I'm the co-founder of Transistor.fm (podcast hosting and analytics). I write about SaaS marketing, bootstrapping startups, pursuing a good life, building calm companies, business ethics, and creating a better society.
What happened to your motivation?
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Here are a few things I've been contemplating lately: ------- Aaron Francis wrote about this in his newsletter, and I can’t stop thinking about it: “Maybe, working hard doesn’t lead to burnout, but the lack of hope leads to burnout.
If you're working really hard for something that you don't believe will pay off, it's easy to lose motivation. But if you believe that the thing you're working on will have a payoff, the amount of work almost doesn’t matter.”
Working on something I believe in gives me an unbelievable amount of energy. I can work 12 hours a day and feel like no time has passed. I'm highly activated. I'm motivated by the promise of a future payoff. But sometimes, I've kept working even when it became clear that the payoff wasn't going to happen. I kept showing up, tryingto do the work, but I became numb. I couldn’t get moving. My productivity grinds to a halt. “Burnout is nature's way of telling you that the perceived reward isn't worth the effort.” – Matt Wensing
Read my post | Reply on Bluesky ------- 🎧 Jon and I recorded a podcast episode! This was meaningful for me! Jon and I recorded our first episode in 2 years: We talked about big changes in our personal lives. We also discuss burnout and motivation, the evolution of the podcasting industry, the pressure of being a leader, and the possibility of taking a sabbatical. ------- 📊 Business bets, and the payoff you need (Here are a few ideas I'm working on; help me finesse them?) In business, any effort you expend is a bet. And every bet you make should have some threshold for success: “Given this investment, this is the ROI I need.” The hard part? Many bets fall below the needed threshold. As entrepreneurs, if one bet doesn't pay off, it can raise the stakes for subsequent bets. (This is how people get into gambling trouble!) Your next bet has to make up your losses from the previous bet, and still hit a reasonable threshold for revenue, profit, etc. Some types of businesses:
Other types of businesses require frequent launches (one-time sales, course launches, etc). The "cycle of death" is when you invest a bunch of time in a launch, and it doesn't perform well. You're one bad launch away from not having enough to invest in your next project. ---- I'd love to know what you think about any of this. 👍 Cheers, |
Justin's newsletter
I'm the co-founder of Transistor.fm (podcast hosting and analytics). I write about SaaS marketing, bootstrapping startups, pursuing a good life, building calm companies, business ethics, and creating a better society.
Hey friends, This should be fun. Ian Landsman (founder of HelpSpot and "Business Dad" to founders everywhere) is going to hop on the call with Brian and Justin today. You can join us (live) at 12:15pm Pacific: On today's topic list: Can burnout be a lack of motivation? When the reward no longer feels worth pursuing, is that when you lose steam? "What if this doesn't work? What's the backup plan?" Come join us in the chat! Cheers,Justin Jackson – BlueskyBrian Casel – Bluesky | Twitter PS:...
Do you have thoughts on any of this? Some things I've been contemplating lately: ------- ⛪ Popular marketing strategy: start a cult I can't stop thinking about this post by Evan Armstrong: One increasingly popular marketing strategy is to found a cult. Founders have spent the last ten years learning from the successful cults (Tesla, Anduril, Stripe, Palantir, and Airbnb) and the destruction of multiple unsuccessful ones (Theranos, WeWork, Fast, Quibi, and FTX). There is a new playbook of cult...
I think it's wild that the same amount of effort can produce wildly different results (across different endeavours). For example, you might work on a project for weeks and months, only to have it receive a tepid response. Then, a different piece of work (that you whipped together in an afternoon) takes off and gets a much bigger reaction. (You can read this article online) Anything worth doing will require a fair amount of effort and work. But it's also possible to invest a fair amount of...