Itâs not the most talented who succeed.
Itâs the 1% who show up.
Iâve learned this from 28 years at the top of the music industry â and 5 years in the creator economy.
We think success is about talent, genius, strategy, a perfect ideaâthose things matter, but theyâre not critical
Hereâs what moves the needle:
Luck + Persistence.
Showing up repeatedly increases the surface area of luck.
99% of people either donât start or donât stick around long enough to get lucky.
The 1% do.
And eventually, they get a lucky break.
Every successful project needs a bit of luck.
But luck doesnât strike randomlyâit strikes those who keep swinging the bat.
Success = (Talent + Ideas + Strategy) Ă Persistence Ă Luck
Every podcast episode. Every Substack article. Every video. Every LinkedIn post. Every start-up idea. Every marketing concept.
Theyâre all creative lottery tickets.
Most people donât talk about luck because of ego.
Itâs not even about going viral.
Itâs about connecting with the right person, which only happens if you keep showing up.
Paul Brunson, Co-host of Lovetown USA was personally selected by Oprah.
She was just one of the 11 views he got on his YouTube series.
11 views.
đĄ Boring Wins
đ Jerry Seinfeldâs secret? One hour a day. One joke. Every day. For decades.
đ Toni Morrison? A single mum with a full-time job wrote one page every weekday morning before her kids woke up.
đ Babe Ruth? 714 home runs⊠and 1,330 strikeoutsâboth records held for decades
đ Maya Angelou? Wrote alone in a hotel room.
đ John Grisham? Ran a law firmâstill wrote one page a day. Sold 300 million books.
Every successful creator, solopreneur, and artist is the same.
They stutter. They stumble. But they keep going.
And itâs hard for us because we are neurodivergent.
We all deal with procrastination.
We all deal with executive dysfunction.
We all get in our own way.
The Lie That Stops You
The most dangerous self-limiting belief is:
âIâm not good enough.â
But good enough⊠for who?
Everything is subjective.
Brands. Ideas. Businesses. Comedy. Books. Fashion. Music. All of it.
Let me tell you the truth about the biggest band I ever managed.
The Music Industry Thought They Were Shit
Every record label in the UK passed on them.
Many walked out during their showcase.
The head of music at BBC Radio 1 said:
âOver my dead body will Scouting for Girls ever get played on Radio 1.â
They went on to become one of the most-played bands on BBC Radio 1 for multiple years.
They were even nominated for an Ivor Novello Award (for the most-played song on UK radio) and got multiple Brit Award nominations.
Why?
Because we kept showing up, and we got a lucky break.
One Saturday, the band played an acoustic track on another radio station.
Jo Whileyâthen BBC Radio 1âs Breakfast DJâwas driving her daughter to a birthday party.
She heard them. Liked one song. Thought the drummer was funny.
The following Monday, she played their single as a âtestâ track on BBC Radio 1 Breakfast show to millions of listeners.
The band had been unsigned for a decade.
And had an email list of 1,000+ superfans.
We emailed the list. Told them to listen to the trackâand contact the station afterwards.
The superfans blew up the Radio 1 phone lines.
Two days later, the band were on the Radio 1 playlist.
And from there, sold-out arena tours, a #1 album and single, millions of records sold, and multiple Top 10 hits.
Luck and persistence.
The Habit of Showing Up
This isnât hustle culture.
I fucking hate that. Itâs about us expressing our ideas and creativity.
This is about delusional optimism.
Itâs about knowing weâre meant to create something special, even when we have no idea what it looks like.
And following our curiosity over and over again until we unlock our potential.
My whole career has been built on delusional optimism.
This is how you build self-trust.
This is how your identity gets rewritten.
This is how books get finished.
How businesses grow.
How lives change.
Itâs how lots of money is made.
Through persistence and luck.
â $1 Done Club Experiment exists to Create That
Weâll announce details next week.
But if you want to get into the top 1%, this is for you!
If you feel lostâŠ
If you donât know what you want to do with your life
Set a challenge.
Experiment with your ideas.
See which ones work for you.
Action provides information.
Keep swinging.
Thatâs how luck finds you.