Goals are for losers, do this instead

I remember watching an interview of Kevin O’Leary and he was asked to express how he felt when he made his first million.

At the time, I thought his response was…lame.

He said that he didn’t even notice it had happened, and that it didn’t make a difference. 

As if nothing had changed.

What a dickhead, I thought.

I was a broke college student at the time. I’d kill for a million. 

I’d be grateful. I’d be ecstatic.

Fast forward 6 years. 

I was at a Starbucks in the Dubai Marina mall. The Starbucks was more of a open kiosk, near the entrance of the mall. I sat there working on my laptop, as the Eastern European and British tourists enjoyed their lavish shopping sprees.  

It was May 2023, and by that time its already hot as balls in Dubai. Imagine Arizona heat with Florida humidity. 

My Gmail had 122 unread emails, 90 of which were new customer inquiries.

You see, I had recently collaborated with a trusted Youtuber in our industry. His video had gone live maybe 13 days prior and became so popular that t exploded my business.

We had over 8x traffic overnight. And with that…lots of new inquiries. 

At that time, I only had two sales staff plus my brother and myself. We were all pulling 10-12 hour days just answering the new lead flow.

I sat at that starbucks without moving unless I needed more caffeine or a urinal. 

7 hours deep into answering maybe 100 emails…my inbox went from 122 to 140.

The people I had replied to messaged back, and new inquires were coming in.

We were imploding.

But sales were through the roof. 

We were so deep in the trenches, that we didn’t even realize that we passed an unbelievable milestone…a $1,000,000 month (we were only 22 days into the month). 

I remember one of my sales reps called me to congratulate me and to ask me how I felt about that, 

and my honest answer was: “I feel nothing different.” 

Shit. 

I’m like O’Leary, that fucking crab. 

Am I not grateful? Where is my ecstatic joy? What happened to me?

I struggled with that moment for a long time. 

I guess I wanted it to be triumphant.

But it happened while I was asleep in a studio apartment in the middle of the Arabian desert. 

And guess what? 

I still have 80+ unread emails to tackle that day. 

So I was right. Nothing had changed. I still had customers to answer, bills to pay, systems to fix, employees to train…

Maybe it’s the irony of the universe, but if you spend your time thinking a lot about the goal, chances are, you are not doing what is required to achieve it.

And when you actually reach your goal, chances are, you are so deep into the work, that you don’t even realize you’re there.  

My point is, it’s important to have goals and it’s important to celebrate milestones when you reach them, 

but the “desire” to hit goals might limit you.

Let me explain…

Chances are, when you finally reach your goal, for example, $1,000,000 in revenue in a month, it will be anti-climatic. 

If that is the only reason you work, then you are casting a ceiling over your own success, because everything beyond that goal seems meaningless, the “goal” has been reached and further work seems fruitless.

Second, when it comes to many things in the universe, like money, when you chase it, it runs away from you. 

But when you are aligned in your purpose, money comes to you. (I know that sounds real wishy washy but I will explain it more in the next letter, it’s just too long of a concept for today, just take my word for it for now.)

When you chase after that goal, that number, it just seems to always be outside of your reach, and it will remain there. 

But when you “let go” of the goal, but continue to put your focus on the work, the goal eventually is reached. 

But in this case, the focus is on the work. You put your energy in the pursuit of perfecting your craft. 

The same example I can use for this newsletter.

My goal is to grow my list to 200,000 active readers in one year.

But instead of just fantasizing about that number, I am focused on becoming a better storyteller, and a more persuasive and attention-grabbing writer.

If I can get that skill locked in, then the list will grow to the number I wish it to grow to. It’s inevitable. 

Do you agree with this concept? How does it apply to something you are doing in your life right now?

Reply to this email, I’ll read them and try to respond to as many as I can. 

- Vessal