It's simple, but not easy.
How to become excellent at something
Welcome to Dev Build.
Every month, I cover the most valuable lesson I’ve learnt from building an online business solo.
As we plan where to excel in 2025, I will share what I’ve learned about excellence: it’s not about talent or inspiration - it’s about showing up every day.
In our increasingly competitive world, it’s critical to stand out - developing exceptional skills is how you do.
Most people can focus on one thing for weeks or even months. The problem is excellence takes years.
Success comes from small steps repeated often.
I’m building Know with consistent deep work in the Starter Story community. Here are the guidelines I use to stay motivated and keep momentum:
Do it almost every day
Do it for 5 minutes (it often leads to more)
The better you become, the more fun it gets
When you are about to give up, you start to excel
Perhaps these can help you achieve something excellent in 2025. Let’s dive in:
Do it almost every day
You can miss one day but don't miss two. - Matt D'Avella
Practising every day makes it a part of who you are.
It becomes a part of your lifestyle and your identity.
Excellence is not about doing something enough; it's about becoming the person required for excellence.
Become that person through small steps, repeated often.
Do it for 5 minutes
If you aim to practice for 5 minutes, you might actually do it every day.
Five minutes is short enough not to be daunting but long enough to start. Once you start, five minutes often turns into more.
Make your daily goal so easy that you'll feel stupid not doing it.
The better you become, the more fun it gets
Passion is not required.
When I started as a software developer, I didn't love it. The more I improved, however, the more fun it became. My passion grew alongside my skills.
Keep going until it becomes fun.
When you are about to give up, you start to excel
The curve of your progress is exponential. It stays flat for a long time and then suddenly goes up.
Most people become discouraged by the line not going up - but often, this is when it's about to. Don't give up.
Those who excel are not the most talented - they are simply the ones who don't stop.
If you choose one thing, do it every day for at least 5 minutes until it becomes fun, and don't stop, even when you want to - you can achieve excellence.
A Quote
I will leave you with a quote each month that has been valuable with my current challenges.
You can do anything but not everything - David Allen.
What's next
In December, I ran a launch campaign for Know, achieving 21 waitlist sign-ups from 10,000+ impressions across various platforms. While short of my original goal of 300 users, these qualified leads have expressed genuine interest in solving their wealth-tracking problems.
In January, I'm focusing on user validation:
Conducting 10 in-depth user interviews
Converting five waitlist members into active users
Building the core wealth tracking features based on their feedback
I wish you an excellent 2025. Until next month!