Overlooked Tailwind Advantages Impact Creative Success
Two questions you need to ask before following another creator’s advice
Make 13 online courses, generating $100 each, and you’re onto $1,300 a month.
It looked so easy.
12 months later, I’ve fallen short of this target. I’ve launched six Udemy courses, one on Skillshare, and one with Zero to Mastery.
In the last three months, they’ve averaged $300 a month. It’s not to be sniffed at, but it’s nowhere near the $1,300 I was aiming for.
I hate asking for reviews and two of my courses have made less than $20 combined. This is despite them taking the same amount of time to make. (Around fifty hours each.)
When I started making courses, I knew it wouldn’t be easy. I’d have to put in the work.
However, I was confident I could make it happen. I’ve spoken to people who’ve done it. People who are making five figures a month from platforms like Udemy.
One thing I failed to appreciate is these people have advantages. Hurricane-size tailwinds. I completely overlooked them.
This isn’t to say they haven’t put in the work. However, hard work alone might not get you the same results in the same amount of time.
Many of us have advantages we don’t give credit to.
Myself included.
I’m a 6ft 4" white male from The UK whose first language is English
Talk about luck.
More than that, I’ve got a supportive family who’ve instilled me with confidence. I went to amazing schools and live in a country where university education is free at the point of use.
My hometown was also voted the happiest place to live in Britain in 2015. It consistently ranks in the top ten.
All this is to say I have huge, billowy tailwinds blowing behind me that I’ve done nothing to deserve. I was simply born in the right place, at the right time.
Teaching an online course in your second language when you hate being filmed must be hard as f*ck.
Before you follow someone’s advice, ask yourself two questions…
1. What advantages have they been given that others might not have?
There can be many factors.
Did they join a platform early? If they jumped on before the masses, they’ll have been rewarded. More followers, more exposure, less competition, etc.
Who are their parents? What do they do? Are they well connected? Nurture plays a huge role. If a young woman’s father is an award-winning speaker, it stands to reason she’ll be confident in front of a camera.
Are they physically attractive? This may be controversial, and I don’t want to conflate looks with success. As with all these factors, successful people put in the work. However, being physically attractive may have hidden benefits, such as a perception of good health.
2. What do they know now that they wish they’d known before they started?
Read their biographies.
Watch them on YouTube.
Why did they quit school at 18? What were their motives? Do they have regrets?
Failing that, invite them onto your podcast. (If you haven’t got one, this is a great reason to start!)
For example, one of my podcast guests worked with a boy band. He said the young lads felt restricted by their record label. They wanted to quit the industry.
I’ve no ambition to be a pop star, but some of my listeners might. This conversation will have given them a peek behind the curtain.
It’s the same elsewhere. There are often dark sides to the “good life” that we just don’t see. It’s better to find out now before you start climbing the wrong ladder.
Success leaves clues
Dig for them.
In Outliers, Gladwell tells tales of people who’ve benefitted from fortunate events. One such example is Bill Gates.
In 1969, Gates’s high school had a computer terminal at a time when even colleges didn’t have them.
“[Bill Gates] had a one-in-a-billion chance to get good at programming in advance of his generation… He’s the first to admit this.” — Malcolm Gladwell
Same with The Beatles. They performed live in Hamburg over 1,200 times from 1960 to 1964, amassing more than 10,000 hours of playing time. This met the “10,000-Hour Rule” popularised by Gladwell.
The rule is a proxy for how much deliberate practice someone needs to become an expert.
This isn’t to say Gates and The Beatles weren’t talented. They just happened to land in circumstances that catered to their gifts.
I’ve also been fortunate. My mum saved for well over a year so that she could buy me a trombone. As a single woman living on a council estate with two young kids, this can’t have been easy.
Sure, I practiced every day to achieve grade eight standard. It also helped that I was shy and didn’t like going out. However, none of this would have mattered had my mum not made sacrifices.
She made it happen.
I love cheering people on. There’s no greater joy than seeing friends and family members smash their goals!
However, we shouldn’t blindly follow success. Reaching the summit looks different for everyone. By the same token, so are the paths.
Because there’s no one true path, we need to whack out our magnifying glasses and do some digging.
These two questions can help:
- What advantages have they been given that others might not have? These shouldn’t be overlooked. They can help us determine if we’ll be successful should we follow their advice.
- What do you know now that you wish you’d known before you started? Take a peek behind the curtain. There’s little point in climbing a ladder that won’t make you happy.
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