Albert Einstein has made many amazing contributions to the scientific world, including the theory of relativity, the founding of relativistic cosmology, the prediction of the deflection of light by gravity, the quantum theory of atomic motion in solids, the zero-point energy concept, and the quantum theory of a monatomic gas which predicted Bose—Einstein condensation … and finally he brings us 8 amazing blogging lessons.
Jokes apart, Einstein was perhaps the most influential scientists to ever live, and I would be strange if we could not find some blogging related principles among his ideas, right?
1. Persevere
“It’s not that I’m so smart; it’s just that I stay with problems longer.”
Your blog won’t succeed overnight; success requires perseverance! There’s no such thing as an “overnight success.” What often appears to happen overnight is the result of many years of work.
This is what I call the “silent years” of success. If you can persevere through the “silent years,” then you will qualify to succeed.
Eddie Cantor said, “It takes twenty years to become an overnight success.”
2. Focus
“Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves.”
I like to say, you can do anything, but not everything! To succeed in blogging you must give your blog the attention it deserves. If you want a part-time income, then you put in part-time hours, if you want a full-time income, …you’ll have to put in full-time hours.
Focus your efforts, if you want to succeed! Focused energy is power, and it’s the difference between success and failure.
If you never focus your efforts …you won’t have a future, just a longer today.
3. Create Value
“Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.”
Don’t waste your time trying to create a successful blog, dedicate your time creating a valuable blog. If your blog is valuable to others, it will succeed.
You create value for others by solving their problems. Your blog must solve people’s problems. You will only be rewarded in this lifetime for the problems that you solve for others.
Labor to be valuable and success will chase you down!
4. Be Curious
“I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.”
What you’re curious about is what other like-minded people are also curious about, so blog about things that pique your curiosity.
Don’t write about the mundane, and the obvious; explore your curiosity. Research the unknown and document what has never been documented before.
You have to “think bigger,” Einstein said, “No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.”
You have to think differently, he said, “He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would suffice.”
5. Make Mistakes
“A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.”
Make mistakes; mistakes make you better, smarter, faster, and more relevant. If you’re not making mistakes then you’re not making progress. Get rejected a few times, mess up a few projects, this is the pathway to success.
Want to succeed twice as fast, make twice as many mistakes, run into twice as many obstacles.
Frank Clark said, “If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn’t lead anywhere.”
6. Don’t Be Insane
“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
You can’t keep doing the same thing everyday and expect different results. In other words, if your blogging routine is the same from month-to-month, your results will be the same from month-to-month.
In order for your results to change, you must change your actions, to the degree that your actions change will be to the degree that your results change.
7. Expect Opposition
“Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.”
There will always be opposition. People will oppose your blog, your ideas, and the risk that you’re taking. Zig Ziglar said, “Little men, with little minds, and little imaginations, go through life in little ruts, smugly resisting all changes which would jar their little worlds.” Never let “little men” stop you from achieving your dreams. Great spirits have always encountered great opposition.
8. Play Better
“You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.”
When it’s all said and done, your success will depend on how well you played the game. You must commit to play the game better than anyone else. If you can play the game “better,” you will succeed!