Intensity and Volume - The Hidden Formula for your success

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Heyo.

Have you ever failed at something?

Yeah, me too.

Do you know why?

When you fail at something, most of the time, it is because you haven’t done enough.

We’re not talking about failure today, but we are going to talk about intensity and volume.

What sets apart successful people from everyone?

• They are willing to do more than everyone else.

• There’s nothing special that they do. They’re just doing the same thing you are, but more.

> If you do 2 sales calls a day, they do 10.

> If you read 1 book a year, they read 1 book a month

> If you spend 30 min a day learning a new skill, they spend 2 hours.

Of course, there are more traits that help them stand out.

But the intensity and volume are most often overlooked.

About a year back, I had this friend who came up to me all hyped about learning how to code.

He had big dreams of becoming a digital nomad and having a skill set that would grant him freedom to work remotely.

So I gave him all the resources that had helped me during my early journey of coding.

I remember, he was complaining about his job all the time, and he couldn’t wait to get out of his current work.

A month later, he reached out to me again.

He caught me up with how much he has learned, and asked for my opinion on what to work on next.

“This guy is still going”, I thought to myself.

Multiple people had asked me on how to get started before, but noone has followed thru with what I advised.

I thought this guy was determined.

One year went by, he showed up on my LinkedIn feed.

He got a new job!

I was so happy for him, I clicked on the post, going to congrats him, but I noticed his job position.

It’s the same one.

He’s doing the same thing that he hates, just at a different company.

I reached out to him, asking how it’s going with his plan of becoming a developer and living a digital nomad lifestyle.

“I don’t know man, it’s probably not for me”, he said, “I applied to a lot of places but no responses”.

I asked him how many places did he applied, he told me around 50 places.

I asked him how often does he work on a project to add to his portfolio, he said maybe once a month if he has the time.

I was disappointed.

Applying to 50 places is a lot for him.

Working on a skill “when he has time” apparently is too much for him.

I started to see why he hasn’t seen any progress, I started to realize why he’s still doing the same thing he hates.

It’s not that he isn’t capable of becoming a dev, it’s not that he gives up too soon.

This guy is way smarter than I am (I can’t do mental math without counting fingers).

He’s been focusing on learning how to code for a whole year now.

But there was one thing that he didn’t do.

He didn’t do enough.

Let me tell you my journey of waiting tables in the morning and learning how to code at night.

After work, every day, I pushed myself to sit down and code for at least 4 hours.

And when dinner rolled around, you bet it was an exquisite feast of Instant Ramen and a side of JavaScript, baby!

I did that until I had a solid foundation, and a portfolio with multiple projects to show for.

That was when I went ham on sending out my resume.

The thing about applying for a dev job when you don’t have a Computer Science degree, and just have a portfolio of personal projects, is that it requires volume. (I had to compete with kids who graduating with a CompSci degree)

It’s a numbers game, baby.

You have to find enough people saying NO, before finding someone that says YES.

I forced myself, to apply to at least 10 positions a day (That’s 300 job listings a month).

I was so closed to get a job at Zoom - yeah the online meeting app (imagine stock option I would receive, loll)

Finally, I got my first dev job that I ended up not going to because it was an hour away, and my car broke down the week before my starting date.

More on this story later in the future.

I did end up getting another one right after tho.

Enough about me.

What about you, are you doing enough?

When entering a new territory, whether you are learning how to play a guitar, starting a new business, or learning Japanese, you don’t need any hacks or tricks, all you need is more volume, more intensity.

It’s like going to the gym, you need reps, you need to add more weight, and you have to do that every week for a period of months before you start seeing any result.

Next time you do something and don’t see any result.

Perhaps you’re not doing enough.

10 calls won’t close a client, 100 calls might.

But just to make sure, do 1,000 calls.

Remember, you don’t have to do anything extraordinary, just doing what you do, but cranked up to an absurdly high volume.

Alright I’m out y’all.

Justin “do more reps” Nguyen.

p.s: If you are willing to consistently do the boring work every day, you're on the path to success.

p.p.s: Watch this short clip from Alex Hormozi about doing more volume.

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