In business, we dismiss amateurs as lacking skill or commitment.
We have it backwards.
The amateur is driven. They obsess over craft when others clock out. They iterate when others accept “good enough”. They do the small things that make the big differences.
And through this work, they discover something: great work isn't comfortable. It demands long days, late nights, early starts, small victories, and quiet persistence.
Be an amateur.
How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.
― Annie Dillard
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Love doesn't scale.
That's the point.
Love doesn't optimise. Love doesn't automate. Love doesn't growth-hack.
While everyone else is trying to 10x everything, you're in your workshop doing the slow work. The deep work. The work that matters.
Every business wants viral. You want craft.
Every business wants followers. You want devotion.
Every business wants to scale. You want to matter.
Love is the competitive advantage that can't be copied. Because it requires something most brands can’t do_
_give a shit.
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There are two types of love.
Hot love.
Hot love is infatuation. It burns brightly but fades quickly. All heart, no head. It's running around chasing the ball with no idea where to position yourself. You'll burn out.
Cold love.
Cold love is different. Calm. Considered. Long-lasting. Both brain and heart working together. Emotion removed from decisions. It's knowing where the ball will be before it gets there.
You need both.
Desire is a contract you make with yourself to be unhappy until you get what you want.
― Naval Ravikant
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How do you get people to love your work?
Simple. Annoying. True.
You have to love it the most first.
Before anyone else will. Before it makes sense. Before it pays.
You have to sweat each detail. Work out why it won't work and fix it. Think about it in the shower, on the bus, while you're running.
Obsess.
Pour the hours in. Pour the love in.
People know when someone has poured their heart into something (their bullshit detectors are legendary).
Love it first.
Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care.
― Theodore Roosevelt
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Mickey Smith sacrificed for love.
Broke Bones. Lost friends. Froze to his core. Nearly drowned.
When we think of passion, we think of love. But, passion is something far more beautiful than love. Passion is loving something so deeply, that you're willing to endure a tremendous amount of suffering in the name of that something.
― Cole Schafer
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You’re dead 5 days a week.
Life is short.
The biggest mistake you can make is doing something just for the money.
People live for the weekend. Dead five days a week, alive for two.
The math doesn't work.
They say if you love your work, the rest is easy. I say there’s still a lot to do, but love makes the efforts and late nights and extra duties worth it. Love gives your work purpose. It also guarantees that you’ll still care when TSHTF.
― James Victore
We're going to be dead longer than we're alive. Save the boring stuff for when you're dead. Keep the interesting things for now.
Find work that doesn't feel like work. Or you're not living. You're just waiting to live.
INTERLUDE
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Gladwell says it takes 10,000 hours.
Here's what he doesn't say loudly enough:
10,000 hours is a lifetime if you hate it. 10,000 hours fly when you’re in love.
Talent is the desire to practice.
Love makes you want to practice. Makes you lose track of time. Makes you forget to eat.
Most people never make it to 10,000 hours. They quit at 100. Maybe 1,000 if they're stubborn.
But if you love it?
You'll do 10,000 hours without counting. You'll do it for free. Hell, you'd pay to do it.
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Love isn't grand gestures.
It's the small stuff.
The details.
How you do anything is how you do everything.
― Zen Proverb
A handwritten note. A quick email reply. Margin notes in books you'll never sell.
The best bit?
Most details are free. But most people still ignore them.
Don't be most people.
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Why I ride.
Rewards. Sacrifices.
Early starts. Late finishes.
Getting up, dressed and out the door even when I don’t want to. Working hard when the rest of the world is only dreaming about it.
There’s a fair bit of loneliness.
Pressing forward even when there is no one watching or cheering me on.
No medals.
Just me versus the work, the road, the hill, the challenge, the weather.
It’s about pressing on when every fibre in my body is ready to stop.
It’s about discomfort. Leaning into it.
Exposing my limits, building my confidence and reaching heights I never thought I would.
And, when I’ve finally worked hard enough, for long enough, I am the best that I can be, and that’s all anybody could ask for.
Me versus me.
With only one winner.
This is why I ride (and run my own business).
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Customers have supernatural bullshit detectors.
They know when someone's going through the motions. When it's just a job. When you're phoning it in.
They can feel it in the packaging. The email response time. The way the product sits in their hand.
But they also know love when they see it.
They sense when you've lost sleep over details. When you care more than makes sense. When you've poured yourself into something.
You can't fake this. You can't growth-hack it. You can't optimise it.
You either give a shit or you don't.
Just work. Don't wait for inspiration. Work brings inspiration.
― Jerry Seinfeld
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Everyone's looking for their passion, like it's hiding under a rock somewhere.
Stop looking. Start building.
Love isn't discovered. It's constructed.
Daily. Boringly. Systematically.
It's not about finding the perfect thing. It's about perfect attention to the thing you choose. It's showing up when motivation is dead. It's caring when caring is hard.
You don't find your passion, then do the work.
You do the work, and passion finds you.
But only if you show up. Every day. (Especially when you don't feel like it.)
Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, maybe you should set up a life you don't need to escape from.
― Seth Godin
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5 Benefits of Love
Love stands out _ in a world of automation and AI, love is the anomaly. Customers spot it immediately.
Love is affordable _ free, actually. Available on any budget. Costs nothing but caring.
Love pays well _ eventually. Not just in money but in health, relationships, happiness. And yes, eventually money too.
Love builds your best life _ life's too short to spend it on work you don't love. Do the math.
Love gets stuff done _ love gets you up at 5am. Makes you stay late. Helps you push through the dip. Makes you good - really good - at something.
- iain.
//
END
FYI:
This #ftg⇲ is made entirely out of passages I’d already written. I needed to do a little research for some quotes, but other than that, it came straight from Apple Notes and are.na⇲, and I entered them here.
