10 Lessons I Learned After Reading David Perell for 50 Days Straight
The world of Twitter is pretty new to me. Even though I have had my account for ten years, it wasn’t until the fall of 2020 that I was actually on Twitter for professional reasons. I started to find people writing about fascinating topics or had perspectives of life that I connected with. One person, in particular, stood out to me, David Perell.
David is a writer, and he also teaches other people about writing. What stands out to me from other people on the internet who sell courses is that he writes. David isn’t a guy who wrote one great article and now spends all of his time tricking people into buying his writing course. He honestly doesn’t tweet much about writing tips or hacks. He just posts his writing.
His writing is so good that you want to learn from him how you could create a writing system like his. His course, Write of Passage, is supposed to be pretty incredible, but currently, I wasn’t ready to spend the 4,000 to 6,000 dollars. The next best thing is his FREE 50-day email writing course.
Each day for 50 days, you are sent an email with an article that David wrote to help you become a writer.
The impact of this 50-day course
This course created not only a spark in me to write but a system to write consistently. I know that David would probably go deep on some of these concepts in his Write of Passage, but man, in 50 days, I feel pretty dang good!
Before I created Youtube videos or even had an Instagram, I started this blog right after high school in 2014. I wanted to document my life of becoming a professional ballet dancer. I was naive about social media marketing and just how powerful the internet was at the time. I would write because I wanted to write.
Over time, as I learned more about the internet and social media, writing became more rigid. For me, it became more about figuring out how to get people to come to my site rather than just writing out of my love for it. I stopped writing out of fear or feeling that I needed a specific schedule.
Through my coaching with Chris McAlister, I found a more profound fear under this all.
My core identity fear is the fear of being replaceable.
I want to be unique- I believe to my core that I am different.
To be mediocre scares the CRAP out of me.
So writing or creating videos for no one to see is scary. Deep down, I want to go viral. But this fear made me hide in my writing because I was waiting for the writing to be perfect, or I was hiding because I was not too fond of the writing. After realizing that in coaching, I am on a quest to create for myself and part of that is to get back to my blog.
David and his 50-day course helped me get inspired to write again, and he helped me practically build a system to find my unique perspective and voice. I love David’s writing because he uses his writing to attract people to his unique view. We all have a unique view, and writing on the internet allows us to find our people!
Here are ten lessons I learned from David:
1. Have a note-taking system
You can never have writer’s block when you have notes. For example, I have come back to writing this article over the last few weeks. I forgot some things, but I was able to skim my notes from his 50 articles in Roam Research (my note-taking system) and quickly get back to speed. I also have been able to go in-depth with my findings from David because I had notes on all of his articles.
2. Editing is the most crucial part of writing
Editing is taking away what is not essential to your point. Heck- I even paired down this small paragraph.
3. The most simple writing is the best writing because you worked through compression
You want to squeeze out the best ideas or moments. Editing is about taking the first draft, refining it repeatedly until you get to what is truly the point of your article or essay.
4. Don’t catch trends; focus on creating your unique voice on a topic or idea
I struggled with this the most because I got caught up in writing as an SEO exercise and making sure the keywords were the best. This hurt me from actually writing. I lost myself, my voice, and my fire to share my uniqueness with the world. Now, I focus on writing from within, not based on what will do well with SEO.
5. You don’t have to be original; focus on connecting other people’s ideas
These 10 points are David’s points where he got them from others who got them from people before them. So if there is nothing new under the sun, why write? Because if you can connect ideas between people, you create a unique vantage point on a concept or idea.
6. Leverage the power of the internet
You can post something, and others will share it for you to their friends. You want to give yourself as many opportunities as possible for the internet, whether that be an algorithm or people, to share your work. Beyond that, the internet is a place to meet others, collaborate, and create. David has lit a fire in me about using the internet for good in my life, career, and business.
7. There is not enough long-form content in the world
There is this massive race to the bottom with getting people’s attention for 5 seconds. Meanwhile, there are people profoundly looking for something more. After 10 minutes of TikTok, I am left feeling empty. It was fun, but I feel like I end up where I started- hungry for more. Long-form content is where you can go in-depth on ideas or teach something in detail versus quick points in a few seconds. There are many grey areas of life, and you can go into the nuances of everything you couldn’t do in 10 seconds.
8. Writing makes you a better speaker
Writing is not just about putting words on paper; you have the editing process. You spend a lot of time articulating an idea precisely so that if someone asked you a question in a conversation, you have an edited answer that you have already worked on for some time. If you don’t write, you don’t give yourself time to synthesize your ideas to help you communicate clearly. Writing gives you focus when you speak.
9. Build a personal monopoly around your uniqueness
I have always struggled with loving so many different things. I have always been told to find a niche, and I hated that because I didn’t want to be known for just one subject, I want to be known for me- my unique point of view. I want to combine intellectual ideas to sneaker culture. David showed me not only that I can do this, but that I should do this!
10. Use stories or examples to show the lessons you want to teach
David is a master at telling stories and using examples to demonstrate an idea that he wants to speak on. He grabs examples like Soulja Boy all the way to the documentary, Jiro Dreams of Sushi. I want to do the same using the things that interest me or inspire me.
David, if you are reading this, thank you! I am in Austin, like you, so if you need anything in this city, feel free to reach out!
If you want to sign up for this course, click this button!