Working Hard is Overrated

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In January 2018, I was on a road trip in Morrocco with my best friends when the idea came to surf some waves (~12ft) in Taghazout together.

We had cumulatively 20 hours of surfing experience, and despite the fact I had ever caught only 10 waves for countless drops and pulls, I felt ready (and way too confident) to take on the biggest wave of my life.

We rented boards, jumped straight into the water, and paddled as fast as we could to reach the open sea before the next set of waves.

Just arrived at the spot, I quickly saw a towering wall of water I knew would let me ride all the way to the sand, showing off my skills and courage to my friends.

I turned around, started paddling, leaned forward, and… obviously, completely mistimed my approach.

I paddled WAY too early and was already at the bottom of the wave when it broke, making me fall out of my board, with the wave crushing and dragging me under the water, leaving me struggling to catch my breath.

A Wave Of Momentum

If I’m telling you this story of the day I spent the rest of the afternoon getting sunburned on the beach, it’s because, early next week, I stumbled upon an article from Toby Howell - arguing the skill of timing is one of the most important skills to master.

I couldn’t help but agree with him.

In his article, Toby recounts his experience as a social media manager at Morning Brew:

For him, his success was greatly due to the fact that he was at the right place at the right time.

I realized reading his article that, just as I started paddling way too early that afternoon to catch the wave of a lifetime, everyone playing the internet game (myself included) must carefully master the skill of timing to launch new ideas into the world and see success.

Launch it too early, and you’ll get crushed. Too late, and you’ll miss the wave.

I’m actually talking from experience here, as someone who has missed dozens of trends but caught one at just the right moment.

In 2021, I wrote and released my first book about the Social Token revolution on Amazon right when they were taking off, allowing me to sell over 1,000+ copies in a matter of months.

As a first-time author and 6-month-old writer, it was truly incredible so many people trusted me and paid for my book instead of cold beers on a Friday night (a much better use of $15, in my opinion).

Sure, the book needed to be written, and it had to be good enough for people to read it and potentially recommend it to their friends. And sure, even if it has a few fluff, the information in there is still a really great start for any beginners wanting to start in Web3.

But just like Toby, I acknowledge a huge part of the success of this book is due to my luck in releasing it at the right time.

For years, I had launched many projects that had failed, but this time, the right timing let me ride a wave of momentum all the way to success.

Checks By Jack Butcher

Only 3 months ago, Jack Butcher showed to the world (or at least my corner of the internet) that he was a master at surfing the wave of a cultural zeitgeist.

In the past few years, the blue "verified" checkmarks on Twitter have become a currency of sorts, representing one status and influence in the digital world. So when Elon Musk decided to make them accessible to anyone for $8 a month, it sparked a major debate, and the internet went wild.

In the midst of this debate, Jack saw an opportunity to play with the cultural significance of the verified checkmark. He launched a new art project called Checks featuring a simple grid of 80 colorful Twitter-verified checkmarks echoing the style of artist Damien Hirst, and based on a simple yet powerful idea:

Don’t trust, check.

And Checks hit a nerve.

In 24h, Jack sold over 16,000 copies of his artwork at $8 a piece.

Three months after the release, the secondary sales of those 16,000 original art pieces now represent 53,322 ETH on Opensea only (approximating ~$96M when I write those lines), and inspired thousands of derivative projects, spreading the message and bringing attention to Jack's original artwork.

As Jack explained in an interview with Margaret Corvid:

Jack undeniably has talent, and he actually already had proven his community-building skills before with his project Vizualize Value.

But he acknowledges it himself:

Part of this success is due to its skill to seize opportunities when they arise.

Get Your Skills Ready

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying timing is all you need to succeed.

Tapping into the cultural zeitgeist is only part of the equation, and you’ll also need perseverance and skills.

If you're looking closely, out of the countless examples of the creators who successfully seized a moment to build businesses, many like Jack had actually been working hard, sharpening their skills over the years to be ready when such occasion arised.

The designer Traf, for example, started selling Iphone icons right when IOS 14 came out, allowing iPhone users to custom the icons on their home screen using the Siri Shortcuts app. With this smart move, Traf made 6 figures in 6 days.

He definitely launched this project at the perfect moment.

But as he's telling it himself:

This was an overnight success that took him 7 years.

Another example I like:

Greg Isenberg grew an AI community to 25,000+ Discord members in 3 weeks, all from a few tweets and the right timing.

Greg definitely leveraged well the growing interest in AI to create his community, bringing him business down the line. But it was not his first try building online communities, and he had learned to build ones for years before that.

When the time came, he simply leveraged his knowledge to seize an opportunity.

I could keep going like this for hours, telling you how Dickie Bush generated $63,024 in 3 days with a 2h Webinar on AI right when GPT-4 came out, or how Jackson Fall gained 100K+ followers in 5 days tapping on a new trend.

But my point is, all these creators have trained for years getting ready for those moments. They all have sharpened their skills and understood one thing:

Ideas that come out at the right time have the highest likelihood of spreading.

Closing Thoughts

When you stay true to your values and explore slightly different ideas around your niche without succumbing to the shiny object syndrome, you can piggyback on new trends and get new ideas out in the world at the right moment.

That's what many, before you, have done.

→ Writers have tackled topics people were currently talking about.

→ Designers have created new designs more in tune with their times.

→ Community builders have launched new initiatives in their communities.

And if you're playing the great online game, you must follow their path, experimenting with new ideas and going with the flow, mastering the skill of timing, and seizing opportunities.

In short, you must be prepared to catch the wave that will lead you to success.

Speak soon,

- Eliot

PS: I'm experimenting with new tones and ideas. If you enjoyed today's edition, let me know here - It'll help me understand better what topics I should write about next.

Side Note: Because so many of you asked advice on how to build and grow their internet community, I’ve decided to gather all my knowledge in a 40-pages guide, compiling the best practices I've discovered to launch, grow and monetize a community in Web3.

I’m giving it away for free, all I ask is that you share this article with a friend that you think would enjoy it as well. If each one of you have just one friend subscribing to this newsletter, I’ll reach my goal of getting 3,000 readers by June, and be forever grateful 🔥