The Self-Eliminating Majority
Everyone wants results
Far fewer want to do what's required to get them
The Five-Mile Radius
Before the internet, you could be average and still win.
Your competition was contained: the dentist across town, the three contractors in your area, the handful of consultants in your city.
Do decent work, show up consistently, and you'd stand out enough to succeed.
The playing field was small enough that average could thrive.
That world is gone.
The Global Shift
Now your competition is every person with internet access on Earth.
And here's what makes this shift so profound: it's not just that there are more competitors. It's that the best competitors from everywhere are now directly accessible to your potential customers.
Someone in Mumbai can hire the top developer in Prague. A company in Austin can work with the best strategist in Singapore.
Geography no longer protects average performance.
This is extraordinary for human progress: ideas spread faster, connections form instantly, information flows freely.
But it's made standing out exponentially harder. Average gets buried under the sheer volume of talented people doing exactly what you're trying to do.
To win today, you must be exceptional.
Not just good. Dramatically better than thousands of others who are already working hard.
The Calculation
Here's where most people quit
They calculate the effort required, realize it's far more than they signed up for, and decide it's not for them.
I see this constantly in my own business. People inquire about building AI systems, excited about the results
Then they learn it requires 60-hour weeks, continuous learning, countless failed experiments, and maintaining that intensity for years.
The excitement evaporates. "Maybe this isn't the right time," they say. Or "I'll wait until I have more resources."
They're not wrong to quit.
They're just being honest about their priorities.
Most people genuinely aren't willing to do what winning requires.
And that's exactly why the competition is smaller than it appears
The Paradox
The internet created a paradox: it expanded competition globally while simultaneously reducing it drastically.
Yes, you're competing against everyone. But most people eliminate themselves the moment they understand what winning actually demands.
They're not willing to go the extra mile, to maintain brutal intensity over years, to do the high-volume work that separates exceptional from average.
Which means if you are willing to do those things, you're no longer competing against everyone.
You're competing against the tiny fraction who didn't quit when it got hard.
I've watched this pattern repeat across every industry I've studied.
The competition looks massive until you realize most of it is theoretical.
The real competition: the people actually executing at a high level consistently, is remarkably small.
And getting smaller every day as more people self-select out.
The Opportunity
This is the opportunity hiding in plain sight.
The same internet that raised the bar for entry has made it easier for the committed to win.
Because while the standard for average has risen, the standard for exceptional hasn't changed. It's still the same: sustained, relentless execution when others stop.
So if you think extraordinary results are possible for you, you're right.
But understand what you're signing up for. This isn't about working a little harder or being slightly more disciplined.
It's about fundamentally outworking people who are already working hard. It's about staying in the game when your peers are dropping out because they "just can't anymore."
Whatever you want to achieve exists on the other side of that commitment.
The path is straightforward: commit fully, execute relentlessly, outlast everyone who quits.
Most people won't do it. That's your opportunity.
-Anthony
P.S. If this resonated, hit reply. I read every response and genuinely appreciate hearing how these principles land with you.
