Why It Feels Like The Harder You Work The Luckier You Get (2522)

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Success has a system. In this episode, Kevin and Alan explore why the results people call “luck” are usually built through years of focused effort, skill development, and consistent action. Drawing on their experience coaching clients, building businesses, and creating more than 2,500 episodes, they explain why opportunities often appear after the work has already been done. You will hear how clear goals shape what you notice, why small improvements create larger outcomes over time, and how to separate real cause and effect from surface-level success.

They also address the pressure that comes with growth. More success can create more responsibility, more standards, and more problems worth solving. Do not wait to feel lucky. Build proof that you are ready when the opportunity arrives.

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Show notes:
(2:15) The compound effect of consistency
(4:21) Why big results require small steps
(5:44) Goals help you see opportunities
(7:49) Success is cause and effect
(12:07) What happens behind the scenes
(13:50) Understand the work behind results
(14:41) Outro

🎙️ Hosted by Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros

Next Level University is a top-ranked daily podcast for dream chasers and self-improvement lovers. With over 2,100 episodes, we help you level up in life, love, health, and wealth one day at a time. Subscribe for real, honest, no-fluff growth every single day.

Transcript

Kevin Palmieri

(0:00) I have the opportunity to get asked a lot of really good questions, and I got asked a great question today by one of my clients, and I was very respectful slash joking, and I was like, no, that's dumb. (0:11) It's one of the dumbest things I've heard in my life.

Alan Lazaros

(0:13) So what we're going to talk about today was Kevin's idea. (0:16) I'm excited. (0:17) Let's rock and roll.(0:18) Welcome to Next Level University.

Kevin Palmieri

(0:21) I'm your host, Kevin Palmieri. (0:22) And I'm your co-host, Alan Lazaros. (0:26) At NLU, we believe in a heart-driven but no BS approach to holistic self-improvement for dream chasers.

Alan Lazaros

(0:32) Our goal with every episode is to help you level up your life, love, health, and wealth.

Kevin Palmieri

(0:39) We bring you a new episode every single day on topics like confidence, self-belief, self-worth, self-awareness, relationships, boundaries, consistency, habits, and defining your own unique version of success.

Alan Lazaros

(0:55) Self-improvement in your pocket every day from anywhere completely free.

Kevin Palmieri

(1:01) Welcome to Next Level University. (1:07) Next Level Nation today for episode number 2,522. (1:11) Why it feels like the harder you work, the luckier you get.(1:15) I had a client today who I am at his place for the first time. (1:20) We're doing a social media podcast, YouTube channel package for multiple businesses. (1:25) And just a cool dude.(1:27) And we were just kind of getting to know each other because this is the first time I've met him in person. (1:32) And he said, you seem like you work really hard. (1:34) Have you ever thought and what is your perspective on the harder you work, the luckier you get?(1:40) And I said, with respect, and that's like the dumbest thing ever because I think the harder you work, the higher up you get, and then you get opportunities you would never get that just kind of sort of seem like they come to you. (1:50) I think that is more a representation of competency and consistency than it is luck. (1:57) And he's like, oh yeah, that's a really good way to look at it.(1:59) So I thought that would be a cool conversation because I'm sure, Alan, you have heard this quote many, many, many times as have I. (2:06) And I think it can be like, I don't know, maybe somewhat empowering, but I do not think it holds weight at all.

Alan Lazaros

(2:15) Yeah, I was on with a client earlier who his firm, the other advisors, he's a financial advisor, are looking to him and asking like how, because a lot of them are struggling to get new clients, get exposure, this, that, and a lot of things just seem to come to him. (2:35) And in the middle of the conversation, I said, well, I can show you the reason. (2:40) And this is not, as a leader, how do you scale this?(2:44) That's where I was going with this. (2:46) But I took his peak performance tracker and I unhid, because I hide everything except for this quarter, and I unhid the whole sheet, the whole spreadsheet. (2:56) He and I started working together in October of 2021.(3:02) I said, if anyone asks why you're so lucky, in quotes, show them this spreadsheet where you are tracking metrics and habits since October of 2021. (3:19) And then your seemingly out of nowhere results will make perfect sense to them. (3:27) And the whole point of this is like, to your point, you said consistency.(3:32) I said, the results you're experiencing right now has to do with what you've done for the last four years, not what you've done for the last four months. (3:39) And I think that that's one of the biggest problems, is that most of what we've achieved, we just got a new client. (3:49) You just got another upgrade of an existing client.(3:52) I went from 30 clients to 47 clients in four months, which is wild. (4:00) And if you said, I'm going to teach a course on how to get 17 clients in four months, it would be a bullshit course. (4:09) Because the real reason I got 17 clients in four months is the compound effect of the last 11 years.(4:18) I was a fitness coach. (4:19) I was a mindset coach.

Kevin Palmieri

(4:21) You know the book 10X is easier than 2X or whatever it is? (4:25) Yes, it's a dangerous book. (4:27) But I think it's for this reason, because you have to do the 2X before you can do the 10X.(4:33) I think what it's essentially saying is you can just skip steps.

Alan Lazaros

(4:37) It's trying to say that 10X is easier than 2X is a dangerous book. (4:44) I have to say this, just have to. (4:47) The reason it's dangerous is because what it's saying is you shouldn't worry so much about incremental improvement.(4:53) You should worry about quantum leaps. (4:56) And the truth is quantum leaps come from incremental improvement. (5:01) So what it's trying to say is, hey, there's less people aiming high.(5:06) So aim high and you'll have less competition and you'll be more strategic, which does make sense when you look at it from a constraint theory perspective. (5:14) If you're trying to squat 500 pounds, you're going to get more insights than I do trying to squat 100. (5:20) That's the truth.(5:21) However, you still have to put in the 10 years to get to the point where you can squat 500 pounds. (5:28) So what it's trying to say is aim high and you'll get insights other people won't. (5:35) If you believe in it, if you work really hard to get those insights, if you get the right mentors, if you don't get hoodwinked.(5:41) And this is something we should talk about briefly. (5:44) Have you ever seen the psychology video of the two teams of basketball teams that are like, count how many times you see them pass the ball. (5:53) Is this the, and there's like a dancing gorilla.

Kevin Palmieri

(5:57) Yeah. (5:57) Yeah.

Alan Lazaros

(5:57) Yeah. (5:57) Okay. (5:58) Okay.(5:58) And basically the point of this freaking study, it basically there's count how many times the ball gets thrown. (6:05) The white team throws the ball white and black team. (6:08) And you are so focused on counting that you don't see a dancing gorilla go through the middle of the camera, which basically is saying, listen, most of the world is invisible to you unless you have a certain goal.(6:19) And that's, I like that. (6:20) That's true. (6:21) I think that's what that book is saying.(6:23) Have a goddamn goal that forces you to notice the person's places, things, and ideas. (6:27) And that's why back to the quote that we started this with this client that said, the harder I work, the luckier I get. (6:34) What it really should be is I aimed really freaking high, which required me to work really hard.(6:41) And now I notice more opportunities more often, and I can actually execute against them because of my competence and skills I've developed over time. (6:49) But that's not a quote that you're going to put on Instagram.

Kevin Palmieri

(6:52) You earn it. (6:53) That's the thing is like you develop what it takes to earn more opportunities and the opportunities actually happen. (6:58) Like, of course.(7:00) Okay. (7:00) Year one lawyer versus year 15 lawyer. (7:04) Who's going to get more people?(7:05) Most likely year 15 lawyer, because they've been around and they've built a name for themselves and they've built up a reputation and they have referrals. (7:13) And the other thing too is, I don't know, at times, doesn't it feel like the more successful you get, the more unlucky you get too? (7:20) Because you see more of the shit that you're letting slip through your fingers.(7:23) So it's like, I feel like it's this exact same. (7:27) It's, it's the same on both ends. (7:29) You're no more lucky and you're no more unlucky than you ever were.(7:33) You're just way more focused on the things that are going well. (7:36) And then like the things that are going not well, you're not as focused on because it doesn't seem to matter as much. (7:41) So you don't really focus on it.(7:42) That's it.

Alan Lazaros

(7:43) Yeah. (7:44) And you've grown and developed so much that you aren't freaking out every time something small happens.

Kevin Palmieri

(7:49) Yes.

Alan Lazaros

(7:49) I think we mix up cause and effect all the time. (7:53) Like the last episode you and I did, I basically said to everyone, you need to grow up. (8:02) And I was thinking about it the other day, last night in the gym, I was thinking about it last night in the gym, not the other day.(8:09) And I was like, I'm getting very hardcore on this show. (8:13) And I think people are going to think, well, now that he's successful, he has permission to be hardcore. (8:19) No, no.(8:20) I'm successful because I was hardcore. (8:22) It's like, it's both obviously, because I do feel like as I've proven myself, I now have more permission in other people's eyes to like tell you how I did it, but don't get it twisted. (8:35) I was always hardcore pretending not to be.(8:37) Now I'm just actually revealing the real mindset that I had. (8:40) And the mindset is the reason for the success, not the other way around. (8:43) The success didn't change my mindset.(8:46) Definitely not. (8:47) My mindset created the success. (8:49) Dude, that.(8:51) Do you get luckier? (8:52) Absolutely not. (8:53) More goes wrong.(8:55) More goes wrong. (8:56) And you notice more that goes wrong and no.

Kevin Palmieri

(8:59) Now again, but I want to make it abundantly clear. (9:02) This client's awesome. (9:03) And I'm not talking.

Alan Lazaros

(9:03) Yeah, of course. (9:04) Of course.

Kevin Palmieri

(9:05) I just would be a cool, a cool topic for an episode.

Alan Lazaros

(9:07) That's all. (9:07) Yeah. (9:07) And he obviously took that and was like, yeah, good point.(9:10) So cause and effect. (9:16) Can you answer that? (9:17) Like, if you were to listen to the show now, how much would you be missing?

Kevin Palmieri

(9:24) If I was to listen to this show now.

Alan Lazaros

(9:26) Yeah. (9:27) And see, you know, the dreams we've built and us succeeding, how much would you miss, you know, like the context.

Kevin Palmieri

(9:37) Yeah. (9:38) All the context of like, I don't even know how to quantify it because number one, I'm so in the forest. (9:47) So it's like, I don't even know.(9:50) And number two, we've been talking about the things we're talking about now for years, just before we had certain results in some regards. (9:59) I mean, we didn't really start talking about money until we were making actual money that we talk about fitness, the more dialed in we are in fitness for sure.

Alan Lazaros

(10:05) Yeah, definitely.

Kevin Palmieri

(10:07) But I don't know. (10:08) I think it's, yeah, it's really easy to imagine that if somebody tuned in for the first time ever and found out, like, we, I don't, we're more successful now than we've been. (10:20) They would say like, oh, it's because you are more intense than you used to be, or you're more dialed in the used to be.(10:25) It's like, I think we're probably more dialed in than we used to be, but we have to be dialed in than we used to be because we have more results because we were dialed in.

Alan Lazaros

(10:32) Exactly. (10:32) Yeah, because we were dialed in.

Kevin Palmieri

(10:34) Yeah.

Alan Lazaros

(10:34) It's like you dial in at level one, you get level one results. (10:37) Then you dial in at level two, you get level two results. (10:40) You dial in at level three, you get level three results in that order.

Kevin Palmieri

(10:44) Yeah.

Alan Lazaros

(10:44) And when you, it's like when you, again, a team wins the Superbowl, they don't, they don't, okay, uh, we're good now. (10:56) Let's fuck off next season. (10:58) You know what I mean?(10:59) That's like, if anything, it's like, okay, so that's not going to work again because they just, everyone just studied what we did. (11:05) So let's, I do think that that's, and again, it comes down to the same thing I say over and over and over again, which is success makes life harder, not easier. (11:13) That's gotta be, it makes your bills easier.(11:16) Yeah. (11:17) But it doesn't make anything else easier. (11:20) I, I, what does get easier?(11:24) Getting clients gets easier.

Kevin Palmieri

(11:26) Yeah, pretty much.

Alan Lazaros

(11:27) I had a, keeping clients doesn't get easier. (11:30) Maybe a little, but it's harder because you're spread more thin, you know, I'm riding the struggle bus.

Kevin Palmieri

(11:35) I had, I had, I was thinking today, I was like, I can't remember the last time I wasn't like super stressed out about something, like the next thing to be stressed out about.

Alan Lazaros

(11:46) It's the price you pay.

Kevin Palmieri

(11:47) It's all, there's a message in WhatsApp right now. (11:49) I have to respond to that. (11:50) I'm stressed out about in this moment.(11:51) And I'm also trying to figure out what I'm going to have for dinner tonight, which I'm also a little bit stressed out about and stay on my diet, baby. (11:59) Oh, okay. (12:01) Wrap this in a bow for us and then we will hammer our next one.(12:06) All right.

Alan Lazaros

(12:07) So yeah, a more accurate statement would be, what do I hope everyone leaves with? (12:15) What's important? (12:19) It will appear from the outside.(12:21) Like someone is really lucky when in reality, when you get behind the scenes, it's usually by design more than you think, or full of shit. (12:31) One of those two, one of those two. (12:33) I think someone is either like, so Emilia, I always use her as an example because she's the best example I have.(12:39) The closer you got to Emilia, the closer I got to Emilia from when I met her to now, the more I realized that everything she's achieved, which is substantial at her age, is like entirely by design. (12:52) None of it, if anything, she's like less successful than she should be. (12:55) Seriously.(12:56) And she's very successful. (12:58) And then there's other mentors I've gotten closer to where it's like, oh, you are just way more full of shit than I thought. (13:03) So that, that's what I want to land with is you don't get luckier.(13:07) It appears that way from the outside. (13:08) And either there's someone who's really deceitful and really non-integrous, which is very common, actually, alarmingly. (13:14) And then, or someone is really, really much more than you realize they're doing things much differently than you originally thought.(13:22) You got to get as close to Dan Heath, the author calls this, uh, going and seeing the work. (13:28) I do this all the time with clients where it's like, share your screen, show me, show me what you're doing. (13:32) And then almost always there's a breakthrough of, oh, that's not how you should be doing that.(13:38) That's, but I, I just projected. (13:40) So, so yeah, get close to the people that are really successful in health, wealth and love and closer and closer and closer, and then find out if they're actually how they're doing it. (13:48) There is a cause to the effect.

Kevin Palmieri

(13:50) There is, this would be my hot take. (13:53) If you feel like the more, the harder you work, the luckier you get, you're not actually understanding the work you're doing. (14:02) You don't understand the importance and or how the work you're doing connects to everything else you're doing.(14:07) Because if you think it's luck, you obviously don't know the logic behind why it's great point that, yeah, you don't know the effect of the effect of the effect that, yeah, that's, that's good stuff.

Alan Lazaros

(14:16) That's true.

Kevin Palmieri

(14:16) Take hot take on that one. (14:17) All right. (14:18) Reach out to Alan.(14:19) It is not by luck. (14:20) If you achieve more success with Alan, you, you will, it's not considered me lucky. (14:25) No, God, no.(14:26) I think you're lucky person. (14:28) I've unlucky people I've ever met in my entire life for that. (14:31) And then if you want to really take charge of your fitness and understand that you losing the amount of weight or gaining the amount of weight or muscle or whatever it is, it's not going to happen by luck.(14:40) Next level fitness accountability group. (14:42) As always, we love you. (14:42) Appreciate you grateful for each and every one of you.(14:44) If you are as committed as you say you are to getting to the next level, make sure you tune in tomorrow because we'll be here every single day to help you get there.

Alan Lazaros

(14:50) Keep leveling up to reach your full potential.

Kevin Palmieri

(14:53) Thanks for joining us for another episode of next level university. (14:57) We love connecting with the next level family.

Alan Lazaros

(15:00) We mean it when we say family, if you ever need anything, please reach out to us directly. (15:05) Everything you need to get ahold of us is in the show notes. (15:09) Thank you again.

Kevin Palmieri

(15:09) And we will talk to you tomorrow.