In this motivational video, Nikhil Sai—19‑year‑old founder of Funneling Media—argues that all forms of preparation, planning, and talk are merely "not doing" and that real progress only comes from taking action. He begins by reciting an essay that lists every activity that feels productive yet never results in the work being completed (e.g., making to‑do lists, scheduling, posting about intentions, fantasizing about success). Sai then shares his own experience of avoiding a batch of ten long‑form video scripts, describing how he spent hours distracting himself before finally confronting the task. He outlines a practical framework: 1) acknowledge the truth that you are not doing the work; 2) decide whether the task can be delegated or automated; 3) if it must be done by you, use a 5‑second countdown to launch into action; 4) tell yourself you’ll work for only two minutes to overcome resistance and generate momentum; 5) stay ultra‑conscious, eliminate distractions (e.g., remove social apps, respond quickly to interruptions), and keep the focus on the task. He emphasizes the importance of building momentum—once the first video was shot, subsequent videos followed with minimal gap. Sai also invokes a “David Goggins” mindset, rejecting silver‑bullet solutions and insisting on hard work. The video ends with a call to comment “I am doing the thing” as a public commitment, and an invitation for viewers to suggest future topics.
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In this video, I will actually break the ice on what's actually stopping you to do the thing. It could be a to-do list, it could be your project management software, it could be your team, it could be yourself. Now, before I actually get into the context and help you understand how you could actually get more stuff done at a productivity standpoint to build a million-dollar business, I was watching YouTube and suddenly I felt a punch in my gut. And this was a very interesting essay I've heard. On Chris Williamson's podcast with Steven Barlett. So here's the essay I'm reading out. So the essay goes along these lines. It's a strangest loop and it's a list of things that are not doing the thing. Here, so here's the list of things that are not doing the thing. Preparing to do the thing isn't doing the thing. Scheduling some time on your calendar to do the thing isn't doing the thing. Making a to-do list in your Asana or project management software isn't doing the thing. Telling people that you're going to do the thing is not doing the thing. Messaging your friends who may or may not be doing the thing isn't doing the thing. Writing a banger tweet about how you're going to do the thing isn't doing the thing. Hating yourself, going mad for not doing the thing is not doing the thing. Hating on other people who have done the thing is not doing the thing. Hating on all the obstacles which are in the way for you to get that thing done isn't doing the thing. Fantasizing about all the adoration and success you will achieve once you actually do the thing isn't doing the thing. Reading about how to do the thing isn't doing the thing. Reading about how others did the thing isn't doing the thing. Reading this essay or watching this video isn't doing the thing. The only thing which is doing the thing is actually doing the thing. That's a cold and silent moment. I love the insight that you could actually dress it up however you want, the work just needs doing. You can fluff it, you can change it, you can talk about compounding, but ultimately it comes down to sitting at the desk, recording this video, writing that email, replying to that conversation, doing that podcast. The work just needs doing, my friend. Now coming back, who am I to talk about productivity first? Let me introduce myself. I know we are a few minutes into the video. Hi, my name is Nikhil Sai. I'm the founder at Funneling Media. 19-year-old dropout built a million-dollar marketing agency in 2 years while delivering over $500 million in results for our clients. Recognized as the world's youngest $100 million award winner on the most prestigious marketing stage, Funnel Hacking Live at ClickFunnels. Now let's talk about this. Doing the thing is doing the thing. The work needs doing. That is the main concept. Now we could fantasize it as we have heard from the essay, but that's what it really comes down to. Now I'm in the situation, this is a real talk, I have 10 long-form video scripts, each takes me 30 minutes to shoot. So that's like 5 hours of me actually shooting this content on a Sunday night, which I absolutely hate to do. But here's the reality, the work simply needs doing. So what I've done, I found unimaginable things to be doing to actually not do the thing, which is me walking outside, me calling my friends, me calling mom, me texting on WhatsApp, me trying to talk to my brother who's in the other room, me trying to find some ways out to do something else, me binge-watching YouTube for a moment. And after 3 hours of me doing all this bullshit, I mean, you can come up with absolute bullshit when you know that what's in front of you is a shit ton of work which you cannot avoid, which you need to do. You just need to confront it. And that's what it really comes down to. The work simply needs doing and you gotta sleeve up and basically get to the thing. Now what I've done is I fantasized it, I've wasted 15-20 minutes, you know, doing this and that each time multiple times in a row before I actually start recording. The setup is done for me to shoot the content, but for me to actually shoot my first video, it took me 90 minutes. And once I actually shot that, back to back I'm shooting the next video, which is this video, once I shot my first video. Now this is what it comes down to. It's about momentum. So here is what you could actually do to break the ice to actually be doing the thing. So there is two things. Whenever you know something needs to be done, what you're unable to do, you want to first of all confront it. Don't comfort yourself by masking it up, by glamifying it, by overemphasizing it. Just confront the truth that, okay, you're not doing a thing. That is a truth. No matter the reason, whatever the XYZ reason could be, you have a headache, your stomach is paining, your employee didn't show up, your computer doesn't work, all of that shit which I just made up. Now confront the truth that you're not doing a thing. The work needs to be done. So think about the solution. Can you do it yourself or do you wanna delegate it? Can you automate it? So think about that. If you can, then great, get it done. But if it is a task which is 100% dependent on you, like in my business, it could be me leading an enterprise-level client meeting or me creating a strategy for one of our biggest clients or me actually being on a hiring call where I'm actually hiring an operator or somebody at a C-suite level in our own company or me actually shooting the content on my podcast. I cannot avoid to delegate. So what I need to do, I need to confront that work and sleeve up. Now, once you sleeve up, it takes you 90 minutes before you start shooting the videos, just like what happened. So here is what you need to do. This is something you could actually start. It's called the 5-second rule. You just want to, first of all, reverse count the 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, just like imagine as if a rocket is launching. There is a book on this concept, but if you reverse count the numbers from 5 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. You could just really fake motivate yourself to get to the work. Like, you know, if I'm like walking around to not do the thing and I confront that I need to be at my desk in my studio to actually shoot this video, I would just like count 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and just walk here and stand. Now here is the first step to actually start. But then once you come to the place to actually start the work, how could you actually get to the work? How could you get into the doing part? Now here's what I've done. You just want to lie to yourself absolutely. Like, this is I use this every time. Like I try to go to the gym at least 5 times a week and I absolutely hate it, but you got to do it anyways, right? Like the work just in doing, if I want to be physically fit and like stay in shape and, you know, become stronger, I went from being 54 kgs in weight to actually 70 kgs in weight, growing my muscle mass and whatnot. It only happened because I've done the work eating clean or eating heavy calories while I'm working out. Now coming back, This is what I do. I absolutely lied to myself that I will only do this 2 minutes. And this is something I stole from Ali Abdaal when I saw his videos, that he just lied to himself that he's going to only do this for 2 minutes. That's it. Like, I was like, okay, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. I'm at the desk now. I don't want to shoot the entire video. I have 10 freaking videos to do. I'll actually do a 2-minute video shoot and then I'll walk away. Like, you really want to lie to yourself. And as much cringe as it sounds, But if you do this, you will actually get into momentum because I shot my first video, it took me 16 minutes long to actually finish that first video. Now I'm back to back shooting my second video with no more minutes in gap. Do not over-glamify what needs to be done. Create a simple to-do list, confirm that the work is done. If you can delegate or automate, great. Or else if you're the one who needs to do it, then 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, slave up and get to the work, lie to yourself that you're going to only do this for 2 minutes. And if it is something which is worthy enough, you will fall in love with it and you will continue to do the work. And here is something you need to avoid doing while you're actually in this process. You will find endless things, endless shiny things which you would never usually do, which you will absolutely come up with to distract yourself from doing the thing. And you want to stay conscious when you're actually doing the things. To stay away from it. Like I was looking at my teleprompter when I'm scripting, and then I instantly, I received a notification from Instagram, which I wasted 10 minutes on. So you wanna be ultra conscious. So you wanna be conscious when you're actually doing the thing. You can get distracted. Your responsibility is to come back into the zone and stay focused. A few things I have done is if you look at my iPhone, I have no social media apps whatsoever. That's one of the things which helps me zoned in. When I'm on my phone, because you will find yourself doing clueless shit which you will never do in normal time just because you're avoiding the thing you will do that. So be conscious when you're actually doing the thing. If something is distracting you, first of all, don't get into that. But if you get into that, try to come back instantly. The quicker you come out, the better it is for you because you can get the thing done. That's just a quick hack overall. My dear friend, if you sit down and think about any business idea or think about your own active business, and if you create a clear action plan to go from where you are to where you actually want to achieve and create a to-do list for it, taking out 30 minutes of your time, that's it. You will create most likely, if you have good enough common sense to run a business, you will come up with 90% accuracy to have a clear to-do list to build and achieve to that goal. But the problem is that to-do list is work which needs to be done. You do not confront that work as an entrepreneur. You don't do the— you don't take the time and effort to build a team to actually do that because you cannot just do everything yourself. And you don't confront the work. You just wait for a silver bullet. You wait for the easy way out. You wait for the magic to happen. And this is where you need to have the David Goggins mentality kick in, which is there is no easy way for you, Goggins. You just got to get it done. So I hope this video helps. Let's confront this. If you are going to do the thing, comment down, "I am doing the thing," below to just prove a commitment for yourself. Again, this is not doing the thing, but it's just a way for us to show this video to more people who might be struggling to do their thing so that this video can actually help them and give them that extra push which they might need to actually start doing the thing. So it could be anything in your life. It's a simple rule. Confront the truth, count 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, and get to work. Lie to yourself that you're only doing this for 2 more minutes and you will leave it after that is done. And when you're actually starting to do the thing, stay very conscious to be not distracted until the thing is done. Thank you so much for watching. Once again, this is me, Nikhil Sai, 19-year-old dropout turned millionaire in just 2 years. I know what I'm talking about. So let's get back to work. Bye-bye. I'll shoot more videos and catch you. If you have any more topics which you would like me to cover, feel free to comment down below. Appreciate your time. Bye-bye.
