Control Choices Not Outcomes

Shaan Puri and Sam Parr discuss the importance of separating the choice to pursue something from its eventual outcome, drawing from examples like Sylvester Stallone and Rick Rubin's perspectives on creative work.

• The Power of Choosing Your Path:

  • Don't focus on making something popular
  • Your job is to make stuff, not to make it popular
  • Popular is something that happens or doesn't happen, but it's irrelevant to the work

• Stallone's Philosophy:

  • Turned down $265,000 (equivalent to ~$1M today) to keep creative control
  • "Money never mattered, I would have done this whole thing for a donut and tuna fish sandwich"
  • Was driven by need to prove to himself he wasn't living a lie
  • "I thought of myself as a creative person, I didn't want to wake up and be 50 years old and realize I'm this creative person who's never done anything creative"

• Professional Approach to Creative Work:

  • Show up every day like it's a job
  • Do the work whether you feel like it or not
  • Don't wait for inspiration or the right moment
  • The difference between amateur and pro isn't love for the craft, it's consistency

• Focus on What You Can Control:

  • Can't control if work becomes popular
  • Can control showing up and doing the work
  • Keep making stuff regardless of reception
  • Eventually, "popular starts to pay attention to the guy who's making a lot of stuff"

• The Value of Persistence:

  • Doesn't matter if you only write 3 lines
  • Doesn't matter if those 3 lines suck
  • What matters is that you did the work
  • Small consistent efforts compound into larger works over time