Nobody Owes You Anything
And once you accept that, everything changes
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The market owes you nothing.
Your inbox doesn’t owe you a lead. Your boss doesn’t owe you a raise. The person across the room doesn’t owe you affection. The audience you want doesn’t owe you attention.
Most people hear this and feel defeated. They shouldn’t. This is the most liberating truth in business and life.
Because once you accept that nothing is owed, you stop wasting energy on the wrong question. You stop asking “how do I get what I want?” and start asking the only question that matters: “What must I become so the market can’t proceed without me?”
The Order Is Wrong
Most people think deserving comes after.
You get the promotion, which proves you deserved it. You win the relationship, which proves you were worthy. You achieve the success, which proves you earned it.
This is completely backwards.
Deserving isn’t the reward. Deserving is the admission ticket. You don’t get considered until you’ve already become the person who merits consideration.
The market is constantly scanning for solutions. It needs leaders, so it looks for people already leading. It needs partners, so it looks for people already generous. It needs expertise, so it looks for people already demonstrating mastery.
When you chase the outcome before becoming the person who deserves it, the market reads you accurately: someone wanting the reward before delivering the value. Someone seeking the title before doing the work.
The market isn’t cruel when it passes you over. It’s efficient.
Seekers vs. Sources
The common advice is to hustle harder. Chase the prize. Demand entry. Network aggressively. Apply more. Ask more directly.
This doesn’t work because the frame is wrong.
You’re treating yourself as a seeker trying to extract value from the market. But the market doesn’t reward seekers. It rewards sources.
Think about anyone you deeply respect. They’re not chasing respect. They’re so committed to their craft, so undeniably excellent, that respect flows toward them without asking.
Think about anyone who effortlessly attracts opportunity. They’re not networking desperately. They’re shipping work so valuable that people seek them out.
They’re not magnets pulling things in. They’re engines producing so much value that the market must move toward them.
The Generous Engine
This is the reframe.
Stop trying to attract. Start trying to contribute.
You don’t seek success; you become the inevitable byproduct of exceptional work shipped with relentless generosity.
You don’t demand respect; you embody rigor so consistent that ignoring you becomes costly.
You don’t seek love; you become the catalyst of joy and contribution in the lives of others.
The question isn’t “how do I get the promotion?” It’s “what can I deliver that makes promoting me the obvious decision?”
The question isn’t “how do I find a partner?” It’s “what must I become so being with me is clearly better than not?”
The question isn’t “how do I get customers?” It’s “what must I ship that makes buying from someone else feel like settling?”
This is what becoming a generous engine means. You stop focusing on what you can get and start focusing on what you can ship that makes the market unable to proceed without you.
The Privilege of Pre-Deserving
This work is quiet. Often boring. Unrewarded in the short term.
You’re building the infrastructure of yourself—skills, empathy, quality of output—before anyone pays attention. Before anyone rewards you. Before you have proof it’s working.
This is pre-deserving. You do the work of becoming before the outcome arrives. Not because you’re guaranteed a payoff. Because the work itself is transforming you into someone the market will eventually need.
Most people won’t do this. They want the reward first. They want proof before they commit. They chase because chasing feels like progress, while becoming just feels like work.
But chasing keeps you a seeker. And the market doesn’t reward seekers.
The person who commits to pre-deserving eventually becomes unchase-able. They don’t pursue opportunity because opportunity pursues them. They don’t demand respect because their work commands it. They don’t seek love because their presence creates it.
The Question
You’re chasing something right now.
What would change if you stopped asking “how do I get this?” and started asking “what must I ship today that makes the market unable to proceed without me?”
What would you need to become for the thing you want to simply arrive?
Thank you for reading,
Scott
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Tough to hear, but very true.