Obsessed with action

Here’s a list of books I read in the past 12 months or so:

• E-Myth Revisited (just finished)
• Outliers
• Million Dollar Weekend
• The Millionaire Fastlane
• The Mom Test
• The 4-Hour Workweek

A lot of business books. And yet, I still have not started a business.

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When I was in high school, I spent the majority of my days picking up new hobbies and grinding them out as hard as I could. I wanted to learn new things and git gud at them.

The idea of being good at something was such a huge motivator for me growing up. And for some reason, I had endless amounts of willpower and energy that I could use every day to sharpen my skills. On some days, I was spending 8+ hours after school just grinding on things like digital art or music production or whatever tickled my brain at the moment.

I was so obsessed with getting better and better that I couldn’t just sit around waiting for it to happen…

Where did this obsession go?

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After having moved to the US almost two years ago now, I see this strange, heavy air that surrounds people when they talk about work.

I’m on lunch break right now, but don’t worry. I can work on that while I eat.

I’m with family right now before the funeral, but call me if you need anything.

I’m back in [home country] right now, but I’m available. Did you need me?

I’m instantly reminded of this video by @ThePasinis:

I had actually seen this video years ago¹, but I didn’t realize how accurate it was until I moved here. There’s this looming aura that everyone seems to have but nobody ever acknowledges.

Everyone wants their time to be respected, but they give it up anyway.

Everyone hates their job, but they hate not working even more.

If “hard work” has to be so soul-sucking, then I don’t want to accept that this is the only way to live.

I want to work to live. Not live to work.

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Building a business is my ticket out of all this. If I create something that I’m really passionate about, I’ll be able to work on something I love doing. I’ll get to work flexible hours and from wherever in the world. I’ll get to earn money while I sleep. I’ll get the freedom that everyone wants to have when they retire, but I’ll get to have it right now.

I want to do it right. I want to skip the hard parts and avoid all the mistakes that other first-time business owners have made. I start building a reading list of these business books and YouTube videos. I’m looking at Reddit and I’m trying to find which books and videos I can get the most bang-for-buck from. I’m thinking to myself, “how do I optimize for building a business with the least pain?”

I’m probably embarrassing myself in front of the actual business owners among you by thinking this way.

Of course it’s gonna suck when you’re just starting out.

Of course it’s not going to be easy.

I have had this perfectionist attitude towards so many things in my life. I can spend so much time “researching” something, collecting knowledge from all over the internet, and ultimately never doing anything about it. I do think I learn a lot doing this, but it also gives me an excuse to stay paralyzed, unable to take any action.

How can I complain about the hard work of a job if I’m not willing to do the hard work of starting a business?

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I need to be obsessed with building businesses the same way I was obsessed with my hobbies in high school. I need to be obsessed with hard work if I seriously want to achieve the freedom I’m looking for.

I need to be obsessed with action.

I know when I reach the point where I have all the tools I need to get started. All that’s left for me to do is take the first step. If I had taken that first step and started a business after reading that first book, I’d probably be in a much different place right now.

This blog post is a reminder to myself that the best way to learn and gain experience and get good at something is to just go and do it.

And if I do that enough times—if I’m obsessed with it—then I will have already changed my life. ✻