I just finished the first draft of my first book.

It’s been a bumpy start. I began in February and spent the first few hundred hours stumbling through the wrong idea. Then I needed a 2-month break to complete Productize Your Knowledge. But since July, I have been writing Magnetic Writing every morning for 3-4 hours.

It’s 149,500 words.

And to be frank—terrible.

But I couldn’t be more proud. Because the start of anything worthwhile is the hardest part. This is true in writing and life. And yet many people fumble on the first hurdle.

So today I want to share 5 lessons on persisting through tough projects:

Lesson 1: The start is supposed to suck

I learned this when I first began to write.

It took 13 gruelling months to attract my first 1,000 followers, and 18 months to make my first dollar. I was a dentist working 2 jobs at the time. It was the most challenging period of my career, but also the most important.

I realised that the early stages of success are not about proving it to the world.

It’s about proving it to yourself.

And boy, it can be a mission.

You must work hard with no guarantee of success. You must deal with doubt as you go against the grain. You must split yourself in two as you balance ‘normal’ life with building your dream one. And you’re in a constant state of comparison with those ahead.

This is hell.

But it is not a bug of being a beginner. It is a feature. Pain is the price you pay for the life you want. Importantly, it makes life worth wanting. If success came easy, it wouldn’t taste so sweet.

Welcome struggle like an old friend, and it won’t kill you when it comes knocking.

Lesson 2: The purpose is to play

I used to take myself far too seriously.

But if you walk around with a face like a slapped arse, the world responds accordingly. You stop having fun, and joy is such an underrated tool for success.

You should be serious about setting goals, but silly in executing them. I don’t mean doing things poorly, just lightly. With a smile. Because you must learn to get out of your own way.

For example, I know at least half of Magnetic Writing is crap. But if I gripped it too tightly, I would hate writing it. I would pressure myself to be better, pushing for perfection from day 1. I’ve danced that dance too many times to fall for it again. You work best when you feel at your best. And the simplest way to feel good is to learn to laugh at your lack of skill. You might suck now, but you won’t for long.

When the purpose is play, work feels light.

And on that note:

Lesson 3: Move the metric of winning

The biggest blocker to your success is being attached to achieving it. You only feel stressed and anxious because you need the result. We tell ourselves that once we ‘win’, we will be happy. But few people get there, and most who do, don’t realise they’ve arrived. You can spend your whole life chasing a carrot on a stick without realising you’re holding the stick, and the carrot is the fuel—not the point.

But it’s easy to say ‘don’t get attached to the result’. It’s almost impossible to execute. If we were monks living in a mountain, maybe. But we’re building brands and businesses, which is ground zero for competition and comparison.

If you want to survive, you cannot let the world define your metric of success.

You need one that’s internal: within your control. No one can give this to you—you learn it through action and reflection. But I’ll tell you mine:

Courage.

I realised that I only feel disappointed when I give in to fear. I don’t mind failing, but I hate knowing I didn’t try.

Courage as a metric is amazing because you win from day 1. It makes you fall in love with being a beginner, it makes you fall in love with fear, it makes you take risks that were never as bad as you believed.

But courage alone is not enough.

Lesson 4: Intensity is everything

When I want something, I give it my all.

I used to do this because I knew it would impress other people. But now I do it because it seems stupid not to. All results come from compounding, and compounding is the closest thing we have to magic.

Kieran Drew @ItsKieranDrew Don't wait for a miracle. Wait for compounding. 2:33 PM • Sep 6, 2022 15 Retweets 180 Likes Read 37 replies

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You don’t need to work as hard when your results work hard for you. The worst thing you can do is be stuck on the flatline of the compounding curve. The longer it takes to see the fruits of your labour, the harder that labour becomes. Sprint at the start, and you’ll survive it.

This means two things.

First, focus. You go much further, much faster when you head in one direction.

Second, immersion. You want to get good, fast.

For example, when I started writing, I knew I was decades behind where I needed to be. So I didn’t just do an hour here and there. I wrote every morning before work. When I wasn’t writing, I was learning about writing. I read almost every great copywriting book from the past 100 years. I spent hundreds of hours hand-copying my favourite writers. I quit TV so I could listen to every podcast from authors I love. I hired experts to get feedback. And I shaped every habit around improving at the skill.

This made me ready for my first ‘big breakthrough’—going viral 13 months after I began. And I certainly wouldn’t have been ready to write books.

Which was the long-term dream.

And this leads us to our final, most important point.

Lesson 5: Use a long-term lens

You must be impatient with actions yet patient with results. This is the dance that destroys most dreams— a paradox that pulls people apart.

So I have one ‘big rule’ to fix it:

Expect results in 2 years, not 2 months.

Because all good things take time, and the best take even longer. I only managed to complete the first draft of my book because I have given myself 2 years to write it. Now, 2 years might sound too slow. But a long-term lens is the gift that keeps on giving. If I followed this cadence for the next 40 years, that’s 20 books. And if I wrote 20 books in my lifetime, I would die with a smile on my face.

You might not be the smartest or most skilled person in the room, but you can be the most patient.

I hope these lessons help you as much as they have me,

Kieran

P.S.

I’m taking a bit of time off the book to let it marinate now. Sprints require rest. But I can’t wait to get it out to you.

You can join 1000+ people on the waitlist here.

And I’d love to hear what projects you started recently. I reply to every email, so reach out and let me know.