The habits of successful people are useful references.
Waking up at 5 AM.
Reading every day.
Strength training.
Meeting people.
Posting on social media.
Taking relentless action.
Lately, however, I am more interested in something else.
What was different about the people who disappeared despite doing the same things?
When you only look at those who succeeded, you inevitably focus on the "common traits of survivors."
But that is not all I truly want to know.
People who entered the same market.
People who put in similar effort.
People who started posting around the same time.
Why did some persist while others vanished?
For example, in social media:
Demanding too much perfection from the start
Changing direction too often during periods of low growth
Chasing others' success stories and losing one's own axis
Rushing monetization too quickly
Failing to balance with a main job or daily life
Being unable to endure periods of no engagement
These "reasons for dropping out" are actually more helpful for those just starting out.
Stories from successful people always contain survivorship bias.
The reasons they survived are simply never discussed. Because they disappeared, no one cares about them anymore.
They have connections now.
They have capital now.
They have name recognition now.
Talented people gather around them now.
None of these were their starting points.
Therefore, copying exactly what successful people are doing now does not guarantee the same results. If it did, everyone would be a millionaire.
It is not the current location of successful people, but the path they took to get there.
Furthermore, why did so many people disappear along that path?
This is far more important when considering reproducibility.
Success stories offer dreams; failure stories reveal landmines.
Both are necessary, but if you are about to start something new, what you should want to know first is "where not to step."
Starting something new requires more than just the finished form of successful people.
Where did they stop?
Why didn't they continue?
At which stage did things become unsustainable?
Only by examining this can the path become three-dimensional.
Copying successful people shows you the entrance. It is fine to start with imitation; I have no objection to that. However, imitation alone will not take you further.
Records of those who disappeared serve as a map to avoid exiting incorrectly.
Before searching for ways to grow, reduce the causes of disappearing.
I believe those who last long are not people who know many flashy correct answers, but those who consistently avoided fatal mistakes.
