Never Retire: Knowing When to Quit Is the Smartest Move You Can Make

Focus on your lane, not someone else’s

This morning, I came to a conclusion. I’m not good at most—in particular—creative video projects. I’ve known this for a long time, which is why when I worked for others who wanted it, I resisted doing video. Outside of occasional basic presentations produced by others, it’s just not my thing.

Which leads to the bigger point—realizing you suck at something is one of the smartest things you can do in life. Especially if you’re an ambitious and creative person who wants to do life the way we talk about doing life in this newsletter.

There’s enough that I am good at—really good at. So good that I have made a consistent living doing these things for the better part of the last 17 years. Given what I do, it’s easy to fall victim to calling growth and evolution expanding into different areas. Or taking things you’re passionate about or enjoy doing in your spare time and working to—eventually—make them pay.

Some people absolutely, positively have business taking this route. Kevin Alexander with his music writing. Sue Senger writing about farming and gardening. My wife with her ceramics. They have evident talent that clearly sets them apart from the rest. They’re the type of people who my recent the work that pays versus the work that pulls post applies to. They have business doing what they’re doing and turning it into actual work that pays.

My personal reality is that I have no business trying to expand the work I do into the area I expanded it into earlier this year. Which is why I am shutting down Friki de Bici to focus on Never Retire, Medium, and my other freelance writing work.

Bottom line—video just isn’t my lane. For a while I fooled myself into thinking I would get better. And maybe—marginally—I will. But not to the point where it warrants wasting my time and—just as important—your time with it.

I watch a lot of YouTube. I like very few channels. The truth is, if someone else was doing what I was doing with Friki de Bici, I wouldn’t want to watch it beyond a few videos. It was amateurish and lacked direction—one more drop in an already oversaturated landscape.

That said—I am not throwing a pity party for myself here. After I went out and tried to record this morning, the experience reaffirmed what I already know.

I have a sweet spot where I excel—creating 3-to-6 minute, 750-to-2,000 word articles and sometimes expanding them into larger focused writing projects. These are the primers and investing/personal finance/technology-driven pieces I write for private clients and the work I do in Never Retire and on Medium. I am among a tiny percentage of people who can produce 1-to-3 of these stories most—and sometimes—every day of the week and only spend 20 to 30 hours a week doing it.

It’s my bread and butter.

So, why waste time in an area where I am among a massive percentage—like 99%—who just aren’t good?

This doesn’t mean I’ll stop riding my bike or even writing about it. It just means that I gave myself a gift this morning by being realistic with and a little hard on myself.

Back when I decided to become a freelance writer, I was part of a day trading (stocks) chatroom. The guy who ran it—Robert Weinstein, an excellent trader—told me bluntly that I should probably give up trading and focus on writing. I had no future in the former, but real potential in the latter.

He was right. And I have spent the last 17 years writing. And doing it well enough to make a good living. Doing it well enough to go off in the temporary directions—such as hospitality—that have helped enhance my writing.

Over the years, I have had dozens of people write to me asking for advice. I have held official roles where I formally or informally gave advice to other writers. Often, I would highlight what they did best and areas where I didn’t think it made sense to persist.

Why waste your time with this when you’re so good at that? Do what you love in your spare time. Do what you’re good at to pay the bills and give yourself a fighting chance at a comfortable life. This isn’t to say what you love can’t also be what you’re good at. In several respects, it is for me. This is to say that you have to be honest with yourself when assessing where the what you love → what you’re good at connection actually exists.

So, I am better served—and so are you as readers and subscribers—if I focus on what I love and what I am good at. Writing Never Retire newsletter stories, Medium articles, and private client assignments without distraction, riding my bike in my spare time so it—like most other areas of my day-to-day life—functions to help add layers to and make my writing better.

In the end, this isn’t a failure. It’s clarity. I’m still a Friki de Bici, and that reality doesn’t require a YouTube project to matter in my life. Riding makes my writing sharper, and writing is what I’m actually good at. That’s the lane I need to be in—for myself, and for you.

The best advice I’ve ever given other writers is the same advice I had to take myself this morning: quit what you’re bad at, double down on what you do best. It’s not giving up. It’s the smartest move you can make.