Don't Aim For Mastery - Aim For Just Good Enough

byNathanConner

1.7K followers

Updated 4 years ago

I've been learning about internet marketing, affiliate marketing, SEO, and content marketing for a decade now, and there is something spectacular I've realized.

It takes about 100 hours of practice and study to become 90% proficient at a skill set. But an additional 500 hours to close-in on that remaining 10%, to get to 100%.

People who are interested in starting an agency and serving clientele should be aiming to become 100% proficient at their trade. That's great. You can definitely make a sizable income running an agency.

But for the rest of us just trying to create a passive income with affiliate marketing, it doesn't makes sense to go for 100% proficiency. It makes more sense to pivot slightly and learn a new skill to 90% proficiency.

For example,

You learn how to set up a Wordpress site. You don't necessarily want to learn every single little detail about setting it up, you just want learn the skills you need to get it done.

Go for 90% proficiency, and move onto the next step.

Or hire somebody who is 100% proficient, to get your site set up perfectly, and then move on with piece of mind.

Another example:

You learn the basics of Search Engine Optimization. You don't need to learn every little aspect of SEO, you just want to learn enough to get your blog posts indexed and ranked on the first page.

Go for 90% proficiency, and move onto the skill.

Creating & Publishing Content

Does it makes sense to become 100% proficient at writing and publishing content to your blog? Perhaps if it is your only option. You could write 1 blog post per day for the whole year and reach 365 blog posts.

But I think it is a much better use of your time, to become 90% proficient at publishing blog content, and then eventually become 90% proficient at repurposing that content across multiple platforms. In the same amount of time it takes to publish 365 blog posts to your blog, you could have published 1200+ content pieces in the exact same amount of time.

It is far more effective than just publishing blog content alone, and it is easier to scale.

Final Thoughts

It takes 100 hours to become 90% proficient at a skill, and an additional 500 hours to close in on that remaining 10%, to reach 100%.

If your aim is to build a passive income with affiliate marketing, aim to reach 90% at one skill, and then instead of spending an additional 500 hours mastering it, go and learn 5 new skills that perfectly complement each other. But learn them to 90% proficiency.

When you do this, you will be surprised at what you can accomplish, and will be able to see solutions that other miss, because you have shifted your perspective in so many different ways.