Putting yourself out there.

Regardless of what you're doing or wanting to do. Everything that you can do that's relevant and has chance to be impactful has one thing in common.

That commonality is something you can see behind every successful author, musician, artist, entrepreneur, etc.

And I'm not referring to putting in the work and getting the reps in. That's merely a prerequisite. That only gets you in the game.

There's no escaping it. There are no shortcuts. There are no replacements for putting in the work and getting good at it.

No, I'm not talking about that.

What I'm talking about is different. It's a more decisive factor.

What is that you may ask?

Well, I think you already got a hint by the title of this entry.

That's not just putting in the work. It's putting yourself out there.

It's showing what you're capable of.

It's getting the skills and the confidence to perform.

It's (like I heard from someone before) to spotlight your talent and become a master.

There are two pats to this.

The first one, you have to show what you can do and what you can offer.

You might be the best at what you do. Or even be much better than the majority of people.

That's great but it's useless if no one knows that. You can be the "best kept secret", but it doesn't help in the long run.

The second one is you NEED to have something actually valuable to offer.

There's also no point in putting yourself out there if you what you have is subpar, low quality, or just plain spammy.

Get those two things handled, work on your skills, and you'll have a much better chance of being one of those who "made it" out there.

Go make it happen.