Before you give up.

I recently decided to start taking Upwork seriously. I did the usual: optimized my profile, added my portfolio, bought some connects, and started applying for jobs. I was very enthusiastic and hopeful, but that enthusiasm withered by the end of the first week when I had not seen any really concrete result.

I remember sitting in the car and unconsciously thinking to myself, so what next? Do I just leave Upwork and go focus on other things? That’s when I started to think about the amount of effort and time that is really required to achieve anything.

When you think about life, and in the context of the time you need to do anything really worthwhile, you understand exactly what I mean.

If you live up to 80 years, that is only about 4000 weeks. Now, start to think about all you have done so far.

For example, if you have gone to school up until BSc level, you’ve spent an average of 16 to 17 years. That’s 884 weeks out of your 4000 weeks. If you’re going up to PhD level, that will be an average of 20 to 25 years, which is 1300 weeks out of your 4000.

This literally goes for anything. All the businessmen you know, it’s taken them an insane amount of time to achieve all they have. So why then do we give up so easily, why then do we struggle with being consistent, even though we subconsciously know how much effort it takes to achieve great things? We want results immediately, and when they don’t come, we immediately shift to the next thing.

And just like that, we spend time going around in circles without doing anything really phenomenal. Think about it: the thing you say you have failed at, the thing that is tiring you out — have you truly put in the kind of effort required for it to succeed?

What I’m saying is this: good things take time. And if we must achieve success, we must have this at the back of our minds.

And yea, I eventually got an invitation to work on a design.

Think about this before you give up, and if you can, just don’t give up.