Member-only story
Never Underestimate Small Beginnings
New Writers Imitate Ants!
Introduction
January 9, 2025, 4:41 PM my local time, I got an email notification from Medium Partner Program that takes me to my dashboard, where I could see what I earned- $0.99. At first, I felt a mix of emotions. A bit of pride? Sure. But mostly disbelief. I mean, what can you do with 99 cents? I could barely buy a pack of cookies with that! If life handed me lemons, squeezing them for lemonade sounded nice. But with just 99 cents, I felt like I had lime-flavored soda — barely enough to satisfy. I sat there wondering if I should give up writing and switch careers.
Maybe I’d sell onions at the local market instead. I pictured shouting, “Buy one, get one free!” to everyone passing by. But then, just at that moment, something caught my eye. Not on my computer but on my windowsill — a little ant carrying a crumb that was much bigger than itself. The ant marched on. It didn’t complain. It just kept going.
That tiny creature kept its focus on the job at hand. Suddenly, I realized something important. My $0.99 was just like that crumb. Small? Yes. Worthless? Not at all. Ants don’t scoff at small beginnings. They know that big things take time. They understand that success isn’t built all at once. It’s made up of one crumb, one step, and one effort after…