There are two paths in life. And you're already on one of them. Even if you pretend you're "figuring it out." The question is which way. I committed to online writing over ten years ago. Over a decade of trying, failing, learning, and applying lessons from people smarter than me. The result is a system to get things done better. A smarter way to take the pain out of trial-and-error. The process has changed my approach to life and living it.
Author Brandon Mull was right when he said, "Smart people learn from their mistakes. But the real sharp ones learn from the mistakes of others." You either learn the lessons of life the smart way or the hard way. No secret third option.
You are either a hard "pathfinder" or a smart "pathmaker."
The hard way is obviously to learn from your failures and setbacks. Experience is the best teacher, they say. This way is usually painful, but you still acquire knowledge for life. But you can upgrade the process or make it easier by applying the wisdom of great minds. Learn from other people's years of experience, lessons, and mistakes. The right lessons for your path can save you time, money, and deliver more value than 1000 hours of just hard work.
Warren Buffet, one of the most successful investors of all time, had mentors, teachers, and other smart colleagues who helped him develop his smart investing style over time. People like Benjamin Graham, David Dodd, and Phil Fisher helped him develop the best investing rules necessary to build his empire. Buffett often describes his investing principles as 15% Fisher and 85% Benjamin Graham.
The hard way works. Pain works. You increase the number of experiments and learn from the lessons that teach you something you can apply to your next one. Most people live this way. It's brutal but honest. You are a pathfinder. You push through. You discover what doesn't work.
The smarter way? Become a pathmaker. You still work hard. You still fail. But you borrow from the failures of giants. You read, study, ask, steal, experiment, and apply. That process is leverage. Ten years of work, condensed. The right lessons can save you time, money, and misery. They can deliver more value than blind toil.
"If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants."― Isaac Newton, The Correspondence of Isaac Newton: Volume 5, 1709–1713
If you had the chance to avoid the worst mistakes of your career, your relationships, or your finances, why wouldn't you? Pathmakers don't avoid failure entirely. They avoid unnecessary failure. They don't reinvent the wheel. They focus energy where it makes the most sense. You don't have to waste years repeating the same errors. You can borrow experience. That's pathmaking in action.
Being a pathfinder isn't bad. Life demands it sometimes. But why keep paying the price for mistakes you don't need to make? Which path are you on? Pathfinder or pathmaker? You can combine both. The answer is practical. And it's happening right now, whether you notice or not. Life's lessons are staring you in the face. There's no third secret. Start learning from the right sources.
Apply. Iterate. Grow.
"Between showing us what's possible and how past breakthroughs have happened, biographies can help us see how greatness thinks — in a way that textbooks often don't," writes Shane Snow, the author of Smartcuts. The world doesn't care how hard you worked. It only notices results. You can "choose your hard" for years, hustle through mistakes, and still end up exactly where you started. That's the hard path. It's brutal, honest, and slow. Pathmakers bend the world's rules to their advantage. They see patterns where others see obstacles. They skip the wasted effort. They read, watch, listen, and then execute. Every lesson learned by someone else becomes a tool in their toolbox.
You don't have to discover fire to use it.
Don't get me wrong. Pathmaking is not a shortcut. It's not avoiding struggle. You still work. You still fail. But the pain is focused. Calculated. Less random. Less wasted. And more leverage. I've seen people pour years into dead ends because they refused to learn from anyone. The ego of the hard way is seductive. But it's also expensive. Time is non-refundable. You don't have all the time in the world to "figure it out."
You can keep wandering like a pathfinder or start borrowing brilliance, stacking lessons that compound in your favour, and build your life on foundations already proven to hold. The minute you start learning from the right people, the right books, the right mistakes, you stop spinning wheels. You move forward. Fast. Relentlessly. You can argue all you want about destiny, luck, or timing. But success is a predictable combination of deliberate effort plus applied wisdom.
That's pathmaking.
That's the path worth walking. Pick your path. Own it. And enjoy your life. Life only gives you two paths. And whether you like it or not, you're already walking one. Lessons and wisdom from people smarter than you can help you leverage your strengths, identify patterns, and push your expertise further despite the failures of the process. Pursue better knowledge on your way to the top. There's nothing more valuable than picking the brain of someone who's living your desired life.
Immerse yourself in the extraordinary lives of the people you admire. A greater percentage of self-made people read biographies. Thomas Corley, author of Rich Habits, backs this up with research. "I found one set of data points very interesting: 68% of the 177 self-made millionaires in my study read biographies of other successful people, while 91% of 'poor' people — those with less than $35,000 in annual gross income and less than $5,000 in liquid assets — did not read biographies of other successful people."
You're on a path.
One of two.
Hard, painful, slow, random. Or smart, leveraged, intentional, fast. You can argue, stall, "figure it out," but the clock is ticking. Being a pathfinder is expensive. It works. But it takes time you don't have. Being a pathmaker is ruthless in the best way. You learn from those who went before. You borrow wisdom. You build on what works. You fail less, achieve more, and save years of unnecessary struggle. So I ask again. Which path are you on? And more importantly, which path do you want to be on? The choice is yours. Own it. Start walking it. No excuses. Just the path you choose, and the one you end up on.