Pharrell didn’t release a song for 3 years

I watched that Pharrell Lego movie over Thanksgiving.

His entire life story told with Legos. I thought it’d be stupid. Turns out it was actually pretty genius.

But one part stuck with me more than all the celebrity cameos and recreated music videos.

Pharrell dropped “Frontin’” and it absolutely BLEW UP.
Top of the charts.
Instant classic.
The kind of song that makes other producers jealous as hell.

And then… he froze.

For THREE YEARS he didn’t release another song.

The success paralyzed him. He was terrified he couldn’t top it.

One of the most prolific producers in music history got stage fright from his own success. Not from failure. From winning too hard.

That’s the weirdest kind of creative block.
You do something great and suddenly the stakes feel impossible.

What if the next thing sucks?
What if people realize you just got lucky?

So you wait.
And wait.
And convince yourself you need more time to make it perfect.

I see this happen to people in business all the time.

Someone has a successful launch. Makes $50,000 in a week.
Then they spend six months trying to create something even better.

And they end up launching nothing.

Or someone writes an email that makes $5,000.
Then they stare at a blank page for three days trying to write one that’s even better.

Meanwhile they could’ve written three “pretty good” emails and made $10,000.

Perfect is the enemy of profitable.

Pharrell eventually realized that waiting for the perfect follow-up is just procrastination with better branding.

The next hit came from getting back in the studio.
From taking a risk.
From shipping something.

You don’t learn to win by waiting to get it right.
You learn to win by being willing to be wrong.

I’ve sent over 2,000 emails to this list.
At least 400 of them were probably mediocre at best.

But I sent them anyway.

And the mediocre ones funded my life while I figured out how to write the great ones.

So if you’ve been sitting on an idea because you’re afraid it won’t be perfect… just ship it.

Your bank account will thank you.

Talk soon,
Jason