024
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Eat dirt:

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Eat dirt.

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Eat shit.

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Eat failure.

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Be upset.

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Be angry.

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Be frustrated.

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Then do something about it.

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We all need to eat shit.

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Everyone.

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We need to fail.

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We need to be knocked down.

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We need to have the world give us signs we’re screwing up.

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We can’t assume life will be in a straight line.

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It won’t.

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But if we want success, we need to fail.

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A lot.

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Over and over again.

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We need to have a lot of our ideas suck.

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A lot to be wrong.

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A lot to have no audience.

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Through it, we’ll slowly get better.

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We’ll slowly improve.

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We’ll slowly move farther than we ever could imagine.

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I’ve written almost 900 blog posts in 3 years.

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Most of the world hasn’t seen them.

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The ones I’ve shared haven’t done great.

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Some of them suck.

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But I have so many ideas.

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So many pieces.

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So many chances taken.

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Most of them will be unmemorable.

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But some may change someone’s life.

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I know because it’s changed mine.

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Pieces I read I can’t remember I did.

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To current me, there’s no way I wrote this.

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No way.

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But I did.

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I did it by trying.

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By attempting.

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By writing.

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Whenever you’re stressed about failing, remember this law.

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Sturgeon’s law.

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It says ‘90% of everything is crap.’

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Most of the work out there in the world sucks.

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It’s terrible.

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Mine included.

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But there’s also 10% within there that shapes the world.

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Maybe you’re in the 10%.

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Maybe you’re not.

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It doesn’t mean you can’t try.

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It doesn’t mean you can’t fail.

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It doesn’t mean you can’t show up. 

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If I keep producing writing every day for the rest of my life, 10% of my work will be hundreds of pieces.

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Hundreds of ideas.

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Most will be unmemorable.

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But some might change the world.

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I don’t know.

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The reason I come back to this is it’s about effort.

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It’s about what you can control.

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Through that journey, you’ll fail a lot.

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You’ll screw up a lot.

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You will eat dirt a lot.

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But eventually, you learn to love the dirt.

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Love the struggle.

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Love the every day.

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Do that and you’ll create something great.

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Eat more dirt.

'Keep Going You're Doing Great'

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