Word association

What is the first word that comes to mind when you hear: success? Is it a big accomplishment, a long list of wins? Well, I hate to disappoint but most of the time, to succeed you need a long tail. What does a long tail exactly mean? It means perfecting your craft, doing things consistently, and making adjustments along the way.

Walt Disney

Morgan Housel wrote in his book The Psychology of Money about Walt Disney. The Disney studio was the frontrunner in the animation business. However, they were on their way to bankruptcy. It was only until the movie Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was released that they became profitable. What changed? Snow White was the first longer animation. When you look at it from afar you will say that Walt Disney was a successful man because of that movie. But I like to think that the real success was having so much experience in small animations in order to execute a long animation well.

Momentum

Another advantage of having a tail-event is that it drives momentum. Nowadays, you see it all the time on social media. When you watch a youtube video on “how to grow your personal brand” they all talk about putting out content consistently. After a while, when your audience starts to grow, you will hit millions of views. Want to read more about how to keep going even when you don’t feel like it? Read this post.

Image: Unsplash, by Guillaume Briard