My closest childhood friend sold a business for several million dollars a few years ago, and yesterday he reminded me of a conversation we used to have quite frequently during the frustrating times of his business journey.
When he was stressed, irritated with employees, frustrated with cash flow, and dealing with the things that he disliked in the business, he would often say to me, “I wish that I could just go get a job at a coffee shop and be a barista and not have to deal with all of this crap.”
To which I would often respond, “Yes, but if you do that, eventually you’ll become manager of the coffee shop, then you’ll be running a chain of them, and one day you’ll look to buy the business, putting yourself right back here in this situation again.”
Get Scott’s article every morning
No spam. Just straight-talk career advice, every day.
The thing is, when you are driven, motivated, and talented, you can’t slow down. You may think you do, but you don’t. Talented people who want more out of their careers are never satisfied; they are never okay with being second in line, and they will stop at nothing to achieve the results they want.
It actually becomes a blessing and a curse for many.
Personally, I fight this quite often. I struggle to turn it off.
I want more, constantly.
I want more coaching clients. I want to lead consistent group coaching programs. I want thousands of subscribers on Signal. I want to pick up more consulting clients and board positions for startups.
I think about it by the second.
Since I launched Signal, I’ve been obsessed with figuring out how to crack the code of this product. I’ve been creating and running ads across YouTube and Instagram, testing new messages, gathering feedback from users, and making tweaks to the product daily. I can’t stop.
I wish I could turn it off. My wife wishes I could, too. I’m always on the phone, I’m always in front of my laptop. There is no way I can watch TV without the laptop being open and in front of me. I feel that if I’m not working on my business, writing articles, creating content, or brainstorming with Claude, then I’m going to get behind.
It’s hard to get my attention because it’s always spread among so many things, and part of that reason is that I’ve found the things I love to do.
Talent doesn’t sleep. It just wants to radiate results. The people in your life who are achieving are achieving because they refuse to quit, and that’s not something you can just turn on and turn off. I do believe it can be learned, but you must find the thing you love in order for it to be activated.
So if you haven’t found that thing yet, keep going.
The challenge is that most people stop searching too early. They try a job, dislike it, then assume work is supposed to feel that way forever. They pick a career path that makes sense on paper, collect a paycheck, then spend years wondering why they aren’t motivated the way other people seem to be.
The truth is that drive is often hiding behind the thing you haven’t discovered yet. It’s difficult to become obsessed with something that doesn’t genuinely excite you.
Once you find that thing, everything changes.
The effort still exists, the setbacks still happen, the frustration never fully disappears, but the energy becomes different. You stop needing someone to motivate you. You stop watching the clock. You stop looking for balance every minute of the day. The work begins pulling you toward it. The ideas show up while you’re driving, walking the dog, lying in bed, or sitting at dinner.
“What looks like discipline from the outside is often enthusiasm on the inside.”
So if you haven’t found that thing yet, keep looking. Try different industries. Start projects. Launch side hustles. Create content. Volunteer. Experiment. Follow your curiosity wherever it leads.
The talent, ambition, and drive you admire in other people may already exist within you. It might simply be waiting for the right opportunity to wake up.