Conversation between entrepreneurs Dan Lok and Sabri Suby about the myth of "overnight success." Dan Lok emphasizes long-term effort (saying he began marketing online in 2004) and that visible outcomes obscure years of work; Sabri Suby highlights cultural appetite for shortcuts, the necessity of paying the price (a "moat") through prolonged effort, and that many would not endure the decade-long grind. The exchange uses anecdotes (e.g., friends witnessing behind-the-scenes work) and analogies (Michael Jordan) to argue that true success resists simple imitation.
Questions this video answers
2004
Over 250,000 businesses
September 11, 2019
Chapters
Someone who has impact over 250,000 businesses.
You have to pay the price to be successful. And that's like a moat, right? That's like a moat around your business.
People look at my brand, I mean, I get this a lot, right? Where Danlock came out of nowhere and just like blew up. And I always tell people it's not that it came out of nowhere, it's because I started back in 2004 marketing online. The reason I think we've been able to build the brand that we have, the company that we have, because I've been doing it for a long time, number one, right? We're joking about the ten year overnight success. It's very true. It's very, very true. Because people only see the outcome, they don't see the work behind it. And because I took a lot of the principles. So I want people to know that, hey, it's not overnight.
And the thing is that like, you know, the whole thing about, like you think of today's society and Instagram and all these things, it's like people are used to getting that, like that instant gratification or everybody's talking about the hack and the loophole and the silver bullet and this new bitcoin currency that you invested. You become a millionaire with no work. So, like, that hasn't changed. Like, and that's not just with this generation. That's since the dawn of time. Like, people are always looking for that, you know, the biggest result with the least amount of work. So it'd be easy for someone to look at you and be like, yeah, Dan's just blown up like in the last two years because he's heavily on social media. It's lucky, right? But they don't go and see like the catalog of books that you've been launching or like all the sleepless nights and work and equity and everything that you've put into this thing to build it to the point where it is right now. And that's probably because they simply, they don't want to look at those things. They just want to look at, oh, all I need to do is post like 100 videos on YouTube a month and I'll be the next Dan.
You know, it's so, it's so funny sometimes when I have influencers, entrepreneurs, and they want to, they want to know how I do what I do, right? Sometimes our friends, they come over to my place and they want to see a little behind the scenes. And they see a little behind the scenes how I run my company. Usually, usually 9 out of 10 is the reaction, isn't it? So before, yeah, I want to know what you do. I want to see how you do it, how you do social media. Follow me for a day. I don't want to do what you do. Yeah, exactly. I don't want to do what you do at all. Because now they know what it takes, right?
Yeah, exactly. Otherwise, they just see you in the. In the bright red, like, silk suit in the Bentley. They're like, yeah, man, I'm about that. That's what I want to do. But they don't see all the hard work that goes into it. And that's the biggest thing. Do you know what I mean? Like, anybody that you have a look at that's made it, that quote unquote, appears to be an overnight success, there has been years of toiling away, mastering your craft, and really putting in so much time and energy and failures and everything that comes along with it. And unfortunately, like, you know, not unfortunately, fortunately, you have to pay the price to be successful. And that's like a moat, right? That's like a moat around your business. Is that like, you know, when I see people that, you know, either come and work for me and then they try to start their own thing, or people that look what I'm doing and copy all my shit and then they think they can go out there. Like, I know the fire that I had to walk through to get into the position that I am in right now, and I know the work. So it's kind of like I just laugh. Do you know? Because I know that 9 out of 10 people aren't going to be willing to do that. They just want all the glamour, but they don't want to be in the trenches, sweating it out, getting their teeth kicked in for 10 years.
I love what you said because I always tell people, if people can copy what you do, you're never good at what you do. Because it's like, you can watch Michael Jordan play basketball. You will not be Michael Jordan.
I use that analogy all the time. Exactly.
You can pass, you can dribble the ball, you can shoot, but you're not Michael Jordan, right?
