What Made You Successful May Not Keep You Successful
How to recognize when your future success as a writer requires you to pivot
Gaining initial success on Medium may sow the seeds for keeping you from future success. How does this happen and what might you do to keep on your successful trajectory?
Success (Initially) = Gaining Followers
We all want to have our stories read. Besides the thrill of sharing, we earn money from eyeballs on screens. More followers mean more eyeballs.
Method (Initially) = Following Others
We attract followers by following other writers and, importantly, reading and interacting with them.
As we become more successful, our method becomes less viable. In fact, sticking to the initial growth model for too long risks causing failure. Here’s why.
Success (Long-Term) = High-Quality Content
No matter how many followers we attract, they will not read our stories if our quality drops.
I’ll give a favorite writer the benefit of the doubt for a few crappy stories, but if they stop writing the things that attracted me, I move on. There’s just too much competition.
