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The Common Path to Uncommon Success, by John Lee Dumas
“If you provide the best solution to a real problem, you will find uncommon success.”
Matt Karamazov
August 27, 2023 • Estimated Reading Time: 15 minutes
YOUTUBE đź“š THE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE đź“š PATREON
đź“š Hey, good evening!
So I’m back from my hernia repair in Toronto (the surgery went great!) and I’m ready to come roaring back with tons of excellent book recommendations for you guys.
Today I’m sharing my summary and best notes from The Common Path to Uncommon Success, by John Lee Dumas, host of the Entrepreneurs on Fire Podcast.
On the surface, the book is about how to start your own podcast and do it right from the very beginning, avoiding all the mistakes that most beginners make and getting your podcasting journey off on the right foot.
But it’s so much more than that.
On top of being just a ripping good story, the wisdom and advice he shares can be applied to starting and growing just about any business, and I was able to take what he was saying about podcasting and apply it to building my own online business.
For context, Dumas started out knowing nothing about starting his own podcast, and now, 4,000+ episodes later, Entrepreneurs on Fire has had more than 150,000,000 downloads, and his revenue from July 2023…just from July 2023…is…
Are you ready for this?
$138,973!
Pretty wild, if you ask me (I know, you didn’t ask me haha), and so this book is grounded in real-world experience from someone who has actually achieved uncommon success in his own life and business.
Below, I share a short summary of The Common Path to Uncommon Success, as well as my best book notes, along with some additional recommended reading.
There are lots of incredible insights to be found in this book, so let’s get into it!
If you’re looking for a book that will give you a step-by-step plan for building an insanely profitable business that can also make a hugely positive impact on the world at the same time, then you might like…
As always, my book notes and summary for this book are available on my Patreon, as well as my personal notes from more than 1,200+ other books. Updated monthly.
The support I’ve received on Patreon over the years has been nothing less than incredible. It honestly just started out as a way to make some extra money, but it’s become so much more than that.
First off, I want to mention two of my biggest supporters by name, Jeremy Steingraber and Paul Phillips!
Everyone’s support helps, of course, but to have someone believe in me and my work to the extent that they do is just…I can’t even put it into words without swearing haha.
I appreciate the hell out of everyone who supports me on Patreon, which is basically what I’m saying, and I want to help you out too by sharing my best book notes and summaries on there for you to enjoy and profit from.
There are plenty of other cool rewards available too, but the main thing is that you get more than 1,200+ summaries and thousands of pages of book notes for just $1!
They’re updated monthly with all the new books I’ve been reading and taking notes on, but I do have to say that my earliest book notes need to be updated, and I’m working on that.
Just to be fully upfront with you guys.
I mean, they’re very good, but my notes from 2020 onwards are much more in-depth and complete than the ones from, say, 2015.
Back then, I was taking notes just for myself, but now I have to go back and make sure that other people can navigate them easily as well!
I should have them all updated by the end of the year, though, and my latest reads are updated monthly.
That was kind of a long explanation, but again, thank you to everyone for either supporting me on Patreon or even considering doing so, and you can click here for my complete notes from today’s book and more than 1,200+ other books too.
Happy reading!
I confess to never having listened to John Lee Dumas’s podcast, Entrepreneur on Fire, but man, what a book! This business book is currently flying safely under the radar, but you can learn so much from this one, especially if you’re closer to being a beginner. If you have a “crazy idea” that you want to make real, this is a book you may want to read with a notebook handy.
It’s a practical, step-by-step guide to starting anything, but it follows his entrepreneurial journey specifically to build his ultra-popular podcast from the ground up. That is to say, from idea, to vetting that idea, to structuring what it would even look like and sound like, how he’d promote it and grow it, how he’d overcome challenges along the way - he even solves problems and answers questions most of us wouldn’t even think to ask about.
The whole book has this authentic, “I-don’t-know-what-I’m-doing-but-let’s-figure-it-out” energy that comes with extreme credibility because of the results he’s achieved for himself by following the same process from nothing, to small flicker of an idea, to a thriving business.
Ideally, you want to learn from entrepreneurs who have actually started successful businesses, and John Lee Dumas easily passes this test.
It’s also not just for podcasts, either. You can substitute pretty much any other business you might want to start for “podcast” in the book, and the advice still works. That’s because it’s about in-the-trenches stuff like sending cold emails, gathering customer feedback, conducting market research, enlisting support, building out your business systems, etc.
The focus throughout the book is on building a real business, one that gets you paid, that allows you the space to create something you’re proud of, and that allows you to serve the people who end up finding you along the way.
“If you provide the best solution to a real problem, you will find uncommon success.”
“Always enter the conversation already taking place in the customer’s mind.”
“The higher the barrier, the lower the competition.”
“Who are they paying attention to and buying from that isn’t you?”
“Minutes later, Jaime walked in. A professional business podcast host walking into a Starbucks in southern Maine! After a quick hello and the exchange of a few niceties, a thought struck me: Jaime was just a normal person who, a little over a year ago, bought a $70 mic from Amazon, plugged it into her computer, and pressed the record button.
Obviously, it was slightly more complicated than that, but it was comforting to see that this person I had been admiring from afar for so long was a down-to-earth, kind, and fun human being. It gave me even more confidence that I could do this.
One year ago, Jaime was exactly where I was today: thinking about starting a podcast, but not sure what was to come, and look where she was now! The sky was the limit, and I was fired up.”
“We did not tolerate skipping meetings and kept in touch to make sure we were on track with our weekly goals. Projects I would have procrastinated on got finished because I was not willing to face my mastermind and admit failure. That special blend of friendly yet serious accountability is key to achieving consistent success. It pushed all of us to greater heights than we would have attained alone.”
“A good plan now is better than a great plan later.”
“If you’re too busy to build good systems, then you’ll always be too busy.”
“The more recurring revenue streams you have, the more stable your business is.”
“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.”
“Your goal is to be so good that potential competition decides it’s not worth competing.”
“When you’ve created a solution that people are willing to pay for, it’s time to slam your foot on the gas.”
“People buy four things and four things only. Ever. Those four things are time, money, sex, and approval/peace of mind. If you try selling something other than those four things you will fail.”
“People buy aspirin always. They buy vitamins only occasionally and at unpredictable times. Sell aspirin.”
Currently, I don’t have a complete breakdown of The Common Path to Uncommon Success published on the Stairway to Wisdom (my library of expert book breakdowns), but below I’ve listed some similar breakdowns that you may enjoy instead.
When you become a member of the Stairway to Wisdom, you’ll gain access to more than 100+ book breakdowns like these ones here, as well as a premium weekly newsletter that will help you build the kind of life for yourself that you’ll love living.
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That’s it! I hope you found these book recommendations helpful, and I’ll be back with even more books for you very soon!
Mere “information” is everywhere today, but what’s going to separate you (and give you the life you desire) is consistent, meaningful action, backed up with the most powerful ideas from the greatest books ever written.
That’s what I aim to provide you with.
With that said, I hope you enjoyed this edition of The Reading Life, and enjoy the rest of your day!
All the best,
Matt Karamazov
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