Eat dirt

Failure, Sturgeon's law and controlling your effort
Jan 13, 2024
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Eat dirt:

Eat dirt.

Eat shit.

Eat failure.

Be upset.

Be angry.

Be frustrated.

Then do something about it.

We all need to eat shit.

Everyone.

We need to fail.

We need to be knocked down.

We need to have the world give us signs we’re screwing up.

We can’t assume life will be in a straight line.

It won’t.

But if we want success, we need to fail.

A lot.

Over and over again.

We need to have a lot of our ideas suck.

A lot to be wrong.

A lot to have no audience.

Through it, we’ll slowly get better.

We’ll slowly improve.

We’ll slowly move farther than we ever could imagine.

I’ve written almost 900 blog posts in 3 years.

Most of the world hasn’t seen them.

The ones I’ve shared haven’t done great.

Some of them suck.

But I have so many ideas.

So many pieces.

So many chances taken.

Most of them will be unmemorable.

But some may change someone’s life.

I know because it’s changed mine.

Pieces I read I can’t remember I did.

To current me, there’s no way I wrote this.

No way.

But I did.

I did it by trying.

By attempting.

By writing.

Whenever you’re stressed about failing, remember this law.

Sturgeon’s law.

It says ‘90% of everything is crap.’

Most of the work out there in the world sucks.

It’s terrible.

Mine included.

But there’s also 10% within there that shapes the world.

Maybe you’re in the 10%.

Maybe you’re not.

It doesn’t mean you can’t try.

It doesn’t mean you can’t fail.

It doesn’t mean you can’t show up. 

If I keep producing writing every day for the rest of my life, 10% of my work will be hundreds of pieces.

Hundreds of ideas.

Most will be unmemorable.

But some might change the world.

I don’t know.

The reason I come back to this is it’s about effort.

It’s about what you can control.

Through that journey, you’ll fail a lot.

You’ll screw up a lot.

You will eat dirt a lot.

But eventually, you learn to love the dirt.

Love the struggle.

Love the every day.

Do that and you’ll create something great.

Eat more dirt.

'Keep Going You're Doing Great'

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