#1 Your Sunday Sourcebook

Things you didn't see on the internet this week

Welcome to the first edition of Sunday Sourcebook.

If you've been reading Startup Social for a while, you know I believe the quality of your thoughts are shaped by the media you consume and the conversations you have. That’s why I’m always searching for articles, podcasts, and videos that no one else is talking about.

One of my greatest fears is consuming only what big media algorithms tell me to—because I believe the downstream effects of that are disastrous. That’s why I spend a significant amount of time each week curating a list of things that will nourish my mind.

Sunday Sourcebook is that list. It’s a behind-the-scenes collection of the most impactful things I found each week. Things that are influencing my thoughts, my conversations, and ultimately my writing. My hope in publishing this list is to nudge us both off the beaten path, to spur us into action, and uncover some hidden gems from the depths of the internet.

The idea I couldn’t escape this week

A recurring theme in this weeks reading was that, if you want to be an artist, entrepreneur, or craftsman, you must also be a marketer. It’s an inescapable—and unfortunate—reality of modern life. We all need to build an audience, and cultivate a personal brand. This is no longer optional.

I remember when this idea first crystallized for me.

I was walking with a friend who has published a few books through a traditional publishing house. He turned to me and asked:

“Do you know what the number one factor is to determine if a book is going to be a success?”

He then added a disclaimer: No one has ever guessed the answer right. Game on. I started to think outside the box. Maybe it’s something odd, like the author's birth month? Wrong.

Hmm, maybe the color of the cover? Wrong again. How long the author has been writing? Wrong. I kept shooting and kept missing. Finally, after a dozen guesses, I gave in.

Tell me!

The number one factor: The size of the advance your publisher gives you.

The more money a publisher is willing to invest in your work—sight unseen—the more likely your book is to succeed. Which makes sense. Once a publisher invests $250,000 into your book, they’re much more willing to spend another 200, 300, 500 thousand dollars to ensure the book is a bestseller.

Now, this begets another important question:

How does an author get a huge advance for their book?

The answer—at least the answer my friend was told by his publisher when he was first starting out— is to have an existing platform. Build a huge following, an engaged email list, and rabid fans.

For many artists, writers, and even entrepreneurs, this was never part of the plan. Playing games on social media, writing salacious headlines, crafting punchy tweets. In addition to our main thing, we must become performers as well. But what’s most concerning is—the more time you spend promoting yourself, the less time you spend on the work you’re actually promoting.

Which brings me to this week’s Sourcebook.

📖 Want to be an artist? Better start a TikTok

One of the best things about the internet is that its democratized our ability to create, publish, and sell our own work. But an unintended side-effect of this freedom, is that it lead to the consolidation of media distribution outlets.

As a result, there is now less competition among the big guys on top. Which means that creators are actually getting paid a lower percentage of royalties from their art, while simultaneously being responsible for more and more of the marketing of their own work.

But here’s the twist—people are spending huge amounts of time every day posting online, and building their personal brand, in order to promote their work. But their work is lower quality and more formulaic than it was in the decades prior—when they could simply focus on being creative.

This quote summed up the entire dilemma for me. It came from Ricky Montgomery, a TikTock creator with millions of followers, who was lamenting about the content treadmill he’s found himself stuck on. Even after landing a record deal and producing a few hit songs, he said, “Next thing you know, it’s been three years and you’ve spent almost no time on your art…You’re getting worse at it, but you’re becoming a great marketer for a product which is less and less good.”

So it’s no wonder that artists, entrepreneurs, and producers are relying more and more on formulas to drive their work decisions.

🎥 Why does the culture feel dead?

Most of the progress we’ve made in the 21st century has been through refinement of existing technologies. Streamlining businesses, and products, and media— by dialing in the production processes. And it feels like what’s going on in culture right now, is a byproduct of that.

When you have enough movies, enough stories, enough businesses, and enough data on all of them—you can start determining with acute clarity, what’s working and what’s not. So you trim the fat, sand away the rough edges, and remove the inefficiencies. But when everyone is eliminating the same things, in the name of performance, you end up with—uniformity. Which you’ve probably noticed in literally everything from car design, to movie sequels, to book covers, to fashion. Culture, at large, is flattening.

Ted Gioia

suggests that this has everything to do with our need to fit in. As the old saying goes—It’s the tall poppy that gets cut. Which explains why movie studios are afraid to try new things. If one brave Marvel executive were to break rank, and create something truly unique—and if that movie were to fail—they would immediately be fired. But if they simply stuck to the formula and failed, blame would obviously fall on—the consumer.

It’s a fascinating paradox that we’re starting to face head on. Formulas work for a reason, but they’re starting to piss us off. Which will break first?

📖 The Best Career Advice I Ever Received

Something that really gets under my skin, is people’s paranoid desire for credit. Not like the card in your pocket, but the need to constantly be recognized for the things that they do. The idea that every little thing they say, needs to be cited back to them.

I believe that this compulsive desire for credit ultimately undermines their longterm success. People will squabble with their boss, or co-workers over who did what—and in this turmoil the work itself suffers. Instead of spending time perfecting their craft, people spend all their time divvying up credit.

Ryan Holiday has always been a big proponent of apprenticeship. It’s kind of the defining feature of his career. Early on he realized that success wasn’t about making sure he got all the credit. Instead, it was about making sure he elevated the people around him. As in, he would do better to make his boss and colleagues look good, than to make himself look good. In doing so, he became indispensable wherever he went. People in power wanted him around. This gave him the ability to make incredible industry connections, at a very young age.

All of this I already knew about Ryan before reading this essay. But what I didn’t know, was how serious he is about not needing credit. One of the things that took me by surprise in this article was that, although he is an accomplished NYT Bestseller in his own right, his first appearance on the list was as an uncredited ghostwriter. And not just once, but multiple times. Multiple times he wrote for other authors, and went completely uncredited, even when they reached astronomical success.

📖 Don’t sacrifice the wrong thing.

Sometimes I feel like a dumb ass for spending so much time starting a lifestyle business.

Startup Social will never be a seven-figure endeavor, but it is my most sincere stab at meaningful work. It’s the kind of work that allows me to live in service of my virtue. Much like

Henrik Karlsson

, the author of this essay, I too was offered a very large sum of money (multiples of what Startup Social was making) to shut down this community, and help someone else build their own. I turned that down because, what they were doing was fundamentally misaligned with my mission. I still question that decision from time to time. But essays like this, are reassuring.

Reading this reminded me that there are people out there, who are also pursuing meaning over money. In that pursuit, we’re all bound to experience the same dilemmas, the same temptations, and the same doubts.

🎧 Can you read a book in a quarter of an hour?

When you reduce a book to just the key points and phrases—does it still retain its power? Does it still have the ability to capture our minds, fix our attention, and inspire us into action? Because after all, that’s what literature is all about. Its building a ladder throughout time. One where each successive author, thinker, and leader can elevate the ideas of the last. And through this intellectual progression, society has been able to climb to staggering heights.

Something I’ve noticed about books is that the longer I spend with one, the more of an effect it has on me. Because during the period of my life in which I’m reading it, it provides a lens for me to view the entire world. When I read the Odyssey for instance, I saw reflections of it pl out in my everyday life. Had I not been reading it, I would have not been so aware to even look.

Even when I’m reading trite mass media business books—they too provide a lens for me to view the world. A filter in which I can understand my past, and a perspective through which I can experience life in the present. So in this way, the longer I am with a book, the more it impacts my perception of the world.

So I wonder how much of that is lost when we reduce books down to 16 minute summaries?

—Zac

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If you enjoyed this edition of Sunday Sourcebook, leave a comment below and let me know!