There was a time in the early days of the Internet when blueprints for “how to do” the online thing were everywhere.
Watch over my shoulder and I’ll show you step by step…
Follow the exact road map I used to get all these models to drape themselves all over me and this exotic sports car…
Here is the exact blueprint for making your first million online…
These blueprints often sold for $97 or more a pop and were little more than a PDF with a bunch of charts and long-winded sob stories of how the author went from struggling loser to mega millionaire.
A few people made a lot of money and then ran for the hills, never to be heard from again.
The overt marketing message was:
"And you can have all this, too, if you pay me to see exactly what I did!"
So. Much. Bullshit.
Formulas are great for chemical companies.
Recipes come in handy when you’re looking to make something you’ve never made before. Like a 3 layer orange lemon sunrise surprise cake.
Step by steps are excellent ways of learning new, useful skills.
But here’s the thing about formulas.
Their success and execution depend on any number of variables that are often not in our control.
Getting the exact same results as the original is possible, but not common.
Eventually you have to learn how to rely on your inner compass to get you where you want to go.
To get your own results.
You have to make your own recipes.
Masters Use Their Inner Compass
Have you noticed that master chefs like Gordon Ramsey operate not with formulas but by using their inner compass — their inner guidance system — to create their dishes?
They make it look easy.
Just like Patrick Mahomes makes it look easy and Serena Williams and Michael Jordan made what they did look easy.
Just like Instagram and Tiktok influencers make their lives look easy.
No two dishes or super influencers or superstar athletes are ever exactly the same.
Sure you can get a general facsimile of pan seared halibut night after night.
Or do a similar dance in your bathing suit while a dog and two cats slide by on your frozen driveway.
Or throw a touchdown into the end zone during a pick up game of football.
But if you’ve ever had a meal and an overall dining experience that blew your mind in every way, you understand the concept I’m trying to convey here.
Sometimes all the elements come together in a perfect way and that thing — a video, NFT, musical, book, cat on YouTube, championship game — becomes a global sensation.
Others see what happened and want it to happen to them, too.
Enter the blueprints and maps in the form of Masterclasses and another micro industry is born. Along with a slew of wannabes, copycats and look-alikes who are quick to complain that the formula didn’t work when instant fame and/or wealth passed them by.
“I followed the recipe and it turned out horrible!”
“I had a map and I still got lost!”
“I went back to the restaurant a second time, ordered the exact same entree, and it was unbelievably disappointing!”
“I did the exact same dance and had my hair done the same way as that popular influencer -- followed their formula to a tee -- and I got no views.”
Roadmaps. Blueprints. Recipes. None are guarantees of excellence or success. What works in one situation or condition doesn’t in the next.
So Much Is in the Moment
The movie "Ground Hog Day" illustrates the idea that many things in life are of the moment and can never be replicated, no matter how hard we try or how much knowledge or information we have.
Better to learn how to navigate life with your inner compass than constantly rely on the maps of others.
It’s a lot harder and waaaayyyyyy more satisfying, believe me.
Unless you like mediocrity.
Then by all means, follow the maps others lay out before you.
I’m not knocking learning from those who have gone before us. We can all learn valuable lessons from the ones who do well what we want to do well, too. The blueprints might work for a while. They give us a place to start.
The master-apprentice relationship is vital to growth for both because the master learns from the apprentice and certainly the apprentice is learning from the master. It's a model as old as humans.
Those who have valuable knowledge share if their heart is in that place, and they want to pass on their wisdom. We can all learn valuable lessons from the ones who do well what we want to do well, too. Blueprints give us a place to start.
But at some point you will need to learn how to navigate without a map, relying instead on your inner compass.
Which will always point you toward your North Star.
Will it be easy?
Hell no.
Will you be better for it?
Fuck yes!
Tuning into Your Inner Compass
So how do you tune in to your inner compass? Where does it live?
Each of us has one. That’s the good news.
Knowing it’s there is half the battle.
Using it well requires practice. Lots of practice.
With practice comes mess ups and falling down and scraping knees and getting dirt all over you and ripping your uniform and people yelling at you.
Ask any master and they will agree.
Success in any endeavor is a combination of timing, fortitude, luck, and sheer willpower to keep going despite detours and setbacks and road outages and scrapes and bruised egos.
The path is not straight.
It’s often uncomfortably narrow.
You won’t know how well or how badly you’re doing most of the time.
Someone won’t be there every inch of the way handing you a blue ribbon or a trophy saying, “Good job! You got this! You're amazing!”
(If that is your reality, run as fast and as far away from it as you can. Because that is a blueprint for ultimate disaster.)
No. You do it anyway on your own because you have no other option.
This path — your path — is yours and yours alone.
You have to trust that what you're doing is right for you.
Guidance is available. I’m a huge advocate for hiring the coaches. Seeking the wisdom. Doing the work over and over and over again.
But in the end, no one else can draw your map or live your exquisite, wild, unique life -- except for you.
So, seek guidance and blueprints and maps with a grain of salt, knowing that no one else's path can ever be yours, just as yours can never be anyone else's.
Think about the power in that. Think about the fact that people are watching you and what you're doing. They think what you're doing is amazing and they wonder how you got to be where you're at in life. How good you are at what you do in life.
What an incredible gift.
Just beware of thinking that everything can be boiled down into a recipe or a formula. Life just isn't that way. Nor would we want it to be. It would be so dull.
What isn't dull?
Tuning into your inner compass. The rewards and the riches and the people that you meet along the way will be like nothing else.
That in itself is fantastic.
