Success is not Measured by the Money You Make

…but the hearts that you move.

Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash

Many writers on Medium and elsewhere create their content with a single idea in mind:

“How can I make a fortune out of this?”

Even if it appears as a fair question to raise, unfortunately, it is absolutely backward. As the late Alan Watts would say, the tail shouldn’t attempt to wag the dog, it should be the other way around!

The purpose of writing is not just earnings. It is a chance to create meaningful and engaging content. I mean, do you honestly expect to earn a livelihood by creating clickbait headlines without a decent message within?

That’s a question that I ask myself daily. The mindset of deceptively using your audience to succeed financially is like an infection: once it infiltrates one person's mind, it spreads to others. Unfortunately, sometimes I feel that this is the current condition of the platform we enjoy using so much, our beloved Medium.

Of course, don’t get me wrong. Earning a livelihood is an essential aspect of our daily living. If this can be done through a craft that you love — that’s great! But the prerequisite for it is that you should enjoy what you are doing. Striving to earn a buck at all costs, might take away the essential joy of writing. If earnings are more important than the quality of the work, the whole thing turns upside down.

As a consequence, you might earn some peanuts for tricking your audience, but they will soon and inevitably turn away from you which will destroy your reputation in the long run.

For this reason, if thoughts about earnings compromise your sense of integrity, I suggest putting the pen down and figuring out what to do with yourself financially. Maybe you have to find a better-paid day job or look for another part-time activity elsewhere. Or perhaps you ought to trust the process knowing that if the quality and integrity of your writing become more aligned, new opportunities will come up.

Spare yourself the embarrassment, socially and personally, and remember why you have started writing to begin with. If it was for the money, I suggest reconsidering your motives or the means to achieving them.

Writing is about using words to move hearts, not to deceive them.

That should be always at the forefront of our perspective as responsible authors.

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