Aug

The Quiet Power of Showing Up

In Seth Godin’s speech at the 99% Conference about the importance of overpowering your lizard brain, he argues that innovation is less important to your eventual success than the simple act of finishing what you start. In his words:

What you do for a living is not “be creative.” Everybody’s creative. What you do for a living is ship.

By “ship,” Seth means “get your product out the door, on time.” Because survival isn’t about being repeatedly amazing; it’s about being reliable. And you can’t be reliable if you never ship.

What Incurable Drama Queens Can Teach Us About Success

There’s a reason that egocentric troublemakers like Terrell Owens and Rush Limbaugh still have jobs. Part of it is because they’re actually good at what they do (catching footballs, manufacturing dissent, etc.) and part of it is because the press loves to write about characters. (Because without characters, sports and politics are just numbers.)

But there’s a third part of the equation that no one likes to talk about because it isn’t as sexy or controversial:

They show up.

A cardinal rule of perception is that longevity creates respect. Being disruptive might get you noticed, but being reliable is what earns you the subconscious respect of others. Their shrewd insistence on always being there is what keeps Owens from getting himself blackballed by the NFL, or Limbaugh from getting kicked off the air. It’s also what’s led Owens and Limbaugh to become veteran institutions in their fields. And while institutions make for bigger targets, they’re also a lot harder to bring down.

This Is Why I Don’t Have a Book Deal (Yet)

Show Up and Ship would be a terrible self-help book because it would only be one page long. It’s the ugly intrusion of common sense in an age where success is sold as a quick fix or a multi-step plan. It implies that you need to invest in yourself for the long haul in order for your efforts to pay off — something that that seems counter-intuitive in this age of Internet immediacy. But instant gratification can’t replace proven reliability, and reliability can’t be proven instantly. Lasting success takes time.

It’s like the old Woody Allen maxim, “Eighty percent of success is showing up.” Because you may not succeed if you do show up, but you can’t possibly succeed if you don’t.