Late last year, Lizzo came out of nowhere and blew up to mega-stardom. It was almost as if, in a day, this incredible, funny, down-to-earth musician was suddenly ubiquitous and embedded into the public consciousness. Only thing is, it didn’t happen overnight. The rapper took to Twitter to talk about what her “overnight success looks like.” She said, “8 years of touring, giving out free tix to my undersold shows, sleepless nights in my car… constantly writing songs, hearing ‘no’ but always saying ‘yes’. Glad I never gave up.”
Moral of the story here: overnight success is not a thing. It’s bullshit. In many spheres, there’s a massive misconception that all it takes is one idea; if you have an idea that’s good enough, the success will easily follow. But, simply put, this statement wrong and misleading. Truth is, it takes dedication and tonnes of hard work to be successful.
Overnight success merely refers to the market suddenly realising the value in a product or thing that hadn’t been seen as valuable up until that point. But that product has had tonnes of work put into it, you just didn’t see it. Also, don’t get overnight success confused with “early success”, you can see people like Billie Eilish or Mark Zuckerberg as overnight successes because their success occurred when they were at such a young age. But, don’t get it twisted, they worked hard on their craft for many, many years before you even heard their name.
Most people want to be successful, but more often than not, they don’t know exactly what success is or how to pursue it. In fact, one of the biggest obstacles on the road to success is the reputation of success happening“overnight”. Because people think like this, we get impatient, we’re short-minded and the result is just a deflated attitude when it doesn’t happen.
That’s why we need to be inspired. We need to be exposed to new ideas and new ways of thinking constantly. Additionally, we need validation to reaffirm that we’re on the right track with our actions. If you feel like you fit into this category of people, don’t be afraid to put yourself out there and get inspired.
Thanks to NO/BS, there’s a conference full of inspiring creatives coming near you. The NO/BS Conference is Jason Soultan’s (agency owner) response to the vast amount of conferences in the digital space, where meaningful content is severely lacking. Here, like-minded, creative individuals can get together, share their stories and become inspired. So if you feel like you need a little motivation or you want to confirm you’re on the right track, make sure you hit up the NO/BS conference hitting Melbourne on the 11th and 12th of March. So what are you waiting for?
Always be in the loop with our snackable podcast breaking the biggest story of the day. Subscribe to It’s Been A Big Day For… on your favourite podcast app.