13 Hardcore Lessons I Learned After Writing Online For 18 Months
These are the priceless lessons I have learned!
Don’t ask for money, ask for wisdom.
You can earn money in a short time, but you can’t gain wisdom. You have to spend enough time doing the “Work” in order for you to gain wisdom.
I’ve been writing online since March 2022, and now it’s October 2023. That’s a whole 18 months. In these 18 months, I have learned so many lessons but I won’t give you all the wisdom in one post.
So I’ll try my best to give you the top and most valuable lessons that’ll teach you so many powerful things. Implement them for your advantage.
So here are those 13 lessons:
1. You Don’t Need To Be An Expert
There are always people one step ahead of you.
Doesn’t matter what your profession or work is — there are always people who know better than you and are more skilled than you.
By comparing yourself with them you demotivate and devalue yourself.
Never do it.
You don’t need to be an expert to teach or write something worth reading. There are always people one step behind you who know less than you and are interested in what you have to say.
Teach them.
And as you begin and go on your “Hero Journey” you’ll learn all the skills and the things you wanted to learn — thus your “Status” will increase.
You can’t compare someone 3 years to your 3 months.
2. You’re Always Looking For The Perfect Time
You’re simply making excuses.
Whether you want to start a new side project or you want to try online dating — you always find yourself not ready for the thing you want to do.
Maybe you lack motivation or knowledge but you always find yourself saying “I’ll do it next month” or “I’ll do it next year.”
The time never comes.
So for you, to achieve the results — you need to start the work right now. There is no perfect time. Don’t wait for New Year or your Birthday to start something that is meaningful to you.
Act now.
3. You Can Make Money Writing Online In Your First Year
Let’s face it: Writing online is not a scam.
With the help of smart moves and consistent practice, you can not only achieve exponential growth but you can also make money.
I wouldn’t have believed it if you had told me this back in 2022 when I started writing online. I thought if I’m able to make money after 3 years of writing then that would be so cool.
But when I made my first $20 within 3 months of writing, it changed my mind. You can actually make money within 12 months of your writing.
But I also know so many folks who are writing online but can’t make a single dollar. It’s because their moves aren’t smart.
Believe that you can make money writing online.
4. There Are Things That Aren’t Made For You
This year was pretty rough for me in terms of writing.
I tried a whole bunch of things to test things out. I’m glad I did though. Because if I hadn’t, I wouldn’t know “What’s for me.”
The one thing I tried was starting a service business. It’s a model in which you provide a specific service to people for a certain price.
I tried to provide ghostwriting and email marketing services but I came to realize that these things aren’t made for me. I didn’t enjoy a minute of doing it.
I felt like “I’ was a slave, I was working for someone else.” So I stopped.
Money wasn’t the thing I wanted, I wanted to enjoy the process, which didn’t happen so there was no point doing it.
I’m not a guru — I can’t sell my soul for money.
5. Self Awareness Is So Powerful
You don’t know what you don’t know.
You could’ve done so much better in life if you had known about the things you now know but didn’t know back then. Right?
We can’t stop the time that is passing, we can’t stop the moment we are living, and we can’t stop the age we are surpassing.
Ever wonder why some people become so successful in their early life? I think it’s because of self-awareness and then taking action on that.
Knowing about the things you want to do is so important. Collect information. Think through the things.
If you don’t know what ghostwriting is, then you’ll never make money from it. But there are many writers who make tens of thousands of dollars in ghostwriting.
I think one example is enough here.
6. Compound Doesn’t Seem Interesting In The Beginning
Everything seems frustrating in the beginning.
Starting a YouTube channel? You won’t see any growth initially. Starting a podcast? You won’t see any listeners initially. Starting to write on Medium? You won’t see any readers in the beginning.
People stop doing what they are supposed to be doing because they set high expectations and when the expectations aren’t fulfilled, they lose their motivation.
Everything takes time before you see any decent results.
7. It’s Way Harder To Maintain Consistency
Yeah, it’s hard but…
Most of the writers and creators lose consistency when it comes to creating. They do it for 1 month, 6 months, or 12 months and they’d stop.
There are so many factors that can make you inconsistent though. But first, I’d say: find the thing you enjoy doing and don’t think of money. Create consistently.
One of the major reasons why people quit what they do is because they choose the wrong things and when it doesn't match their interests they stop.
Maintaining consistency is a mindset.
8. Your Brand Matters More Than The Way You Write
Truly.
If people don’t like you or if people don’t love your personality — doesn’t matter how well you write, they aren’t gonna read.
Doesn’t matter how well your headline is, doesn’t matter how well your post is written, doesn’t matter how well you have formatted — no one is going to read if they don’t like you.
People see the writer behind the story before they become fans.
I’m not talking about an individual story here, I’m talking about building an audience as a whole.
Your brand must be likable to read your stories.
9. Aim For High But Expect Low
Keep your expectations low but aim for high.
Now this can cause confusion in your mind. You might ask, Har what do you mean by aim and expect? Good question my friend.
Let me explain.
Aim is when you push yourself so hard to achieve the goal but don’t care about the end goal. Expectation is when you want the exact outcome from your work. Expectations can be goal-oriented, but the aim is process-oriented.
You should give your 100% to your work but don’t expect a huge ROI from it. However, you’ll get a high ROI if you do a good job.
It’s all about the mind game, you know.
10. Nothing Is Permanent — Chill
Literally, nothing is permanent.
Today, you’re alive — one day you’ll die. Today, you’re in your 30s — one day you’ll at your 70s. Today, you’re not making any money — one day you’ll make money. Today, you have 38 followers — one day you’ll have 1000s.
I’d say don’t take life too seriously. And you don’t need to. Life is beautiful you just don’t see it. Enjoy every moment of it.
Be grateful for what you have and what situation you’re in. However, it could be better but also it can be worse. So be grateful. At the end of the day you’ll die, so what matters?
How well you’ve lived your life. Right?
Cherish it.
11. Writing Online Isn’t Solely About Money
Money is the by-product of your work.
Yes, you make money writing online but you shouldn’t force it. If your sole motivation money is and that’s why you write online then it won’t last long.
You can’t write for the rest of your life if money is your main motivation.
Think of writing as your mental exercise. Like you do physical exercise for your body, you do writing for your mental exercise. And the more you do it, the better your thinking and mind becomes.
And that’s why you should write.
Try writing for one year without thinking of money. And by the end of the year, you’ll have a lust for writing because it’ll have done so many things for you other than money.
And then you won’t stop.
12. You Must Have Enough Patience To See Results
Patience is a skill.
Most people don’t have patience. They want quick and instant results. They can’t wait. But what those people don’t realize is if something comes to you so quickly — it goes so quickly.
I don’t know why it happens but it’s just the way of nature. And that’s why so many lottery winners go bankrupt within 1 or 2 years.
So if you want long-term success — you should have enough patience.
13. You Can Design Your Life The Way You Want
Hell Yeah.
The internet allows you to do whatever you want to do. You don’t need any degree to make a career in 2023 and beyond. Want to become a graphic designer? Learn on the internet. Want to become a coder? Learn on the internet. Want to become a musician? Learn on the internet.
You don’t need a college or any institute to learn a skill and build a career around that. Grow up it’s 2023.
The barrier to entry is literary zero. You have all the information. You just need to be an action-taker.
You don’t need to find a job and grind 8 hours a day for the rest of your life. You don’t need to work under a company or boss to make money.
You can be your own boss and make money while enjoying the work.
If you want to grow and make money on Medium, check out this post:
