Everything has a price tag

Everyone wants the rewards of success - but very few want to pay the price for it.

You think you want success. You don't.

You want the rewards of success—the money, the freedom, the admiration. But you're allergic to the hidden price of success: the pain, the discipline, and the trade-offs.

And since the price is a non-negotiable part of the package, you don't actually want the complete reality of success.

Highly successful people are extremely good at detecting opportunities where nobody sees them.

A entrepreneur finds a problem, then he builds a company that addresses it, and as a result he gets rewarded in terms of money fame and success. A scientist discovers a hidden law in nature that helps us uncover how reality works, shaping our understanding.

You are able to create value and differentiate from others to the extent that you’re capable of detecting, and then exploiting, hidden opportunities.

But highly successful individuals did not reach their status just because they discover hidden opportunities. It’s not just talent, luck, or intelligence. It’s the ability to see the invisible price tag on everything—and choosing to pay it.

This is the part most people miss.

We see the prize. Not the price

We are experts at seeing the result but blind to the process.

• You see the six-pack, but you don’t see the countless hours of training, the disciplined diet, and the sore muscles.

• You see the bestselling author, but you don’t see the two hours of non-negotiable writing every single day, year after year.

• You see the stock market returns, but you don’t see the emotional turmoil of watching your money disappear during a crash and the discipline required to hold on.

The glamorous result is visible; the price paid in discipline, effort, and uncertainty is not. The uncertainty of today is the price you pay for the rewards of tomorrow. It's up to you to pay it.

This leads to the fundamental truth that underpins all achievement: everything has a cost.

Everything has a price tag

I hate running in the morning. It's not that I hate running itself; waking up early is what feels painful.

When I hit the snooze button, I tell myself, “I’m tired. I’d rather sleep.” In that moment, running feels too costly, so I choose the comfort of my bed. Unless you’re one of those rare people who wake up at 5 a.m. having already run a marathon, you know what I mean.

What I failed to see was the hidden cost: by choosing NOT to run, I was also choosing NOT to improve. Not to get in shape. Not to become a runner.

When I reframed the trade-off, waking up got easier.

The choice was no longer between comfort and pain. It was between stagnation and growth.

Every choice has a cost, even the choice to do nothing.

The price of inaction

Inaction has a cost. Doing nothing often carries a significant price. It delays progress, prevents taking advantage of opportunities, and can even lead to regret.

If you must do something but delay it, you’re quite likely make the problem worse, as opportunities slip away and the problem itself remains unresolved. If you do that continuously, it gets worse because inaction can become a habit of putting things off, leading to a cycle of delay and missed chances.

People normally argue that the reason why they don’t take action is because they are stressed and anxious. “I do too many things! I need to rest. I feel overwhelmed!”

Chances are that’s not the reason why you’re feeling stressed and anxious. As Jeff Bezos once said: “Stress doesn't come from hard work. Stress primarily comes from not taking action on things you have some control over.”

The root of stress and anxiety are our inability to take action when we should. The pain of inaction is not just the regret of losing opportunities and delaying progress, it’s also the stress we feel.

As soon as you have some issue to overcome, get your hands on it immediately. Just do it. Act with a sense of urgency.

I guess by now you get my point. Inaction is bad. But how do we take action when we’re doing hard things and we feel like we can’t keep going?

By seeing the opportunity on hark work and suffering.

On hard work & choosing your own suffering

Everything worth doing is hard. The more worth doing it is, the harder it is. The greater the payoff the greater the hardship. If it’s hard, good. It means no one else will do it. More for you. Train yourself on how you respond to hard. I get happier about the harder it gets because I know less people are willing to do this. Switch your perspective from ‘Oh this is hard’ to ‘No one else is willing to do this.’ ‘Oh poor me’ to “Oh poor everyone else who’s going to try.’”

Alex Hormozi

Hard work is not a punishment; it’s a filter that weeds out the competition.

Mark Manson famously wrote that the most important question in life isn’t, “What do you want?” but instead, “What pain are you willing to endure?”

Everyone wants the rewards—fame, money, healthy relationships, creative accomplishments. The real differentiator is the willingness to accept the struggle and discomfort that comes along the way.

"Who you are is defined by the values you are willing to struggle for. Because happiness requires struggle. The positive is the side effect of handling the negative."
— Mark Manson

You cannot avoid suffering—it’s a fact of life. The key is to choose which kind of suffering you’ll face:

• The pain of discipline: Hard work, effort, and discomfort now.

• The pain of regret: Avoidance, comfort, and procrastination now, leading to missed growth and weakened discipline later on.

Doing hard things is an asymmetric bet: the more you step out of your comfort zone, the more you’ll grow. The pain is temporary, but the reward is lasting.

When you avoid hard work for comfort now, you incur a heavier price in the future: lost health, missed skills, and broken promises to yourself.

You always pay—now or later.

The suffering you avoid in the short term will be experienced in the long term, but amplified. So, the question isn't if you will experience pain, but which pain you will choose.

As Buddha observed, life is suffering. But it’s a privilege to choose which kind.

So, what choice have you been avoiding? Take a moment to write it down. List the immediate, visible pain of taking action. Then, list the hidden, long-term price of staying put. Look at both costs side-by-side.

Success is found in the things you don't see. It's in the price you are willing to pay, the pain you choose to endure, and the opportunities you seize while others hesitate.