The Long Game: Justin Welsh on Deliberate Practice and Top-Tier Earnings

In a recent LinkedIn post, Justin Welsh discusses the often-overlooked, yet crucial, element of long-term dedication and iterative improvement required to achieve exceptional financial success in business. He challenges the conventional pursuit of avoiding mistakes, arguing instead that consistent action and learning from both successes and failures are the true catalysts for building a successful company, tool, or brand.

Welsh emphasizes the power of sustained effort, even in the face of initial incompetence. He posits that the willingness to persist through a decade of showing up, feeling inadequate, seeking feedback, and trying again is a rarity that separates the top 1% of earners from the rest. As Justin Welsh notes:

“If you can spend a decade: Showing up, feeling stupid, getting feedback, trying again, feeling stupid again, and eventually getting better? You’ll likely be in the top 1% of worldwide earners.”

This perspective directly confronts the common inclination to prioritize error avoidance over proactive engagement. According to Justin Welsh, this fear of making wrong moves prevents many aspiring entrepreneurs and professionals from embarking on the path that has historically led to significant achievements.

The Unseen Path to Mastery

Welsh contrasts this cautious approach with the strategies employed by admired business figures. He argues that these individuals did not achieve their standing by playing it safe, but rather by consistently taking action. The outcome of these actions was secondary to the process of iteration and learning.

“The path is always the same, but few people will actually walk it,” Welsh writes, highlighting the inherent difficulty and scarcity of this dedicated approach. He elaborates on the nature of progress:

“Because most people care more about avoiding wrong moves than making right ones. But that’s not how the businesspeople you admire built their company.”

In Justin Welsh’s view, the key lies not in achieving perfection from the outset, but in embracing the journey of continuous improvement. The business leaders who have built significant enterprises, he suggests, did so by embracing a cycle of action, reflection, and refinement.

Action Over Inaction: The Core of Business Growth

The central theme of Welsh’s post is the primacy of action in business development. He points out that the success of admired entrepreneurs stems from their willingness to make moves, regardless of immediate success. As Justin Welsh states:

“They built it by making moves. Some of them were right, and some of them were…just not. But that doesn’t matter. All that matters is that they took action and got better over time.”

This philosophy underscores the importance of embracing a growth mindset, where every action, whether perceived as a success or a failure, contributes to the ultimate goal of improvement and mastery. Welsh encourages his audience to adopt this long-term perspective, recognizing that significant rewards often follow a decade of dedicated, albeit imperfect, effort.