I’m going to say something very obvious and I’m doing this so it’s crystal clear what you need to do.

Success requires focus.

Focus is when you follow one course until successful.

Imagine for a second that you’re driving on a highway...

You see multiple lanes. One lane going in one direction leading to a certain destination. But some lanes allow you to drive faster and allow you to reach your destination in a shorter amount of time.

Now you choose one lane to drive on, that’s your main lane, your main thing you want to work on and ultimately succeed in.

Then you can magically have a second car that you’re driving on a second lane (just imagine that). This car that you’re driving on the second lane (side lane) is either moving towards the same direction as the main lane or going into a completely different direction, depending on what you’re trying to do here.

If your intention with the side lane is to complement your main lane, then it goes in the same direction, directly supporting your main lane (main goal).

If your intention with the side lane is to distract yourself from the main lane, as a way to escape it temporarily, then it leads to a different direction not directly supporting your main lane or main goal, but rather keeping you motivated instead of keeping the main goal 'motivated'.

Side lanes are short-lived by nature and when I say short-lived, I mean something like a month or two.

So…

Pick one main lane, the long-term thing you want to achieve. Long-term can mean six months, one year, two years, multiple years, decades, or a lifetime.

Then pick side lanes.

Have at least one side lane.

Your side lanes are small side quests that you choose that either support your main lane directly or keep you morally engaged with your main lane.

Side lanes are essential because they allow you to have something that is not directly your main lane, so you could say it’s a bit of an escape from the main lane because sometimes distance from the thing you’re mainly focusing on can reinvigorate your appetite for the main lane when you’re stuck, when you’re lacking motivation, or when you’re feeling lost a little bit.

My real life examples:

I’ll give you one example.

When I studied media and computing my main thing was computer science, so picking Spanish didn’t have anything to do with my major. But by picking Spanish, I was able to keep my human exploration going, language being a human exploration, in addition and complementary to the exploration of the computer, which is by nature not human. So computer science was my main lane and Spanish was my side lane. And btw, without my side lane, I would’ve quit my main lane in the second semester. That would’ve changed my life forever!

I’ll give you another example.

I’m serving one client at the moment and the client is in the identity verification and agentic commerce space. This is a side lane serving my main lane (having a $10K/mo client business).

And then, belonging to another main lane (having a $10K/mo clientless business), I have another side lane, which is a mentorship program where I’m learning how to write nonfiction and eventually a novel.

The beauty of the lane is system is that you can switch lanes as you like as long as you’re intentional with the lane switch, because remember that we want to follow one course until successful. I’m just trying to show you that temporarily switching lanes is OK as long as you are generally speaking following your course till success.

And it is absolutely possible to switch to another main lane as a way to escape your primary main lane. So both main lanes and side lanes can be escapism. So when I’m feeling frustrated with client work (my current primary main lane), I can escape to writing non-fiction (a side lane within my current secondary main lane), and the other way around; so when I’m stuck writing fiction, I can go back to writing the non-fiction for my client, then come back to fiction and be reinvigorated again.

Reality check:

You absolutely follow one course until successful, but nobody said that you cannot have multiple courses running in parallel at different scales and with different complexities, meaning…

My main lane #1 =

Have a $10K/mo client business

• Side lane #1A = help client 1
• Side lane #1B = land client 2 in a 30-day quest via LinkedIn marketing (Justin Oberman style)

Both side lanes are directly supporting my main lane.

My main lane #2 =

Have a $10K/mo clientless business

• Side lane #2A = define my clientless business (Ben settle style)
• Side lane #2B = have a written novel making $10K/mo

Both side lanes are directly supporting my main lane.

My main lane #3 =

Have a written novel making $10K/mo

• Side lane #3A = do four-month writing mentorship
• Side lane #3B = walk every day

Doing a four-month writing mentorship is directly supporting my main lane (writing a $10K/mo novel). Walking every day is not directly supporting it, but rather supporting me in my pursuit of writing a $10K/mo novel.

In summary:

A main lane 🛣️ is usually connected to a main goal 🥅. And it is possible to have multiple main lanes and multiple side lanes either supporting a main lane directly (“motivating” the main lane) or supporting (motivating) yourself. The thought behind a supporting side lane is most mostly fun and play. When driving on the main lane is relatively slow and takes a lot of time, then picking a side lane as a “fast lane” can help you stay motivated for the long journey on the main lane.

The biggest challenge when picking multiple main lanes that are serving different businesses (e.g. clients) is the context switch because you’re wearing a different hat per main lane. That’s why you want to ideally pick main lanes that are somewhat connected or at least related.

And as you can see above, a side lane can become its own main lane, like “Have a written novel making $10K/mo” is a side lane directly supporting main lane #2 but I also want to treat it as its own main lane #3 because it’s complex to get a novel written and making $10K per month from it. That’s what I did.

What’s next:

When I’m done with the mentorship program, I’ll pick another side lane to drive on beside my main lane, or I’ll start two side lanes and let them run in parallel.

My next side lane could be: can I land a new client through LinkedIn marketing in 30 days? My intention is to apply Justin Oberman’s teachings.