Dr. Kapil Gupta put it more articulately than i ever could:

“the only reason that you don’t have what you want is because you didn’t really want it (and) the only reason that you have the things that you do is because you couldn’t live without them and the only reason that you are where you are is because somewhere within you it is okay for you to be there”

“the universe is created in such a way that when there is a requisite level of desperation that things begin to happen that cannot be explained that aid him in that process”

“the desperation creates the how it is not the other way around”

“the ones who are sufficiently desperate always reach (their goal) either by a serendipitous encounter with someone, either by happening to be in the right place at the right time, either by some idea that comes into them from a place unknown whatever. whenever someone has a sufficient sufficient level of desire or desperation they don’t not reach it”

“when there is an uncompromising, pursuit and exploration of the truth about a given issue in a person’s life, there are fundamental and massive changes the begin to happen within him.”

where this applies

when it comes to domains that:

1. are at the bleeding edge of knowledge
2. are high creative
3. don’t have a predefined guaranteed path to achieving success in,

an unrelenting, uncompromising obsession/desire is indispensable.

examples of such fields are (skewing slightly towards my tech background) tech entrepreneurship, bleeding edge product development (tech product, game development, blockchain, valuable open source contributions), bug bounty hunting, etc.

this unrelenting obsession usually stems from your specific knowlege

era of massive leverage

the difference between those who make it in these fields is no longer how much money do they have to invest, how many contacts they have that act as leverage, etc. certainly these things to play a role, but are highly diminished by the enormous leverage provided by code & media nowadays. for example:

1. don’t have enough contacts to start a company with?
   • create content about what you’re doing to attract and network with like minded people
   • join online communities and forums and network with people there
2. don’t have enough money to start a company?
   • VCs and angels are more than happy to fund u regardless of anything but your idea and vision
   • infinite number of platforms exist where you can raise money from like kickstarter. there is no shortage of places to raise money from
3. …

therefore in this era of leverage, an unrelenting obsession is the only indispensable tool in your toolbox.

why set paths don’t work

also, since these fields are all on the bleeding edge of knowledge, how to make it big in them is fuzzy and almost unpredictable. therefore naturally, the unrelenting desire is what creates the how, it is not the other way around.

cause vs effect (effect analysis and blind inculcation is for morons)

the real causation to making it big in these fields is the obsession, not the consequent effects the media sells you (hard work, long hours, 2 hours sleep, father was auto rickshaw driver - like bro if media is milking you for not knowing about survivorship bias you’re already doomed for good)

a beyond belief obsessed dude always beats the smart/genius/hardworker non-obsessed. other examples of such imposters are the ones who:

1. (try to) gain the maximum amount of knowledge about the domain cuz it’s a common trait in those successful
2. blindly “work hard” because seemingly that is a necessary ingredient; in the fear of not making it
3. “work hard” to give themselves the assurance that they worked hard, in the event of failure

examples

again, a little tech skewed.

1. the successful bug bounty hunter
   • isn’t who he is because he knows all the tools and he sat down a night and learned em all, he persevered in the face of all odds and practiced and practiced.
   • is who he is because he was unrelentingly passionate about computers, hacking, technology. the act of finding vulnerabilities.
2. the great open source contributer
   • isn’t one who learnt a shit ton of programming languages, worked has grinding DSA
   • he is the one who is super passionate about software, loves the idea of free software, loves the ins and outs of how pieces of code make a software work, really cares about the projects, finds it interesting to read code and understand how bits and pieces are interconnected to make the program work, keen interest towards seeing the final product motivates them along the way, fascinated by the concept of using it and using it etc
   • this passion drives him to read the code, meticulously understand issues, fix them and submit PRs. that is how it works.
3. the great game developer
   • isn’t the one who fucking learned unity well, understood the tools better than others, worked the hardest on his unity skills, read the most amount of books about game design, etc.
   • is who he is because he was crazy passionate about video games, intrigued by how they are made, etc.
4. the serial tech product shipper
   • not who read the book about product development, watches a buncha webinars, etc.
   • is the one who is obsessed about seeing the final version of the product that that’s what motivates him to keep going. ships more and more bad products, learn from feedback, iterates and repeat because he knows real learning happens via application

why is it so?

i don’t know. i didn’t make the rules. more important is realizing, nature doesn’t see good and bad, only we do. we created the concept of good and bad and then posed this question; which in itself is absurd.

where this doesn’t apply

primarily if there are 2 things holding you back

1. fear (mostly 100% does) in the form of: imposter syndrome, fear of getting started on something, etc.
2. ADHD (if u have it) primarily because you literally can’t work on things that don’t interest you no matter what aka ADHD laziness the unmatched obsession often doesn’t translate to taking that unmatched action because it is impossible to start a task unless it is interesting. this leads to annoyance.