What the hell are 'Tail events'?

Warren Buffett owned 500+ stocks in his lifetime. Only 10 out of them made him a billionaire.

Mark Zuckerberg created 10+ software before building the first version of Facebook.

Disney's first studio went bankrupt. Till mid 1930s Disney had produced more than 400 cartoons. All failures. They lost great fortunes.83 minutes of Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs released in 1938 changed everything. And we all know what Disney is right now.

What do they have in common?

They only succeed in a handful of all the things they do. They tried 100s of stuff but only 2-3 of them went big. Yet those few wins were enough to outpower 100s of other losses. These rare but giant wins are called Tail events.

These giant wins / Tail events don't happen everyday but when they happen they change and make history.

But what causes these Tail events to occur?

If you notice, Warren Buffett kept himself in the stock market for decades. Disney did not stop making cartoons even after 100s of failures. They didn't give up.

But just sticking with a thing and not giving up doesn't guarantee giant wins. Curiosity for new things and learning from mistakes have to be bargained for.

Why should you care about this information?

If you try 5 things you might fail in all of them.However, if you do 100 things you might fail in 50, be even in 47 but those 3 wins is what it takes to be among the top 1%. You will be a net success. Everybody is a net success .

Also each next attempt has to be different and better than the previous one. Never disturb the quality for quantity.

And your efforts have to be made in a single direction. If you keep on changing industries you will never gain those experiences in a single domain.Tail events demand time, experience and effort.

To combine all the points:

• Don't give up.
• Learn from the past and be curious about the future.
• Do more things.
• Keep an eye on quality while going for quantity.
• Choose a path and go long.