Let me show you a funny graph. It’s the number of plays “Back to the Beginning” had on the day before airing on “After Life” (spoiler alert: it was 4) and the number it had after getting spotlighted on the Netflix series.
I show this mainly for you artists.
It’s easy to get down in the dumps, judging our work by external factors.
“Back to the Beginning” was the same song on Thursday (and the previous four and a half years) as it was on Friday. I swear I didn’t change anything. It was a stroke of luck that it ended up on After Life. I’m grateful for that, believe me.
But I want to remind you that luck is out of your control. The thing you can control is the quality of your work, showing up for it, and choosing to share it with others.
I’m reminded of my two favorite definitions of success.
For commercial success:
Good Work x Time x Luck = Success*
For overall success:
Success is loving the life you currently have.**
Love,
Aaron
*This is a paraphrase of the economist Daniel Kahneman from his book Thinking, Fast and Slow. I highly recommend it. He says his favorite equation for success is talent x luck = success.
**I overheard a guest on the Business Made Simple podcast give this definition. I can’t remember who, though, apologies. I tried looking it up to no avail.