Luck is a Lie

I came across a powerful idea in Cody Sanchez’s Contrarian Thinking newsletter this week that really hit home.

Not only have I lived it first-hand, but I have a feeling it will really resonate with you too.

“I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.”

— Bruce Lee

Here’s what she had to say:

Reps Before Results

From the outside, success looks like luck.

A viral post, a million-dollar business, a breakout moment.

But if you zoom in, you’ll see the same pattern: reps.

Reps → Suck → Improve → Win → Repeat.

That cycle is the real secret behind every success story.

The Hardest Part: Sticking Around Long Enough to Get Good

 Most people never make it past the “Reps” phase. They try something a few times, hit resistance, and stop.

They assume they “aren’t good at it” or “it’s not meant to be.”

But the ones who keep going? Those are the ones you see winning.

🎯 That YouTuber with millions of followers? Posted 300 videos before one took off.

🎯 That entrepreneur with a booming business? Had 10 failed attempts first.

🎯 That sales pro closing massive deals? Got rejected 100 times before their first "yes."

More reps = More learning. More learning = Better decisions. Better decisions = More Wins.

I know this concept to be true because I’ve lived it.

When I left my mortgage business, I wasn’t walking away from failure - I was walking away from success that didn’t fit the life I wanted anymore.

But starting over? That was terrifying.

I had no experience in online business.

No audience.

No clue where to start.

But I knew one thing from experience: if I put in the reps, I’d figure it out.

I knew this because when I started out in mortgage brokering - I was not just new the city, but I was new to the whole country…

I didn’t have friends or family to tap into to get my first few clients wins or referrals.

I was starting from scratch.

It took years of networking, long hours, and hard yards to build my client list up to where I had a steady flow of work coming in.

So when I started my digital business I knew it was going to be no different.

✔️ My first 10+ ads? Total flop.

✔️ My first attempts at writing content? Crickets.

✔️ My first sales? Took months and months to get.

But I kept going. I tweaked, I learned, I adjusted.

And eventually, my “overnight success” arrived - months of unseen reps later.

That’s the part no one talks about.

When people say, "Mark Zuckerberg built Facebook in college!" They forget he had been coding and building projects since middle school.

When people say, "That writer goes viral all the time!" They forget they wrote in obscurity for 10 years first.

As Ray Kroc put it: “Luck is a dividend of sweat. The more you sweat, the luckier you get.”

There are very few overnight successes – just unseen rep after unseen rep.

How to Apply This Rule:

Want to build something great?

Here’s a great breakdown on how to apply this from Cody’s newsletter:

🎯 Set rep-based goals, not just outcome-based ones. Instead of “make $10K,” aim for “run 50 ads,” or “publish 100 posts.”

🎯 Stop judging early results. Your first 20 attempts will be bad. That’s normal.

🎯 Think like an athlete. Skills are built in training, not on game day.

Like I’ve said before, some of the most successful people I have met over the years are not the smartest person in the room.

They are just the ones with the mindset to stick around long enough to actually get good ✨

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