You Don’t ‘Try’, You Do | #28

You Don’t ‘Try’, You Do

No. 28 — read time 1 minute

Welcome to The Soloist, a weekly newsletter where I share timeless ideas and insights about life, business, and art.

Quick note: I’m at the Jersey Shore this weekend visiting my mother for the holiday weekend so today’s newsletter is a quick one. Next week we’ll be back to regular programming. If you’re in the U.S. and celebrate, have a Happy Independence Day!

Today at a glance

• You Don’t ‘Try’, You Do

• Tweet: The Best Investment

In 1985, Conan O'Brien, then an undergrad student at Harvard, met his idol — John Candy.

After giving him a tour around Cambridge, he worked up the courage to tell his idol he was considering a career in comedy.

"You don't try comedy." Candy replied. "You do it or you don't do it."

Those words impacted Conan enough to realize this was his burn-the-ships moment.

He had to go all-in.

In a similar story, Sylvester Stallone talks about sitting in his 8x8 ft apartment with a legal pad and pen coming up with stories and characters.

The one idea he couldn't shake was the theme of "unrealized dreams".

It was that theme that led him to write the story of Rocky.

And it was that theme that led him to insist on playing the role himself despite heavy pushback from the studio who wanted to buy the script but cast someone else in the lead role.

Despite not having a dollar to his name.

Despite having to sell his dog because he couldn't feed them both.

He insisted it had to be him in the role or no script.

Creative endeavors are punishing.

They are power law outcomes.

As Conan says, its a career where people "notoriously flame out".

But we know one of the top 5 regrets of the dying is

"I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me".

You can watch the video here:

Tweet: The Best Investment

Warren Buffett has said “the best investment by far is anything that develops yourself, and it’s not taxed at all”.

The reason is simple. "Whatever abilities you have can’t be taken away from you. They can’t actually be inflated away from you."

I enjoyed this answer from Kieran because it looks at the question from a different angle than the one the podcast host probably had in mind.

P.S. Whenever you're ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. If you save a lot of bookmarks on Twitter (like me), try my tool dewey. It’s the easiest way to search and export your Twitter bookmarks.

2. If you're looking for coaching on audience growth book a slot here

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