Turning Pro

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I’ve seen many online writers come and go in my past two years of writing online.

Some burn out within the first few weeks, others stagnate around the six-month mark, while the top 1% push through and build successful businesses around themselves.

What’s the difference between those who “make it” and those who don’t?

The Work Needs Doing

A few weeks ago, I was talking to one of my friends about his basketball training program. Every day, he wakes up at 5 a.m., gets his 1,000 shots in, and is meticulous about taking care of his body and eating the right foods.

I asked him, “Micah, how do you do all this? How are you so motivated?”

“It’s not that I’m super motivated,” he said, “It’s just that the work needs doing. It doesn’t matter if I’m sore, tired, or under the weather… the work just needs doing. Greatness has a price and rent is due every day.”

The Pro Mindset

It doesn’t matter if you’re an athlete or a writer, if you only do the work when you feel like it, you’ll never be consistent enough to be a professional.

Being a professional isn’t a badge you acquire — It’s the mindset, habits, and processes you develop over time. The writers who made it to the top 1% did so not through serendipity but through systems. They treat the craft of writing with the same respect that great athletes give to their sport.

Being a professional isn’t a title, it’s an approach.

The Everyday Razor

I recently came across a table from George Mack visualizing the difference between doing something weekly versus doing something daily.

He said, “If you go from doing a task weekly to daily, you achieve 7 years of output in 1 year. If you apply a 1% compound interest each time, you achieve 54 years of output in 1 year.”

How I’m Turning Pro

Anyone can preach to their audience to “turn pro”, but it takes guts to turn pro with them. So that’s what I figured I’d do.

Here’s what I’m doing to turn pro (and how you can too):

1) Set your north star

Before turning pro, the first thing to decide is, “What am I striving for?” Not everyone will (or should) be a Kobe Bryant of the world.

Sahil Bloom has this great framework for knowing what game you’re playing. The three things you have to decide are:

For me, my north star is to build a business that gives me the creative freedom and ability to inspire millions of people.

The price is saying no to the default path. The price is doing things differently than most people. The price is reading, writing, and publishing every day.

2) Reverse engineer greatness

The next step is to figure out who currently has the career or lifestyle you desire.

• Who are the professionals you aspire to be like?
• What are their habits? What is their mindset like?
• What are the common themes between them?

The people who (from an outside perspective) currently live the lifestyle I desire:

• James Clear
• Shane Parrish
• Morgan Housel

What does their average day look like? Are you willing to live that lifestyle?

What are their habits? Are you willing to adopt them?

A few common themes between James, Morgan, and Shane:

• They do deep work every day
• They read & write every day
• They’re incredible speakers
• They’re potent writers
• They say “no” a lot

You get the point. Do this same exercise… but with your inspirations.

3) Keep stacking days

Knowing how professionals act and doing it are two separate things. You can dress it up and romanticize it, but at the end of the day — as my friend Micah said — the work just needs doing.

Commit to the keystone habit that your inspirations attribute to their success. Then day after day, just keep stacking days.

When you commit to doing the work, day in and day out, time becomes your friend. Your consistency becomes your differentiator.

Skill is the ultimate competitive advantage.

4) Surround yourself with other pros

The people we surround ourselves with shape who we become. We’re all mirrors reflecting onto each other. I have many group chats for the skills and goals I’m trying to achieve.

Who else has a similar mission as you? Can you create a group chat to share strategies, give feedback, and hold each other accountable? The best way to change your behavior is to change your environment.

The truth is, we all can “turn pro” in whatever we’re doing — all it requires is commitment, consistency, and a “the work needs doing” approach.

Being a pro doesn’t mean being a workaholic. It simply means having the discipline to act on what’s important to you — even if in the moment you don’t feel like it.

Jay “Turn Pro” Yang