When I was growing up, ABC’s Wide World of Sports had this tagline, “The thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat.” This has pretty much described my life as an entrepreneur.
I don’t mean I have experienced defeat in the distant past, but my life is filled with one victory after another (hardly). Quite often, I experience both of these in a single week, always with three steps forward and two backward.
Last Monday for example, I wrote a post about how to change your life with two words, something simple that I wanted to share with my followers. Honestly, I didn’t put a lot of effort into it, but it went semi-viral.
In a week, it garnered two thousand page views, almost one hundred Facebook shares, and seventy retweets. It obviously struck a nerve. By my standards, it was a home run. I was elated. Maybe I’ve cracked the code, I thought.
Not so much. Three days later, I published a new post on leadership and accessibility, sharing some lessons I had learned about saying “no” as a leader. I felt it was thoughtful and really important, but my audience? Crickets.
Typically, my posts hit about 900 on the day I publish them. This time, it didn’t even crack the the mark of 50. It made me want to ask: “Is this thing offline?”
Have you ever experienced these kinds of results? I’m sure you have. If so, you’re normal. It isn’t that unusual. I only achieve the semi-viral response – a home run – about once every 50 or so posts. This is also about how often I experience the cricket response – a strikeout.
In the early days, when I was just starting to build my online platform, my emotions pretty much tracked with my results. If I had a big hit, I was excited and motivated. If I struck out, I wanted to throw in the towel and quit. But over past 5 years, I’ve learned three important truths:
1-A post or episode does not a platform make. One post will not make you or break you. Sure, I enjoy the traffic, attention, and engagement when something really works. But I have also learned not to get too discouraged when something doesn’t.
2-Amateurs quit, but pros keep swinging. Professionals aren’t smarter than you. They probably don’t have secrets you don’t have – or can’t get. Instead, they are just persistent. When they whiff, they adjust their grip, straighten their shoulders, and take another swing. Because they stay at it, they eventually see results.
3-I have a better chance of winning if I stay in the game. So many people walk off the field before the clock runs out. They haven’t lost; they are just behind. But, the future is wide open. Anything is possible. The key is to keep stepping up to the plate. When I do this, good things happen – not always immediately, but eventually.
And the great thing about being a blogger, a podcaster, or any other kind of creative, is that nothing is wasted. Every setback becomes the raw material you need to create better, more nuanced art.
So next time you create something of value and don’t get the response you want, remember, even the pros only hit the ball 30 percent of the time they step up to bat. That’s just part of the game. Whether you win or lose, there’s always something to learn.
Antonio Neto 