🧠 The Secret Truth About High Achievers

How to Get Into the Top 1% of Any Niche

It’s not the most talented who succeed.
It’s the 1% who show up.

I’ve learned this from 28 years at the top of the music industry — and 5 years in the creator economy.

We think success is about talent, genius, a perfect idea, strategy—those things matter, but they’re not critical

Here’s what moves the needle:

Luck + Persistence.

Showing up repeatedly increases the surface area of luck.

99% of people either don’t start or don’t stick around long enough to get lucky.

The 1% do.

And eventually, they get a lucky break.

Every successful project needs a bit of luck.

But luck doesn’t strike randomly—it strikes those who keep swinging the bat.

Success = (Talent + Ideas + Strategy) × Persistence × Luck

Every podcast episode. Every Substack article. Every video. Every LinkedIn post. Every start-up idea.

They’re all creative lottery tickets.

Most people don’t talk about luck because of ego.

It’s not even about going viral.

It’s about connecting with the right person, which only happens if you keep showing up.

Paul Brunson, Co-host of Lovetown USA was personally selected by Oprah.

She was just one of the 11 views he got on his YouTube series.

11 views.

🟡 Boring Wins

👉 Jerry Seinfeld’s secret? One hour a day. One joke. Every day. For decades.

👉 Toni Morrison? A single mum with a full-time job wrote one page every weekday morning before her kids woke up.

👉 Babe Ruth? 714 home runs… and 1,330 strikeouts—both records held for decade

👉 Maya Angelou? Wrote alone in a hotel room.

👉 John Grisham? Ran a law firm—still wrote one page a day. Sold 300 million books.

Every successful creator, solopreneur, artist is the same.
They stutter. They stumble. But they keep going.

And it’s hard for us because we are neurodivergent.

We all deal with procrastination.

We all deal with executive dysfunction.

We all get in our own way.

The Lie That Stops You

The most dangerous self-limiting belief is:

“I’m not good enough.”

But good enough… for who?

Everything is subjective.
Brands. Ideas. Businesses. Comedy. Books. Fashion. Music. All of it.

Let me tell you the truth about the biggest band I ever managed.

The Music Industry Thought They Were Shit

Every record label in the UK passed on them.
Many walked out during their showcase.

The head of music at BBC Radio 1 said:

“Over my dead body will Scouting for Girls ever get played on Radio 1.”

They went on to become one of the most-played bands on BBC Radio 1 for multiple years.

They were even nominated for an Ivor Novello Award (for the most-played song on UK radio) and got multiple Brit Award nominations.

Why?

Because we kept showing up, and we got a lucky break.

One Saturday, the band played an acoustic track on another radio station.

Jo Whiley—then BBC Radio 1’s Breakfast DJ—was driving her daughter to a birthday party.

She heard them. Liked one song. Thought the drummer was funny.

The following Monday, she played their single as a “test” track on BBC Radio 1 Breakfast show to millions of listeners.

The band had been unsigned for a decade.
And had an email list of 1,000+ superfans.

We emailed the list. Told them to listen to the track—and contact the station afterwards.

The superfans blew up the Radio 1 phone lines.

Two days later, the band were on the Radio 1 playlist.

And from there, sold-out arena tours, a #1 album and single, millions of records sold, and multiple Top 10 hits.

Luck and persistence.

The Habit of Showing Up

This isn’t hustle culture.
I fucking hate that. It’s about us expressing our ideas and creativity.

This is about delusional optimism.

It’s about knowing we’re meant to create something special, even when we have no idea what it looks like.

And following our curiosity over and over again until you unlock our potential.

My whole career has been built on delusional optimism.

I know if I keep knocking on doors, we’ll work it out.

This is how you build self-trust.
This is how your identity gets rewritten.
This is how books get finished.
How businesses grow.
How lives change.

It’s how lots of money and purpose are created.
Through persistence and luck.

✅ $1 Done Club Exists to Create That

We’ll announce details next week.
But if you want to get into the top 1%, this is for you!

If you feel lost…
If you don’t know what you want to do with your life
Set a challenge.
Experiment with your ideas.
See which ones work for you.

Action provides information.

Keep swinging.
That’s how luck finds you.