Being prolific is the entry point to greatness
No one becomes a master of their craft without being prolific.
Either you become prolific and reach the pinnacle or you're forced to languish in the depths of average.
The master has failed more times than the student has even tried
- Stephen McCranie
Malcolm Gladwell popularized 10,000 hours as the time you need to put into anything to gain mastery over it. While the number is debatable, directionally it is true. You need to put in the hours and get to 10,000 iterations1 to master something.
The greatest athletes were also some of the most prolific. Kobe Bryant once made 100,000 free throws one summer to correct a flow due to an older injury
To correct the flaw, Kobe said, he went to the gym over the summer and made 100,000 shots. That's 100,000 made, not taken. He doesn't practice taking shots, he explained. He practices making them.
In business, it is fitting that the richest man on the planet is also one of the most prolific businessmen ever. Few people can run 3 industry-leading companies, in 3 different industries while also tinkering around to make the government more efficient.
Some of the most famous writers were also the most prolific.
Isaac Asimov wrote more than 500 books, averaging ~70,000 words per book during his lifetime. Stephen King has written over 60 books and everyday at 8:00 am, he sits down with his cup of tea and writes 2,000 words in 4 hours, usually completing the first drafts of his books in one month.2
Speed and time are two key components of becoming prolific.
The faster you are, the more you can get done in the same amount of time and the more consistent you are over the years, the more your advantage compounds to a level others can’t match.
Here’s Kobe Bryant explaining how getting in 1 extra practice a day, put him years ahead of his competition.
Being prolific means pushing beyond reasonable
The greats often stand out by demanding more than what is reasonable from themselves and those around them. It can be surprising to learn just the sheer amount of effort people at the top of their field have put in and continue to do so.
Seth Godin has published a blog daily for more than a decade. He’s approaching almost 10,000 posts. That is incredible and far beyond what any reasonable blogger would write. He’s also written 20 books.
The consistency is the secret sauce.
If you’re aiming for greatness, push beyond what others think is normal. Push beyond what you think is normal right now. This clip from The Last Dance hits it out of the park.
It is not enough to start; you must finish and move on to the next project.
The next exercise, the next test, the next paper, the next essay, the next program, the next shot, the next software.
The first 90% of the project takes 90% of the time. The final 10% takes 90% of the time
-Tom Cargill, Bell Labs3
You learn things at the end that you will not learn at the start or the middle.
You will learn things when you revisit what you've already shipped that you cannot learn without shipping.
You don't need to ship publicly
But after you've reached a certain level of proficiency, you will benefit more from shipping publicly than keeping it private.
The internet is a noisy place. Most people will not care about your single post, song, video, program. They are too busy drowning in a sea of information. If they do care, you get at best 1-2 days in the media cycle before the algorithm moves to the next new thing.
The reason to post publicly is people will eventually pay attention when you put out great work consistently.
No one cares about what did not work
You might worry that you're not putting out your best work. The Beatles wrote 100s of songs and it is their top 10-20 songs that cemented them as the one of the greatest bands in the history of music.
Some of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs have failed multiple times before succeeding. Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group, launched over 100 companies, Virgin Cola, Virgin Cars, Virgin Brides, Virgin Clothing, and Virgin Vodka - all of which failed. Does anyone remember them?
The important thing is to release the bangers. Since you can't know before-hand what will work or not in most forms of creative work, it is better to put it out there than not. You might have to release the same work multiple times4. You might have to launch the same thing multiple times to catch the market’s attention. But that is ok. No one is keeping track except you.
The edge in today's economy is being prolific.
Either you steadily gain trust by putting your work out in the public over time or you improve your skills enough to stand out with each new thing you put out.
Either way, the path to getting there is becoming prolific.
It has never been easier to be more prolific and share your work with the world.
It has never been harder to stand out.
Tom Cargill said it in a programming context, but this is true of projects in general. Full Quote: "The first 90 percent of the code accounts for the first 90 percent of the development time. The remaining 10 percent of the code accounts for the other 90 percent of the development time."
Many songs are often released and flop, only to climb the charts upon re-release like The Sounds of Silence, Creep, or Old Town Road
Fantastic piece.
Sometimes we forget this, so thanks for spelling it out:
"You might worry that you're not putting out your best work. The Beatles wrote 100s of songs and it is their top 10-20 songs that cemented them as the one of the greatest bands in the history of music."