Choose any industry, any skill or any other way to make money. What you hear from outside is how much earning is possible. Or how much the top guys are making.
You read about their work or observe their work itself. It seems doable. And you start.
And then realisation hits you within couple of months. The market is saturated at your current level with people having same level of skills.
You simply can not outrun them. They are also accessing the same forum, group, articles because just like you, they also want to have that success.
In such times, articles which tell ‘how you should keep going’ help a lot.
But, still it is not easy path. There are many curves, changed approach and what not.
It is indeed frustrating.
What you should know to keep going
Is that it gets easier when you start progressing. Crossing first milestone is really the only struggle.
Once you have crossed the first milestone, like 100 paying clients or 1000 followers or something similar depending on the niche you are working in, you reach a totally different level altogether.
Up above, it’s open grassland. All for your taking.
Let me show that with an example:
Look at the number of top writers do you follow on Medium itself and elsewhere? It is definitely in double digit. And I am talking about writers with followers in at least 5 digits.
Now, by any calculation, you can see that none of them is short of assured audience. Whatever they write (which will be top quality by the time they reach their current level) will be consumed, by enough people.
In a remote case, even if such writer, writes about something which has been already written by someone else, what do you think will happen to that piece of content? It will still be viewed, shared & commented upon.
That is what happens once you cross certain level. And that is what you should know to keep going.
It is the initial phase which is most difficult but still it has a silver lining.
There is no doubt about it. But then, it is also the phase when you can most mistake and can get away with them.
Making mistakes, and learning from them are important steps of honing any skill and to develop the flair in your the craft.
This you can only do when you are starting out. You can’t afford them later. Making certain avoidable mistakes, when you are at the top, can be detrimental to your reputation.
Whereas when you are starting out, you try out different writing styles, offering mix of services or even change your focus/path.
All this, till you find, what you are good at and also have enough passion to be able to work in long term.
To be able to reach to the top, it will require skill and consistent work on improving your craft, which can be done only when good talent & passion is there.
Once, you have come to that realisation and the direction itself, it is time to go all in on throttle.
Intensity matters
There are general numbers available about how much time it takes to reach at top of your chosen field. These numbers vary.
Your progress will take time, it will take. But there is one thing that you can control and work on.
Intensity.
The intensity with which you work, with which you push yourself forward, critically assess your work and make improvements, decide a lot about how much time you will take to reach at the peak.
Or at least, above average and at comfortable level.
Is it worth it? I am content with what I have, why are the hustle?
The other end of spectrum of struggle is to start feeling at current levels. Wherever that level is.
I am no judge and I don’t appreciate this approach also.
There is one truth about human nature you need to understand.
If you don’t step up, someone will step up on you.
Is it brutal? yup. Is it fair? No. But it is the reality.
I am not saying to keep pushing yourself to burn yourself out, but it makes sense to keep up with the latest things.
So, if you are comfortable & content with your current earnings, good. But if you are content with your skills, then please have a look at them from a critical perspective.
So, that in near future is your skills can be replicated by a cool piece of program, you are rendered an obsolete white collar labour. I have read enough about it happening.
If you write articles, which are not better then respun articles published by content creating softwares/websites then why would your work be appreciated?
Thank you for reading so far. I will highly appreciate if you share your thoughts about it too :)
