Have you ever published anything?

Lessons from a small time ‘creator’. Part I: On screaming into darkness.

Have you ever published something solo, outside of an established channel? A website, an article, a blog post, a Youtube or a TikTok video? Hey, maybe you even created a product or wrote a book? I did and

it mostly sucks.

It goes like this: you work for quite some time, making sure it is not a total piece of shit. Polishing here, there and everywhere. It could be sentences, but also adding filters; thinking which font to use; is version #2 better than version #3 or is it maybe #1 after all?

If you are building a product there is always someone saying ‘you should build a minimum viable product.’ And they are right, but we often know better because this tHiNg Is dIfFeReNt. Anyway, you have something you created, time to publish. Or wait a bit more?

You finally ‘submit’! There is this weird feeling of relief and excitement that something will happen, almost like buying a lotto ticket. Especially when you do it the first time.

But then nothing happens, because it can’t.

First time you are probably disappointed more than the second and the third time, because by now you already learned that nothing much happens.

If you are not a dick some of your friends and colleagues will support you. But the rest of the world? Nobody cares. The same way you do not care about them publishing their s*it.

The last time this happened to me was when I launched Handpicked from Berlin, a new side-project. I published and then … more or less silence.

This is the reality of creating something out of nothing. Not many people care for a long time, and that is why it is hard to remain disciplined and persistent.

We only see success of strangers, but not the failures of strangers with potential that gave up too fast.

Lesson of Part I: At first, nothing happens.

Originally published at https://eightyfour.substack.com on May 19, 2022.