The distance between where you are and where you want to be is often made of very small actions repeated long enough. We tend to look at someone who has built a business, learned a language, traveled the world or developed confidence and see the result.
Jimmy Naraine is interested in what happens much earlier: the first attempt, the first rejection, the first uncomfortable conversation, the first five minutes spent building a new habit.
Jimmy grew up in Poland, in circumstances that made his ambitions feel distant. As a teenager, he struggled with social anxiety and confidence. He wanted to travel and study abroad, while the world around him offered a more conventional picture of what his future could look like. Books and personal development gave him another frame through which to look at his choices. From there, he started experimenting with his own behavior and paying attention to the relationship between daily decisions and longer-term outcomes.
“Every single decision you make on a daily basis will shape your life in some way.”
Jimmy Naraine
That idea runs through our conversation. Jimmy learned English by working backwards from the person he wanted to become. He asked himself what he would have to do every day if he wanted to speak English fluently two years later. His answer was simple: learn vocabulary and practice. He wrote hundreds of words on sheets of paper, timed himself while memorizing them and turned repetition into a game.
His approach to habits grew from experiences like this. Start small. Repeat. Find a way to see your progress. Give yourself a task that is easy enough to begin today. Over time, repetition changes the relationship you have with the activity. What once required effort gradually becomes part of how you operate.
Jimmy later studied at a British university and worked in several environments, including Allianz, a startup and Goldman Sachs in London. The Goldman Sachs experience gave him an interesting encounter with the conventional definition of success. People around him saw getting into the bank as having “made it.” He appreciated what he learned there and eventually realized that his own direction was elsewhere.
He started making YouTube videos around confidence, anxiety and his experiences. Those videos eventually led him toward online education. With limited savings, he wanted to produce his first course professionally, so he approached a film crew with another arrangement: reduced payment upfront combined with a percentage of future profits. They accepted. The course went on Udemy, more courses followed, several became bestsellers, and Jimmy eventually reached almost 127,000 students. That first online project also created room for speaking, other ventures and adventure masterminds around the world.
“I feel like when people are getting started with any type of business, they say they basically give up too early. You approach 10 different people, you get 10 rejections, and you think, okay, it’s never gonna work. No, you you have to approach 700 people maybe, and then it’s gonna work, right?”
Jimmy Naraine
We also spend a large part of the conversation talking about relationships and social circles. Jimmy sees connections as something that can be built deliberately over time. His starting point is to become someone other people enjoy having around: read, listen, learn, become more interesting and look for ways to contribute.
He gives a useful example from the messages he receives from students. A long message containing several requests creates work for the recipient. A short message that first offers something useful and then asks one thoughtful question creates a very different interaction. That small difference can become the beginning of a relationship. A month later there can be another exchange. Six months later there may be a call. Relationships develop through accumulated interactions.
“Give value, give value, give value, and just see what’s going to come out of it. And nothing has to come out of it. So that’s another thing. Detaching yourself from the potential outcome. I think this is really important. You do your best, give value to different people you want to connect with, but you detach yourself from the outcome.”
Jimmy Naraine
Another part of our discussion is about vulnerability and the pressure we create when we expect ourselves to perform flawlessly. Jimmy uses public speaking as an example. Anxiety before walking on stage is a human response. His approach is to acknowledge the feeling, understand where it comes from, give himself permission to experience it and then move forward.
The same idea applies to networking. Saying that you feel shy at your first event can create a more human conversation than trying to project an image that does not match what you are experiencing. People connect through imperfections, Jimmy says, and that willingness to show yourself as you are can make relationships easier.
There is also a recurring idea of treating life more like a game. A game needs difficulty to remain engaging. Failure, rejection and uncomfortable situations become part of the process of learning how to play better. You make an attempt, see what happened, adjust and try again.
Two books appear naturally in the conversation. Jimmy mentions Vishen Lakhiani’s The Code of the Extraordinary Mind, after describing a conversation with Vishen that pushed him to stop overthinking his own book. Later, he talks about Tucker Max and Describe Method, a book about writing that led to an exchange between them and becomes an example of how Jimmy approaches building relationships.
The conversation eventually returns to the people we surround ourselves with. Being around people who operate differently can expand what we imagine for ourselves. At the same time, each person brings different abilities to a relationship. One friend understands business. Another understands fitness. Someone else knows how to communicate or build communities. Jimmy’s view is that relationships become richer when people drop the need to prove themselves and become willing to learn from one another.
Perhaps the most practical thread throughout the episode is also the simplest: begin with what is available today. Learn ten words. Write for five minutes. Send one thoughtful message. Make the first video. Ask another person after hearing a rejection. Then return tomorrow and continue from there.
Main Ideas
- Start with the smallest action you can repeat. A large goal becomes easier to approach when you work backwards and identify what you can do today. If you want to learn a language, begin with a few words every day. If you want to write, start with five or ten minutes. Repetition gradually turns an activity into a habit and gives you evidence that you are moving forward.
- Overthinking delays the experience that teaches you. You can spend months considering options, anticipating rejection and preparing for every possible outcome. Progress starts when you choose one small action and see what happens. Your first attempt will rarely match the version you imagined. That experience gives you information you could never obtain by thinking about the task from a distance.
- Treat rejection as part of the process. Ten unsuccessful attempts tell you very little about what is possible. Building a business, finding collaborators or creating opportunities often requires approaching far more people than you initially expect. When someone declines, examine what happened, adjust your approach and continue. Persistence increases the number of opportunities available to you.
- Acknowledge what you feel before moving forward. Fear, anxiety and insecurity appear naturally when you enter unfamiliar situations. Recognizing them reduces the energy spent trying to hide them. You can tell yourself that you feel stressed, understand why, and continue with the situation. This approach is especially useful in public speaking, networking and any environment where you feel exposed.
- Your social circle changes what you consider possible. Spending time with people who are building businesses, learning, experimenting and pursuing ambitious goals gradually changes your own frame of reference. Become someone people enjoy having around by reading, listening and sharing what you know with humility. Good relationships work through exchange: you bring abilities others value and remain open to learning from theirs.
Podcast resources
- Jimmy’s Website
- Jimmy on Udemy
- Jimmy on Instagram
- Jimmy on Linkedin
- Dragoș Ștefănescu
- The Code of the Extraordinary Mind, by Vishen Lakhiani