3 Ideas: Stick to the Basics, Be an Amateur, Slow vs Fast Success

Me coping lmao

#1 Slow Success vs Fast Success

I uploaded my first article two years ago today. This is my 85th one. But I’m still a nobody, so consider this idea me coping, lmao.

"Slow success builds character, fast success builds Ego."

-Ratan Tata (RIP)

Huge success early on, especially if by luck can be a problem.

You get the results of success without knowing how to deal with it. If you have one viral piece every other piece has to live up to its success or it’ll feel like a failure. The only path is downhill if you don’t live up to the success.

(But hitting rock bottom can sometimes be good. I’ve explained it here. )

However, small wins early are game-changers.

Mr Beast’s first-ever video got thousands of views. The small win felt good, he wanted to relive the feeling, and this motivated him to keep making videos. Now he’s the biggest YouTuber on the planet.

Who knows where he'd be now if that first video didn’t go semi-viral?

#2 Sticks to the basics

I learned to flip just to realize how useless it is.

Don't get me wrong—it’s a childhood dream and a cool flex—and I’m glad I learned it.

But it’s not efficient, and parkour is all about efficient movement. Instead, mastering basic moves like vaults, kongs, and safety rolls is what makes you a master of movement.

Flashy gets attention. Boring gets results.

While most chase the views, the greats obsess over the basics.—Farnam Street

After all the basics are used 80% of the time.

When I asked my parkour instructor to teach me some new vaults, he said it’s not about learning new vaults and doing them once. Anybody can do that and say they do parkour. It’s about being able to do one vault everywhere, even off a building.

It’s like what Brucelee said “I fear not the man who has practised 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practised one kick 10,000 times”

I get what he means: there’s no use to a parkour vault or roll if it’s not instinctual. Only when you can do it with your eyes closed—when it’s second nature— will you be able to use it in real-life situations.

When it comes to basics, Naval Ravikant explains why he’s a base-level thinker:

The really smart thinkers are clear thinkers. They understand the basics at a very, very fundamental level. I would rather understand the basics really well than memorize all kinds of complicated concepts I can’t stitch together and can’t rederive— Naval Ravikant

#3 Be an Amateur

(For anyone who had to know: yes, Amateur and Immatuer are two different things)

‘Be an Amateur’ is an idea I came across in Austin Kleon's book "Show Your Work"

So why be an Amateur?

It permits you to fail in public, look ridiculous, and make mistakes. It allows you to keep learning, experimenting, and trying new things. He even uses this line from CS to explain how Amateurs can be useful —“Often two schoolboys can solve difficulties in their work for one another better than a master can”

And so I Identify as an Amateur.

Thanks for reading. And I want to thank all of you who regularly read my work :D

See you in the next one.