Lesson 4 of 12: Being Good is Easy. Being the Best is Almost Impossible

This is part 4 of a series of 12 lessons I've learned about life and entrepreneurship over the past few years of building a successful online business. I hope you click here and start from the very beginning.

Want to listen? There's an audio version below

12 Lessons I've Learned from My Journey

4: Being Good is Easy. Being the Best is Almost Impossible

They say half of success is just showing up. That means anyone can do it. It's easy to be better than average, but very hard to rise to the top.

Over the past several years, I've seen hundreds of people create blogs, start podcasts, and become “wantrepeneurs.” Since the barrier to entry is so low, a lot of people try their hand at online business.

And of the people who stick around, many of them are good.

But being good isn't good enough.

To be the best, you have to be the best. To rise to the top you have to show up earlier and work harder than your competition.

Almost every middle school and high school in the country has a football team. As do most colleges. But there are only 32 NFL teams.

To be the best, you've got to want it more than the next guy (or girl), and you've got to out-work them too. To rise to the top of your game or to be the best in your industry, you've got to live and breathe what you're doing, you have to be obsessed, or you'll get passed up by the person who does and who is.