2. Not Rushing Anywhere.

I spent my whole youth on books, studying textbooks day in and day out. I raced against other kids, pushing myself to the edge of sleep deprivation, et cetera. 

Especially as an undergraduate student, I kept myself busy to the very limits. In the Polish academic system, you should never land at the bottom of the list.

When a Polish professor evaluates exams, they use to fit a Gaussian to the distribution of scores. Then, they put a threshold somewhere.

It doesn’t matter all that much how many points you scored. What matters is that you scored higher than some other students.

Then, I entered academia which is nothing else than a personal race. If you don’t outcompete everyone around you in terms of publications, that’s a problem. Your academic career is not going to last for too long.

According to Larson et al. (2014), only a small fraction of PhD graduates can ever obtain a permanent academic position. No wonder I used to compete for my whole twenties — there was no other choice, although in general, I do anything I can to avoid competition.

Why I Stopped Rushing.

But at some point, I just stopped rushing. Don’t get me wrong — I still enjoy working a lot — but I changed my working style for three major reasons.

Firstly, I finally realized the trivial truth — we only have one body. It’s like driving one car for a lifetime.

You know you cannot exchange this car for a new one if it fails. Indeed, I witness people in business who burn out and pivot all the time.

Secondly, I always admired entrepreneurs and public figures who put all their life energy into one project. That project became the project of their lives — think Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, and Steve Jobs.

Notably, slow success builds character. Fast success builds ego.

Lastly, what would I do with myself after I become a fast success? As Mark Manson beautifully described in one of his YT videos, climbing a mountain is more pleasant than standing on top.

Once you’re on top, the only way forward is the way down. According to Diener, Lucas, and Scollon (2006), people quickly adapt to big wins and drift back to their happiness baseline.

And, do you really need to become a millionaire in a year or two? Because Gary Vee told you so?

And what if it takes you ten or twenty years instead — or, if you never become a millionaire? Does this make you a loser?

Why Is Fast Growth Overrated?

And sincerely, I still can’t understand why people and teams are so obsessed with fast growth and exit strategy. In most instances, the project which eventually wins the market is the best-implemented one rather than the first one. According to U.S.

Bureau of Labor Statistics data, roughly half of new establishments do not survive their first five years. Plus, if you need to rush just because twenty other teams are building the exact same thing, something is off.

That means that your skills and business model are not unique. You clearly do something wrong and you don’t base your business on a contrarian truth.

Building for the Long Run.

As a consequence of the aforementioned thoughts, I am building a company based on content. This, by nature, implies slow growth.

In fact, I was thinking about it for two years before I even started moving my pieces through the chess board. And, I deliberately chose a topic that I am willing to spend my whole life on.

It’s like a marriage for a lifetime. Regardless of whether the business is growing fast or slow, I keep on winning every single day. 

I can say even more: instead of rushing, I do not opposite. I chose a subject that I’d never want to exit.

Instead, I aim to develop my company as slowly as possible. Often, I arrange checkpoints for myself to check whether I am on the right track.

Indeed, the stop lever is always on. Sometimes I ask myself if I might simply suffer from a fear of success. Who knows… 

Anyways, I take my time and make sure that I don’t get overloaded with responsibilities.

In fact, I don’t even use an alarm clock! Sometimes, I wake up at 11 am. And so what.