On Passion and Ambitious Goals MoC • Success and Hope MoC

Playing in your league

What is your league? Are you playing in the right one?
The internet is a great equalizer. It gives you the same reach and opportunities as anyone else.
That's a good thing.
But it's also a bad thing. Because it puts you on an equal footing with players much bigger than you.
This is where the feeling of inadequacy comes from for many.
The FOMO or creeping inferiority complex that both pushes people to exaggerate their life or outright lie on social media, and make other feels they're not enough.
The internet makes you feel you're not enough. You're too old, not rich enough, not talented enough.

You see all these success stories, and at some point you feel like you should also have a shot at it. And you do.
But in what league? Are you trying to catch up with the people you're looking up to?
The internet often makes you want to compete in the wrong league.
You see these social media influencers on Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube, and now you also want to have a million followers.

And when you're struggling to reach a hundred, you are demoralized.
That is the effect of competing in the wrong league.

The internet makes you oblivious that those 10M+ YouTubers started with 2 subscribers.
That this Twitter influence with 500k followers started with 5.

You see, if you try to get the same exposure as these giants, you'll wear yourself out. There's no way in hell you can get as much views, as much reach as them. You're trying to run before you can walk. No, you're trying to fly an aircraft before you know how to crawl.
Take sports competition. Can you imagine if an amateur started trying to compete in NBA?
What if someone who picked up a tennis racket a few months ago entered an ATP tournament?
Or a Sunday motorcycle driver lined up for a MotoGP race?

Massacre. Yet that's exactly what happens when you aim—consciously or not—for the same type of reach as established influencers.
Just it's not as obvious, because often there is no direct or obvious competition. No close timed game where you are declared loser, and you can realize how far you're from the pros. You just get ignored. No one pays attention to you, and that's it.

Now, what if you started playing in your own league?
Starting with publications you share with your friends.
Share and bounce ideas with a few close followers.
Start your own little community of geeks.
Talk to one person. Get one client. One follower.

Instead of trying to reach a thousand followers, why not exchange with a few friends?

It's a matter of looking at what you have right now, where you are, and what you can do with it, instead of focusing on what you don't have and would like to.

Same goes for me in trading. Seeing seasoned traders earning thousands per day and trying to replicate their results. How about starting with the very basics: focusing on learning, developing an edge, building discipline and patience, and treating trading as it really is: a business. Then go from there and start by just being break-even. Then just above break-even. Then being tens-profitable. Then hundreds-profitable. And when you're hundreds profitable for a long time, then maybe aim for thousands-profitable.