One of the popurls today was Seth’s The secret of the web (hint: it’s a virtue).
I discovered a lucky secret the hard way about thirty years ago: you can outlast the other guys if you try. If you stick at stuff that bores them, it accrues. Drip, drip, drip you win.
It still takes ten years to become a success, web or no web. The frustrating part is that you see your tactics fail right away. The good news is that over time, you get the satisfaction of watching those tactics succeed right away.
No, Seth, it doesn’t take 10 years to become a success.
Put aside the two dozen or so people that I personally know who were self-made millionaires before they were 21 years old. Seth mentions the Ipod in his post, but doesn’t he realize that Steve Jobs was a “success” less than 10 years into his career? Wasn’t Gates?
Don’t 80% or more of the people who are successful Internet Entrepreneurs reading this post have less than 10 years experience doing business on the Web?
Even if you take Seth to mean “Success” as the apex of one’s career then Seth is still clearly wrong. It generally takes more than 10 years to make it as high as you’re gonna go.
“The frustrating part [of the Web] is that you see your tactics fail right away.”
No. That’s the FANTASTIC part of the Web!!!
The fact that you can know in days or hours, rather than months or years whether a tactic is successful or not is exactly why the Web allows for so many over-night successes. It’s old school trial and error on steroids.
“The trap: sprint all day and run out of energy before the marathon even starts.”
What the hell is he talking about? Soooo much wrong in such a short post - my head’s going to assplode!
The point of his post was “be persistent, it can pay off” . . . but do we really need YAFBP about an aphorism that’s at least as old as Aesop’s Fables?
2 Responses to “No. It doesn’t take 10 years.”
I’m a big fan of Seth Godin. Much of his work is insightful and inspiring. I also accept the general premise that the long haul can pay off of course, and persistence trounces talent in many cases. But he has to be wrong here. On the big scale and on the small. I got established and profitable in my business within months: now using the web I’m moving to a new level really rapidly. Yep, I think Seth is either meaning something else or is wrong about this one.
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Interesting. I’ve not followed Godin’s writings much but have had his “All Marketers Are Liars” on my to-read shelf for a few months…