Becoming a Top Creator in the Age of The Internet
How to Be the Best in Your Field
gm fren! Hope you’re doing great today.
We’re going to be covering the 3 most important principles to becoming a top creator in your field. Whether you’re a writer or an entrepreneur.
Creation is the Reward
Studying top creators isn’t always helpful. Usually because we don’t know what to look for. But studying them enough will lead you to one conclusion:
The act of creation is more important than money to them.
There’s plenty of creators who prove this. A great example is Taylor Swift. She has a net worth of millions of dollars. She never has to work again in her life.
And yet, she does.
In fact, her last two albums are some of her best - been listening to Exile every night - never gets old!
Without a doubt, she’s at the top of her field. And it’s because she embodies this idea:
Creating music is its own reward.
This is what separates her from the countless other musicians. Is the fame and success nice? I bet. But it’s a happy byproduct of creating. Not the goal.
Lots of people, my former self included, believe they could start creating something they didn't care about. Not only is this wrong. But it leads to failure.
The act of creation is sacred. And defiling it with money making schemes isn’t just a sin against your own inner genius, but a sin against all of mankind.
The world doesn’t need any more shit.
There are 2 kinds of creators in this world. And you need to be very careful of which kind you become.
The passionate creator - This person is in tune with their own intrinsic interests. They use self knowledge to find where they belong in the world. If this person sticks with it, they inevitably rise to the top.
The money-making cynic - This person doesn’t care about creation. They see a new trend and jump on board in the hopes of making money easily. They fail more often than not. But even when they succeed, it’s a hollow victory because the work itself is meaningless to them. No amount of money on earth can make you enjoy doing something you hate.
All greatness flows from intrinsic interest. Whether they’re tech entrepreneurs, painters, or YouTubers.
It doesn’t matter what you create. So long as it aligns with your internal compass, you can become great.
You Can’t Be Great at Everything
Making a decision on what you want to do is scary. It means there’s lots of other things you won’t be doing.
It’s comforting to think that you can do whatever you want. That you have infinite potential and there’s no limit. But that’s a flawed way of viewing things. It’s called Peter Pan syndrome. Staying in this realm of infinite potential.
But not making a decision is itself a decision. Time will march on. And you won’t have anything to show for it.
If you haven’t found your thing yet, I’ve got good news for you. It’s never been easier to find it.
Small Experiments
The Internet lets you explore any niche you can imagine. You can get started at home with investing, video editing, technical writing, and anything else.
I never thought of myself as a writer. It wasn’t until I started publishing articles on Medium that I found some success. But more importantly, I discovered that I enjoy the process.
And now that I know I enjoy it, I’ve been able to write over 100 articles. Dozens of freelancing clients. And best of all, writing this newsletter.
If you have no clue what you wanna do, start small. Write a few blog posts about a topic that interests you. Start a YouTube channel about your favorite tech startup. Learn basic coding skills and start making websites for non-profits.
If you don’t like it, don’t continue to do it. It’s that simple.
You need to do things you don’t like in order to find the things you do.
The more you experiment, the closer you’ll be to finding the truth. You might turn out to have a great on camera presence and become a Twitch streamer. You just don’t know if you never try.
You’ll know you found it if it both scares and excites you.
If you don’t feel anything, that’s not it for you. And it’s time to move on.
When you’re in the experimentation phase, your goal is to fail hard. And fail fast.
The sooner you can see if it’s for you or not, the sooner you’ll be able to move onto the right thing.
Like It Enough to Stick With It
The hard thing about creation is that money is not guaranteed. You might work for years and never find any success. But at the same time, all it takes is one big win and you can change your life.
You need to enjoy the act of creation enough to not make money for a while.
The process might look something like this.
You have an idea for creation (let’s say talking about cryptocurrencies)
You start with a small experiment (limit yourself to 5 podcast episodes)
You enjoy the process and decide to continue
You observe the industry to see where the best opportunities are to differentiate your show (you end up specializing in new gaming crypto projects)
You perfect your craft every way you can
You see modest growth until your 38th episode - your show goes viral
Your podcast becomes “the gaming crypto podcast” and becomes a recognized brand across the web
The moneymaking cynics will see your success and try to copy you. But they’ll never be able to compete.
You will be number one.
Not only will you have differentiated yourself with a unique brand and message, but you’ll have intrinsic interest in the topic. And that’s something you can’t fake.
Summary
To achieve greatness, you must make the act of creation the reward
You can’t be good at everything, so you need to narrow it down and find what you enjoy doing - by trying small experiments
You need to like it enough to not get paid for a while, maybe even years - you will have paid your dues and deserve every ounce of success when it comes
Meme of the week
If you’re still scrolling, go ahead and share this with your fellow creators :)
You can also learn how to maximize your potential as a Web3 Creator.