This is how NOT to be successful
And I'll show you what they did to be successful.
👋 Hey, it’s Orel here! Welcome to my weekly newsletter where I share my journey and lessons as an entrepreneur who quit his job to chase his dreams.
I am a software developer, and so far I have x3 failed projects, x1 ongoing.
I am also publishing along with
tech book summaries and practical tips here.There’s a common misconception that you will surely be successful if you follow successful people’s routines. Specifically morning routines.
Over the last 4 years, I tried too many “successful people’s” morning routines.
Wake up and work the first minute you’re up.
Meditate → yoga → journal.
Wake up at 5 AM
Wake up at 4 AM
Read → meditate
Workout first thing
And different combinations of those.
If there’s 1 takeaway that I want you to take from this article, it’s this.
It’s okay not to follow a successful person’s morning routine.
But do try different approaches and routines to see what’s a fit for you.
We want to take on these morning routines because we want to be like the top 1%. So we try to imitate what they do.
The truth is much simpler:
If you want to be better than 99% of the people, you need to do something that 99% are not willing to do.
Let’s see some examples, shall we?
Famous people's morning routines
Warren Buffett
Warren Buffett, the greatest investor of all time, has a unique routine that he has been following every morning for the past 50 years.
He goes to McDonald’s drive-thru to order one of these full-nutrient meals:
Two sausage patties and a sausage
Egg and cheese
A bacon, egg and cheese.
Along with multiple cans of Coke throughout the day. It’s incredible how a man can live to 93 on this diet.
But that’s not what made him the best investor of all time.
What made him the best investor of all time was not eating this breakfast.
It’s consistently picking good stocks, after sifting through hundreds of them to find a good pick, which everybody thought was a bad pick by the way, and sitting around for decades, eating McDonald’s, waiting for them to return the value.
Fun fact: Buffet said once that most of his stock decisions are so-so. The reason his portfolio is huge is thanks to maybe a dozen good decisions.
Mark Manson
In the spirit of foodies, let’s continue with the author of ‘The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A F*ck’.
Mark built a 6-figures business from his bed. And that’s not the whole story.
Every day, he’d wake up at 11:00 AM, grab a Redbull and Reese’s cups, and sit in bed on his laptop for 2 hours.
But, like with Warren Buffett, that’s not what made him successful.
What made him successful was one idea that everybody thought was wrong.
And that idea is that young people are interested in self-help books. They just needed a different approach.
And most of his success was built on that idea.
Winston Churchill
Let’s close this section with another bedder, Winston Churchill, The British Prime Minister during World War II.
Churchill would wake up at 7:30 AM, have breakfast, be in bed, and then stay in bed until 11:00 AM. Sometimes even until 1 PM.
He’d sit in bed with a secretary and typewriter near his bedside, reading his mail and newspapers.
Well, surprisingly, that’s not his secret sauce.
His tenaciousness and defiance of Hitler, leading the British army and communicating hope to the British people is what made him.
There’s no one size fits all
I think we can all agree that none of these routines sound so appealing.
Yet these unconventional people are the 1% that we strive to be. And I bet other 1%'ers have or had even more bizarre morning routines.
But that’s not what got them there. They had done something most others would not dare to do. They swam against the current.
Personal experience
As I wrote earlier, I tried many different morning routines. The latest one was 20 minutes of meditation every morning and then journaling for 5-10 minutes.
I stopped it after 120 days. I felt like it was slowing down my day and that I didn’t start it with the same dedication and motivation when I woke up.
And don’t get me wrong, it’s not that meditating, journaling, or doing yoga is bad. I can actually hold my foot with my legs straight when I stretch thanks to the yoga.
It’s the fact that it might just not be right for YOU.
I am currently experimenting with going to bed at 9-9:30 and waking up at 4:30-5:00, making myself a cup of coffee/tea, and getting to a 3-hour writing session.
Why? First, I am trying to figure out at what time of the day I work best.
Second, I want to improve my writing skills.
Last words
Most of the things that we’re advised to do are probably good for us.
Meditation, journal, exposure to sunlight, etc.
Some are even made for improving your discipline, and if that’s what you’re after, by all means, do those things that you hate doing in the times you feel the most uncomfortable.
But if you’re looking for what fits best for you to have the ideal day, experiment. Try different ways to start the day. Find the way that makes YOU feel like YOU’re on top of your game.
Here are some of the most popular, if you’re into trying.
📣 Shout-outs of the week
- A game-changing article about why you should set your goals ahead and plan your day/week/month.You are firing people too late on
- Anton shares here a personal story and a life lesson about why telling the hard truth is important. And not only to your employees but also to yourself.How to start, grow and monetize your engineering newsletter on
- Although this is not an engineering newsletter, Gregor gives very good tips on how to start and grow any newsletter.
Funny article, Orel.
Thanks for the mention too :D
Great examples, and I enjoyed the writing on this one! Smooth and engaging :)
I feel the same way - I've tried the 5 AM club, and force myself to meditate.
What worked for me is having a routine I enjoy waking up to - before my son's birth, it was 5 AM and a triathlon training. The fact that I enjoyed the training made it much easier to stick to.