One of the best life lessons I’ve learned is if you want to live a great life you should be careful about taking shortcuts.
Shortcuts often set you back, make you feel jaded, cost you energy (which is more important than time), and leave you worse off than when you started.
When you take shortcuts you often leave yourself shortchanged.
Doing things “the hard way” is often a more reliable way to bring you closer to your goals. You learn what does and doesn’t work and since your operating with skin in the game, you learn what’s actually important and where you can find ROI.
If you want to be successful and increase the odds of success, do the legwork. Most people you compete against won’t. The number of people who work towards mastery is relatively few.