One vs Infinity Shots: How to Make Everything Possible

I thought the best results go to those with the most willpower. I tackled tasks with the same mindset.

This often burned up all my resources and led to failure. Lack of resources led to burnout. Over time, it became clear that I could not achieve what I wanted. It hurt my self-confidence.

Estimated reading time: 5 min 6 sec

I see this problem in many young ambitious people. We go all-in on something. We really want a result. But if we fail, it wrecks our dreams. It's like having only one shot to make it.

I've been through this myself.

I will tell you about two stories in which I went through this cycle over and over again.

I was a product manager at Yandex. It was at one of Europe's biggest technology companies. I was responsible for was one of the of the most promising product division in the COVID 19 era. I was 19 years old. And I really wanted to prove I was worthy of my position, that I could pull the project through.

I felt a lot of pressure on myself. I just had to get it right.

In the process, I saw that it was impossible to achieve the product's goals. I tried to find an error in my calculations. I looked from different angles. I talked to more experienced colleagues. Spoke to C-level. But still seemed not possible.

The goals were set so high at the top that it was too late to change them.

And I did everything in my power to achieve it. I didn't sleep for 17 hours, I just worked, no days off. My head was just thinking about this: "How can I achieve it? I can't fail."

And finally... it didn't worked, the product failed.

In a big company, the wins go to the top managers. The losses are borne by the middle managers. So I was dumped with the responsibility for this failure.

It was a very big blow to me. Even now it's hard for me to write about it and this is the first time I'm sharing this story.

I made the decision to leave the company because I knew I had done more than I could do. Even knowing it was impossible to reach these goals, I kept hitting, kept going.

My energy was so low. Running out of all resources devastated me. I didn't want to do product management anymore. I started doubting myself and thought that door was closed to me forever. Feeling like a big failure, unable to succeed in product. It was a very traumatic experience.

I went to Stockholm because I wanted to start living "differently". I wanted to learn Swedish work-life balance.

But something inside me was telling me that this was not the life I wanted to live.

The pain disappeared. But, the resource still hadn't fully recovered. Yet, the dreams had already come back.

It took me another two years to fully recover.

I tried again. It was 2023 and I wanted to rock entrepreneurship. I set a goal in my head, mapped out a trajectory to achieve it and started grinding.

But the desired outcome was so far from what I saw in my head that it kept me stuck.

It was eating up so many resources. I wasn't living anything but the desired goal.

It was crazy. On my wedding day, I quit working an hour before the ceremony.

I created mental suffering along my path. I didn't see it.

I almost burned out again until I asked myself, "Do I love my work?" - and the answer was yes. But I had forgotten that.

At that point, there were only goals and they made me forget that I love doing what I do.

I realized that not everything depends on me. Only the inputs. And I could only measure my success by them.

I made a huge mistake. When I compared my progress, I focused on someone's years of effort. Instead, I should've compared when they had as many inputs.

But I can do even better.

I realized that I needed to compete with myself. Watching progress in the quality and quantity of work I was doing. Every day.

Learn to measure success by how much you've improved at what you love. This will give back to you the resource. You will also become better. That kind of person is unstoppable.

People want instant feedback on their inputs. We want to know if we're doing well. Are we improving? And, are we approved? That's how we get our resources back

And we've always had people who did it for us in our lives:

• our parents

• preschool teachers

• teachers at school

• teachers at university

• employers at work

But now you need to become that person for yourself when you start a new activity. Especially entrepreneurship.

If we keep playing the old way, trying to rely on willpower, we only have one shot. We either succeed or we don't.

People often choose suffering to delay rewards, expecting to benefit later. However, it's not always within their control. When they fail, they burn out, lose motivation, and give up.

Learn to refill your resources by appreciating your daily inputs. Then, you will have infinite shots to achieve your dreams.

Thanks for reading!

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