Sometimes in life, we must pivot.
Nowhere was this more evident than during the pandemic, when suddenly everyone had to figure out how to not only work their jobs but also educate their children from home. (Where they soon discovered the open floor plan concept was absolute bullshit, possibly the worst idea they’d ever had, save for covering every inch of their home in shiplap.)
After the fact, I read research on how quickly businesses manifested those work from home changes. When the notion of employees working virtually was simply theoretical, large employers estimated that it would take up to a year to convert their processes. Yet when faced with the reality of keeping their businesses afloat after the country had a giant CLOSED sign slapped over it, the average company did in days what they previously estimated would have taken months.
Those employers did what was necessary—they pivoted.
I had a similar experience with my writing. Between changes in the publishing industry and my producing books faster than my fanbase could read them, I had to find a new way to use my (let’s be honest, somewhat limited) skillset.
For me, the answer was ghostwriting.
I wasn’t passionate about the idea of writing for others, but I was committed to maintaining an indoor lifestyle, so I pivoted.
That I would love ghostwriting was an unexpected bonus.
Now here’s the part where my pivot benefits you.
For the past few years, I’ve had backstage access to some of the most successful people in America. And even though my clients have entirely different professions and personal histories, from celebrity realtors to CEOs, I’ve begun to notice some running themes.
These traits come up so often that I’ve started calling them the Seven Steps to Success.
Today, I’m sharing the first two of the Seven Steps because the faster you employ these steps to build your empire, the quicker you can hire me as a collaborator. Everyone wins.
Now let’s get after it.
Work Harder Than Anyone
Full disclosure, this is not a sexy step. This is not a fun step, at least at first glance.
One of my first clients—and one I can talk about because he’s put me on his Instagram, so it’s not exactly secret anymore—was Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles’ Josh Flagg. On the show, he appears to simply glide through life. The common perception is that he was fed listings by his wealthy LA family and it was all so easy for him.
Let me tell you, that’s a myth.
While the family name helped open doors, it’s only because he knocked on them first. Literally. For the first six months, he wore out a lot of expensive shoe leather walking the streets of Beverly Hills, knocking on doors, trying to form relationships with homeowners. That’s how he made his first sale. (Read all about it in The Deal.)
What you don’t see on the show is the eighteen-hour days he puts in, even today. His work ethic is relentless, but you don’t realize it because he makes it look chic. There’s never a moment he’s not building his business or thinking of ways he could be better at it. I spent a lot of time shadowing him and it was… fucking exhausting. Bathroom stops? Coffee breaks? Lunch with wine? Not on his watch. (In no way does this lessen my love for him; actually, I love him more for it.) I was astounded by how hard he worked, years and years into having put himself on the map of luxury realtors.
What’s funny is, to this day if things feel slow, he’ll knock on doors.
The superhuman strength to just push on is a common denominator with my clients. I’ve written with one woman who put in hundred-hour weeks for years as she was getting her business off the ground.
When you work harder than all your peers, there’s no such thing as work/life balance. It’s all work, all day, every day. Vacations, holidays, long lunches with wine? Fat chance. No breaks. Just work.
Okay, Jen, you might say, I hate every bit of this advice so far.
Well, that’s because I haven’t yet covered the second step.
Love What You Do
My first job out of college was doing data entry for an HMO. Forty hours per week, I called doctors’ offices to verify their phone numbers and addresses to make sure we had them correct when we printed our provider directory. (This back in the day when the telephone was the closest thing we had to Google.)
Once I verified this information, I had to fill out three forms so Chuck—the world’s most passive-aggressive man who cleared his phlegmy throat no fewer than ten million times per day—could put the information into our multiple databases. Nothing made Chuck happier than dropping an erroneous form back in my inbox and telling me I’d missed something, before horking up yet another lung. I hated my circumstances so much that I changed all my passwords to entries like YOUDIESOON, EATADICK, and FUCKCHUCK, just so I could aggressively log in when all I wanted to do was scream. (These passwords proved embarrassing when IT requested them for some upgrade.)
In no way, shape, or form did I love what I did. I credit Danny Bonaduce and Howard Stern for keeping me from hurling myself out the 19th floor window of what is now the Boeing Building. Were it not for their mid-1990 radio shows, I’d have never made it. So when I say it’s necessary to love what you do, I get it that it’s not that easy. Often, we’re not at the point where we can love what we do, especially when we’re also concerned about indoor living.
When you’re pursuing what you love, when you understand and embrace what the fruits of your labor will produce, time feels different. When I was at the HMO, I felt every second of every minute of every hour. It was Stairmaster time. When I’m in the flow of writing, the hours fly.
How do you know what you love?
Well, what would you do for free?
For Josh, he grew up loving real estate. All he wanted to do was see houses. As a toddler, the only thing that would calm him down is when his mom strapped him in the backseat of her convertible and drove him around LA to look at gated properties. When he was a grade schooler, he went to day camp at historic Greystone Mansion and he’d often sneak away from arts and crafts to show European tourists the grounds. (I don’t know why no one thought it was weird that an eight-year-old was their docent—but it’s probably because he loved it so much that it made sense.)
So, when it came time to pick a profession, Josh knew exactly what he should be doing. (Again, all of this is in The Deal.)
There’s an Instagram account I follow where the woman puts on makeup while sharing stories about being a school nurse. She is wildly entertaining. While she seemed to enjoy nursing, it was clear that her true passion was storytelling. What’s cool is that just this week, she was able to quit her job as a nurse to create content full time. She did what she had to until she could do what she wanted to do.
The caveat here is, if you want to succeed, you must not only love what you do, but also understand what your version of success looks like. Maybe your passion is animal rescue. In this case, I imagine your metrics would be more about how many lives you saved, rather than how much you have deposited in an FDIC-insured facility.
For my clients, what they love has entailed many aspects of business, so the financial success followed, likely why they were able to hire a ghostwriter.
The key is, they found ways to pursue their passions while either holding down other positions or living incredibly spartan lifestyles. Their thought process was always, “I’ll suffer through the building process because what I’m doing doesn’t feel like work.”
So think about what you love and I’ll be back with more tomorrow.
More:
The Last Pivot (Part III)
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