Yes, it's hard, but you can do it!

In my view, reaching your goals meant being willing to pay the price in work and sacrifice. In August 2012, I told two stories that had made an impression on me: a man from a TV programme who cleaned at night, and a talented copywriter who shut herself away to create a video course.

I spoke very bluntly about not whining. That was my outspoken attitude at the time, and I used the examples to give people a push. It wasn’t an explanation of everyone’s opportunities or circumstances.

I came across a family on TV

When I came home from work with my brain completely fried, I couldn’t always face a complicated film or a big book. So sometimes I sat down in front of one of the TV channels I called crap channels and watched something that didn’t demand much.

I had lived in the US for a few years and wasn’t quite up to date with Danish channels and programmes. This time, I came across a programme about a family who had settled in a large villa in Holte. I couldn’t remember their names, and that wasn’t important to my story either.

There was a big house, ducks in the garden, a fountain, a Mercedes and an expensive lifestyle. I sat there wondering how they had afforded it. I couldn’t immediately see how their appearances or the projects I saw mentioned explained the finances.

I was quite harsh in my first assessment of the man. I thought his contribution seemed to consist of being a bit famous, eating an open-faced prawn sandwich and waving at Bakken’s opening. But I could also see that the family had fun, went for walks and got something good out of life.

Then the alarm rang at two

What changed my view was the man’s alarm going off at two in the morning. Then he and his wife got up, drove to an industrial area and cleaned toilets for four hours.

I said he had been doing it for twenty-one years, and his wife had joined him for the nine years they had been together. That was how I retold the story from the programme.

Take that in: two in the morning, four hours of cleaning, over and over. There wasn’t much glamour in that part. But that was where I gained respect for him.

I saw a man who wanted a particular life and did something concrete to pay for it. If his other talents didn’t bring in the money, he scrubbed toilets. I thought that took both determination and balls.

My irritation at not taking the opportunities that were there

I linked the story to a very harsh criticism of people who had been made redundant and wouldn’t take work outside their training or preferences. I also said I knew some people couldn’t find work and that there weren’t jobs for everyone.

But I found it hard to take seriously when, in my view, there were vacant jobs that weren’t being taken because they were somewhere else or weren’t what people wanted to do. I mentioned a hotel in Skagen and a figure of sixteen kitchen staff as an example I had heard about at the time.

I expected people to say I was kicking someone who was down. My very provocative reply was that I paid taxes and therefore also wanted to kick people up the arse if they didn’t get moving. That was my political and personal polemic in the video, not an assessment of any individual unemployed person’s situation.

A copywriter turned her knowledge into a product

My second example was Christina, a copywriter I thought was bloody brilliant. I said her work had helped me write better, including in my newsletters.

She had made a book about copywriting, which I praised highly. I mentioned a price of five hundred and forty-nine kroner plus VAT and said she had sold many copies.

What interested me was that she had turned her knowledge into a product. She could sell a copy even while she slept, rather than only charge for the time she spent writing for a client. I compared it with my own idea behind Amino Plus.

But getting the product made also required sacrifice. If you have clients, courses, a husband and children, the time has to come from somewhere. I thought it was impressive to spend spare time creating something structured rather than just talking about it.

Fourteen days in a hotel produced a video course

When she said she had also made a video course, I asked how the hell she had found the time. I knew that sort of thing could take many hours of work.

She said she had told her husband and children she was going away for fourteen days and would come home afterwards. She took the train from Jutland to Copenhagen, checked into a hotel and spent the time on the course.

As I retold it, she did nothing else for those fourteen days. When she was finished, she had created an entire course from scratch on writing better copy for newsletters and websites.

I contrasted that with an imaginary person who spent two weeks on a beach holiday and afterwards complained that money was tight. I wasn’t very diplomatic. My point was that you also have to look at how you choose to spend your time when you want a different result.

I said she had made three to four hundred thousand kroner in sales shortly after launch. I thought it was after about forty-eight hours, and guessed she had sold much more since. I also said I didn’t actually know how much it had come to. Those were my recollections and estimates, not sales accounts I presented.

There was also a deal for Amino Plus members

We had discussed letting Amino Plus members get the book as part of their membership. She could reach more people who wanted to improve their writing, and some might later become interested in her video course.

We discussed the agreement back and forth and found a solution. I said in the video that members could get the book at that point, and at the end mentioned membership at ninety-nine kroner.

I didn’t hide my own interest in talking about it either. I joked that I didn’t get paid just to sit there entertaining people, so of course I wanted to include the deal too. The prices and offer in my account were from 2012.

My calculation was an illustration of the effort

I returned to the man who cleaned at night. I imagined that, as a self-employed cleaner, he might charge three hundred kroner an hour, and that he and his wife together worked eight hours a night.

I mentioned two thousand four hundred kroner a day and twenty days as an imaginary calculation. Then I rounded up very loosely in my speech and added possible earnings from their other activities. It was an illustration of how the work could finance the lifestyle, not information about their actual income or a calculation of profit after costs and tax.

My point was that the Mercedes and the villa hadn’t come for free. There was elbow grease behind them. Of course, I would recommend finding something you’d rather do than clean toilets at night, if you had the opportunity.

Christina had a talent for writing and had found another path. Not everyone has the same talent or interests. So you have to start with what you can and want to do.

Reaching your goals starts with understanding what they cost

I wanted people to start with the goal: what do I want to achieve? Then they had to work backwards and ask how many hours it would take and what sacrifices they would need to make, based on their abilities and interests. Also read Skab din egen succes about finding your own path and working towards the life you want.

Then it was a matter of taking one brick at a time and keeping going. I used the villa in Holte as an image of something that only stands there once you’ve done the work long enough.

I had initially underestimated the man on TV, but his night work earned my respect. And the copywriter’s fourteen days of focused work reminded me what you can create when you make a decision and see it through.

That was the push I wanted to give: yes, it’s hard. But if you want something specific, look honestly at the price in time and effort, and get started.