The Truth About Success: It Can’t Be Taught
A quick disclaimer: I’m not a successful trader. In fact, I haven’t made any money trading yet. As of August 24, 2024, I’ve been losing in the stock market, with 8 out of 10 trades resulting in losses, putting me around $940 in the negative. Unlike other posts or YouTube videos, I haven’t made it in the trading business, and I’m certainly not rich. Instead, I’m here to share my journey with you, showing every step of the way, my progress, my failures, and the most crucial lessons I’ve learned, so let me explain you why this approach is fundamentally different.
If you take away only one thing from this entire blog, let it be this: Success cannot be taught. No YouTube video, blog post, or book can teach you how to be successful, especially not someone who’s selling you a course or summarizing bullet points they’ve exercised in their business.
The Devil in the Details: The Power of Small Decisions
The second most important point from this blog is this: The devil is in the details, and those details are the sum of thousands of small decisions you make along the way over a long period. Each decision is shaped by the previous one, and the next decision is influenced by the current one. This process continues for many months and years until you’re lucky enough to stumble upon one seemingly insignificant decision that moves the needle towards a positive direction and outcome.
That’s the dim light at the end of the tunnel, and if you’re fortunate enough to notice it, you’ll build your next decision on it. These decisions and outcomes make up what I call the journey. And each single journey is unique, like your DNA.
The Unique Nature of Every Journey
Now think about it: when someone on YouTube, in a blog post, or a book summarizes their journey for you, how helpful is it really? My experience says not at all. After-the-fact lessons and opinions are of little use to me, and likely to you as well.
So, what’s the point of this blog if my journey is unique to me and success can’t be taught? While I can’t teach you how to be successful, what I can do is share my journey, including every small decision, trial, and error. I believe true success is born from these small decisions over time, and sharing that could be beneficial to both you and me.
Learning from Each Other’s Decisions
We can learn from each other’s decisions and their outcomes, leveraging that knowledge for our own journeys. Our first focus should be finding that one insignificant decision that will move the needle toward a positive direction. That’s the first step.
I believe learning how to make one small, seemingly insignificant decision is possible to teach or at least share. Which leads me to my final point: When you know you’re not alone, and you have a community going through the same journey, it becomes the stepping stone to keep you and me going, to keep making those small decisions one at a time.
The Power of Community and Reflection
I may be talking to the void now, and possibly for the foreseeable future. However, even sharing this with the void is a small decision I’ve made, and it’s a step in the right direction because it’s helping me reflect on my decisions. This blog post is decision number five for me, which will shape decision number six, and so on.
If no one reads this, that’s okay, because ultimately, I’m doing this for me. And if you are reading this, then join me. Together, we can build endurance. We just need to keep making those small decisions one at a time, keep moving forward, no matter what.
Technology: A Tool to Save Time
While the technical solutions mentioned and demonstrated in this blog are implemented for trading, they’re applicable to any entrepreneurial venture. It’s fundamentally important to grasp that time is the most precious resource we have.
Technology is a tool to help you save time. The human element is the one that will make the decision, and technology at this point will not replace you. However, someone who is leveraging technology will outpace you.
Examples of Technology in Business
Let’s look at a few examples, one related to trading and a few others that aren’t:
- Imagine trading without a charting software, where you have to manually draw the chart and then make a decision, versus using a tool like TradingView or ThinkorSwim.
- Picture a business using paper and pen to track their sales versus someone using a CRM tool.
- Consider an online store that doesn’t accept credit cards versus one that does.
The Pitfalls of Technology
The downfall of using technology is that you may get sidetracked, spending more time on building a website, for instance, versus actually selling the product. Or you might focus on enhancing whichever technology you’re using to scale to 100,000 users while you’re still at 100 users.
The main takeaway is to use technology to save time. Evaluate all that can be automated, but only automate what should be automated, not for the sake of automation. Whatever solution you come up with should just work. Perfection is achieved with time, not at the beginning.
The Problem with Tutorial Content
There are so many tutorials and content about automation, not to mention the tooling. My issue with many of those content pieces is that they’re just examples. If you’re in it for learning the technical skill, then great. If you’re in it to enhance whichever business you’re in, then you should approach it differently.
Think of it this way: if you’re teaching someone how to automate a task versus actually automating a task that your business depends on, would you go about it any differently?
Real-Life Automation: Eating Your Own Dog Food
I think for many, the answer would be yes. Now you have skin in the game. I’m not teaching how to automate. I’m sharing my journey of how I’m automating my business, and the decisions I made along the way. This is not an example; this is real life. This is not focused on the technical aspect, but the practical aspect of it.
The expression goes “Eat your own dog food,” and that’s what I’m doing and sharing - the sum of decisions I made along the way and where it has taken me.
Conclusion: The Journey Continues
As we wrap up this post, remember that success is not a destination but a journey made up of countless small decisions. Whether you’re in trading, entrepreneurship, or any other field, the principles remain the same. Embrace the power of small decisions, leverage technology wisely, and don’t be afraid to share your journey.
Join me in this ongoing journey of learning, growth, and resilience. Together, we can navigate the challenges, celebrate the small victories, and work towards our goals, one decision at a time.