How’s this for overachievement?
Little Jackson Oswalt daylights as a normal 12-year-old from Tennessee.
He lives with his parents, goes to school (I presume), and works hard on keeping his moppy hair out of his face.
After hours, however, this pre-adolescent is a bonafide nuclear scientist.
No joke.
The kid converted a playroom in his parents’ home into his own little laboratory.
And using parts off eBay and open source plans from some nuclear scientist website…
He actually seems to have built a working nuclear reactor.
If this is confirmed by the nuclear powers-that-be, Jackson will go down in the record books as the youngest person to ever achieve nuclear fusion.
I bring this story up to illustrate how easy it’s become to do formerly difficult things.
I mean, I’m sure this kid is smart.
But 10 or 20 years ago, the knowledge and parts he needed to build his own working nuclear reactor simply weren’t available publicly.
And 50 years ago, it took teams of the world’s most able scientists — who had access to the most ridiculous resources — to do what this kid did in his playroom.
Of course, this also applies if you’re running a business today.
Many tasks that used to be impossible or unreachably expensive are now free or trivially cheap.
Having your own website.
Making payments online.
Sending additional advertising to your customers at no cost.
Sourcing and delivering your products.
In other words, it’s a great time if you have a business. Much of the technical and ugly stuff has been taken care of for you.
What’s left is the need to build relationships with your customers, and to persuade people to do what you want.
This stuff can be difficult.
Fortunately, not as difficult as achieving nuclear fusion.
Hell, even I can do it. And if you want some of the insights I’ve gained by helping big direct response businesses build relationships and persuade customers, you might like the following: