What does it take to become an overnight success? Is this pure luck, the product of hard work, or is something else involved?
The truth is overnight success doesn’t happen as fast as most people think. Instead, it’s the byproduct of years of hard work (often 10 years or more). Then, something clicks. The hard-work compounds. Others take notice, and momentum builds fast!
For most people, the road to becoming an overnight success is a long one. If you want to know how to become an overnight success (the real, honest truth), then keep reading. This post is for you!
The Meaning of Overnight Success
Overnight success is when someone rapidly goes from unknown to known. This transition happens so fast it appears to occur overnight. In its purest form, overnight success is accomplished with little effort.
In most people’s minds, an overnight success impulsively jumps on stage at a karaoke bar. She picks up a mic and sings for the first time. The crowd goes wild, and the singer is just as shocked by this newfound ability as her friends are. The initial performance creates chants for a karaoke encore. This ignites a television appearance. Next comes a record contract, and finally, a world tour.
Viola that is a true overnight success!
However, this rarely happens. What’s far more common is the long road to overnight success. This road is paved with hard work, thousands of hours of practice, and serious intention. After years of arduous momentum-building that goes mostly unnoticed, finally, a big breakthrough occurs.
Is this true overnight success? Well, maybe…
The truth is that most people who are viewed as overnight successes were actually on the 10-year overnight success plan. Keep reading, and I’ll explain more.
The Long Path to Overnight Success
This year, I’ve been reading the life stories of my favorite authors, bloggers, and speakers. Many of these amazing men and women are known for achieving overnight success. But this is mostly a myth. While their rise to fame happened quickly from an outsider’s perspective, there were massive amounts of work involved from their point of view.
A common thread running through each of these overnight success stories is a relentless commitment to hard work and a gradual building of momentum. When the effort finally compounded, it created the illusion of a rapid rise to fame. Studying the lives of these high-level achievers feels like hearing the same story over and over again.
Each individual worked hard, failed, picked himself back up again, studied what went wrong, and tried again. These hard workers learned from their mistakes, then repeated the process. Only after years of relentless struggle did others take notice.
How to Succeed
My takeaways from this are as follows.
- Don’t be afraid to dive in and try something new.
- Don’t be afraid of making mistakes either. Often failure is a stepping stone to success. So fail fast, fail forward, and fail often. Just be sure to learn and grow from your mistakes.
- Keep pressing forward. Study, learn, grow, and build momentum over time.
- If you keep this process up, you, too, could eventually achieve overnight success. After all, the phrase “it takes 10 years to become an overnight success” is around for a reason.
Overnight Success and the 10,000-Hour Rule
In his national bestseller, Outliers: The Story of Success
True overnight success is mostly a myth. Overnight success occurs when someone who has natural talent also logs 10,000 hours of intense practice. Eventually, the effort is recognized by others.
[Tweet “What looks like an overnight success is really the result of many hours of unnoticed, focused effort.”]
How to Become an Overnight Success
The key to overnight success is to keep going. So, don’t let failure hold you back. When you fail, get up, dust yourself off, learn from the experience, and try again. In fact, some of the best advice on success comes from the fictional boxing legend Rocky Balboa, when he stated,
“Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place, and I don’t care how tough you are. It will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard ya hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done!”― Sylvester Stallone, Rocky Balboa.
An Authentic Overnight Success Story
As a die-hard Rock fan, it was fun to discover that Sylvester Stallone’s real-life, overnight success story is just as amazing as the character he plays. You can read about Stallone’s painful and heartwarming journey here.
The short story is that Stalone was broke, homeless for a time, and at his lowest point, even sold his beloved dog because he couldn’t afford to feed it. A few weeks later, Sylvester watched a boxing match between Mohammed Ali and Chuck Wepner. That match inspired him to write the script for the first Rocky movie. Stalone was so energized that he finished the script in a mere 20 hours!
When the studio saw the script, they offered him $125,000 for it. Then, they raised their offer to $250,000 and $350,000. Stalone refused each time because he didn’t want to just sell his script. He wanted to star in his movie! Finally, the studio relented and paid Stalone a mere $35,000 for the script while also offering him the lead role.
After accepting, Stalone repurchased his dog. However, his beloved companion, which he sold for a mere $25 a few weeks earlier, had to be bought back for a whopping $15,000. Why? Because that was the only price his dog’s new owner would agree to. Wow, what a rough start!
Hard is Normal
Stalone’s story gives me hope. When it comes to overnight success, hard is normal. My hope is that this post is a reminder to have fun and enjoy the ride. And who knows, after five to ten years of failing forward and growing from every obstacle that life sends your way, you too may wake up an overnight success. This is the success journey I’m on.
Can you relate?
Continue the Conversation
Let’s keep the conversation going. Here are some questions for further reflection and discussion. Feel free to leave your answers in the comments below.
- What thoughts about becoming an overnight success resonated with you?
- How would you describe your own success journey? Was it difficult, or were you a true overnight success? Good, bad, or ugly, we’d love to hear about your journey.
- What other success stories do you know?
- What do you think of the 10-year plan to overnight success? In your opinion, is this accurate?
- What ideas on overnight success would you add to this post?
I wish you an incredible week as you grow toward becoming an expert in your field!
I think it’s also important, Jed, to define “success.” Does it only mean “Bunches of people know who I am now”? I don’t think so. That is fame. And fame is not the same thing as success. You can be famous and not successful (or at least in a positive, grounded way). And I believe you can be successful and not famous. Every so often, the two align.
If I define “success” in smaller, concrete ways, I find I’m quite successful a lot of the time.
I wrote another blog post on schedule. Success!
I treated someone kindly who was not so kind to me. Success!
I managed to disentangle myself from worry faster this time than is my norm. Success!
You get my point (and I know you live it!). Whether masses of people acknowledge me for doing these things shouldn’t be the main criteria for whether or not I am a success.
So true. I notice I get frustrated when I set the bar too high, or focus on the other people who are ahead of me. There are so many simple successes that happen every day. The trick is to focus on these success instead of getting frustrated by the things that aren’t there yet.
And you are so right about the importance of defining success too. For me, fame and money wouldn’t mean much without God, happiness, friends, and family to enjoy it with.
Jed,
When I read this I think about all those people at the tipping point, the point of impact or breakthrough that just missed the mark and stopped after investing all that time. I wonder how many times I have been at the edge of overnight success and just one more reputation, one more hour. Life is full of challenges, we are our biggest challenge. I haven’t read Outliers yet and want to pick it up after you mentioned it here. I’ve been reading Gladwell’s David and Goliath. Another book I read that talks about the 10,000 hour rule is The Sports Gene. It is interesting and provokes some thought.
Rocky is an interesting character and one of my favorites. Inspiring story. If you haven’t you should check out Sylvester Stallone story and how he got to this point. I did a paper on the film in college and I ran into a little of the background. If you want to read a story about overnight success that is one to read.
Great read Jed. Keep up the hard work.
Kirby
Thanks Kirby, I’ll have to check out The Sports Gene, as I love this idea of the 10,000 hour rule–I’ve certainly seen the power of extended practice and effort in my own life 🙂 Gladwell uses a lot of sports illustrations in Outliers. I wonder if he found some of his inspiration from this book?
And yes, Sylvester Stallone’s story is incredible. I read an article about how he sold his dog because he couldn’t afford to feed him, then bought the same dog back at a much higher cost after selling his first movie script–It’s absolutely incredible!
Sure appreciate you and all of the encouragement 🙂