The Zero-Work Creator

How to outwork everyone else while not working and create a life of maximum freedom.

Most people spend most of their waking hours forcing themselves to do work that:

• Has a lot of mental friction
• Is against their nature
• Feels effortful

They force themselves to try the newest trendy business model that they're not truly interested in, and when a new shiny thing comes around 2 months in, they start it all over.

Persistence and Time

The main component of achieving success in business is time. If you never stick with one thing long enough to really become a master in it, then you will never be able to create a business that prospers. You keep resetting the clock.

The Endless Cycle

The reason for this cycle is because when you get excited about something new, you are unaware of all the downsides that come with it and the amount of work that is required. You underestimate the amount of work that is required to start seeing real results. This cycle consists of three stages:

1. Uninformed Optimism: You're excited about the new shiny thing and unaware of challenges.
2. Informed Pessimism: You start to learn about the downsides and effort involved.
3. Suffering: You question why you're doing it in the first place.

Many people will start the whole process over again with the enchantment of uninformed optimism in a new shiny skill or business model.

Until recently, I was part of this group of unfortunate souls. I started several different businesses over the years. Each one was the surefire best business model to go from 0-$10k per month. I would spend anywhere from 6-18 months on each business until I inevitably burnt out in the crash and burn stage or found the next shiny object. I kept quitting around the time when I would have started actually making money.

That's when I realized that businesses don't fail, people fail.

Why People Quit

People quit for 3 main reasons:

1. No clear vision

Most of us live our lives with the assumption that if we spend 40 years doing something we don't really like, we can eventually retire and figure out what we want to do.

Without a compelling vision or purpose, it's easy to get discouraged and give up.

You need to rethink your entire approach to entrepreneurship. Start with the end vision in mind.

Check out my article How To Gain Clarity if you want to learn how to create your vision.

2. Fail to create and sell a product

A business is a vehicle that creates value by alleviating pain for others by solving their problems.

A lot of entrepreneurs delay putting out any products until they are perfect or the offer is just right.

"I need to do more research so I can nail down my offer".

Most of the time, your product idea is completely unaligned with what your target demographic actually wants and you won't know that until you put it in front of them. The answer is to put out the product as fast as you can and start getting feedback. It's the back-and-forth with your audience that creates a good product. It comes from feedback and iteration. You aren't going to put out a good product on your first try. The greatest killer of any entrepreneur's dreams is launching a product that you poured your time, energy, and heart into to face the one thing you feared all along... Nobody cares about your product.

Many aspiring entrepreneurs focus on everything except creating and selling a product that people actually want to buy. You need to get the mud out of the pipes anyway, so just start shipping offers as fast as you can.

3. Get stuck working on something you hate for people you hate

Reducing Mental Friction

Mental friction is the amount of energy required to begin working on a task and maintain focus on the task until it is complete.

The amount of mental friction for a specific person to complete a specific task is dependent on how much that task aligns with their goals, how much clarity they have on how to accomplish the task, and the amount of perceived effort required.

There are at least two ways to reduce mental friction:

1. Split the task into subtasks. The mental friction of completing a subtask is much smaller than the whole task.
2. Align the task with your nature.

The Trap of Client Work

Getting stuck in time-consuming client work or freelancing that takes up all your waking hours is a great way to make sure you have no energy left to actually make progress.

You can end up being stuck working IN the business and never get a chance to work ON the business (that's how you free yourself).

You need to evolve beyond trading time for money as fast as possible.

Freelancing can quickly turn into a worse version of a normal job.

Getting trapped in client work can lead to burnout and prevent entrepreneurs from scaling past a certain level.

The Importance of Alignment

All of these reasons can be boiled down to one big idea: alignment.

• If what you are working on is not aligned with your nature, there will always be mental friction.
• If you can completely align your work with your nature, there will be no mental friction and it won't ever feel like work to you.

Becoming a Zero-Work Creator

1. Start with the things that feel like play to you, but feel like work to everyone else.
2. Consider how you can create a vehicle that allows you to do these things and explore your curiosities and create value for others.
3. Lean into your nature, immerse yourself in a world that captivates you, follow your intellectual curiosities, and see where they lead you.
4. Spend time creating content, talking to people in your chosen field, creating a network, and building an audience.
5. Listen to what people are saying. Ask them what they struggle with most and what is causing them the most pain.
6. Develop your own systems and processes based on your experience.
7. Turn your knowledge and processes into valuable products or services for others who are getting started on their journey.

"The Master does nothing, yet he leaves nothing undone"