How their information may not actually be valuable to you
While scrolling through Medium for the day, I saw a few articles that caught my eye.
A few of these were along the lines of “How I made 3,000 on Medium” or “Why you Aren’t Getting Viewers”.
My thought when I first saw titles like these was “wow, maybe I can learn something” — but after sifting through dozens of them over the past few months, I don’t bother anymore.
First off, these people have somehow engineered a brand that works for them and they did so at the right time.
Maybe one of their articles caught traction once, and this helped skyrocket them to success. However it happened, it’s not important.
I am not saying that they aren’t good influencers or writers — they probably are — but so are many other people who don’t get traction.
But the thing they all have in common is something far more deceptive: their ego.
I say deceptive because the ego is all about deception.
It is a difference between reality and what the individual perceives.
It is important to note that the truth exists apart from peoples’ perceptions of it.
There is no room for subjectivity.
The problem with these gurus is that they see their wealth and views as strictly their own doing. They think they somehow masterminded it and it was all their perseverance.
While the perseverance they had may have contributed to it, there is no doubt a large element of fortune and luck in their success.
Fortune and luck in that they couldn’t force anyone to open and consume their content.
This was completely dependent on other people.
So how can something that depends on factors that are out of a person’s control truly be of their own doing?
They could have easily been a good writer or content creator that just as easily not have gotten noticed and thrown in the towel.
Some content creators acknowledge this factor.
They are humble and present a message along the lines of “keep trying and keep improving”. This is sound advice because it is something that is completely within your power.
But too often creators stroke their egos and say that it was all their own doing and that they masterminded everything.
None of us can predict the future — and this applies to successful creators too.
Sometimes these creators neglect the hard work, sacrifice, and uncertainty it took to get to where they are. They replace long nights, lack of social interaction, and tiring labor with confidence, foresight, and genius.
Hindsight is 20/20 and they ignore the hardships and craft a story that made it seem they were always destined for success.
Eventually, this kind of thinking will undermine the hard work that got them to their position in the first place.
The bigger the ego, the harder and more painful the fall.
Successful creators and everyone alike must always stay humble. They must always keep the student-like attitude of not truly knowing anything to continue succeeding.
People who seek advice on how to be famous, wealthy, or important should also consider their motivations. These things will not permanently make a person happy and are bad motivators in of themselves. Focus instead on finding your passions apart from money, pride, and fame. I could go on about this, but it is not the message I intend to give in this article.
As Socrates believed, truth is separate from approval and success. Just because you are famous and appreciated by a lot of people, doesn't mean you possess it.