In Ten Years, Will You be Glad? – Love Your Work, Episode 94

October 09 2017 – 07:30am

ten years podcast

I recently passed my tenth year as a self-employed independent creator. I don’t recommend it.

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I say that, and some people don’t believe me. When I wrote this post that I’m sharing on today’s show, some people thought it was some kind of a click-bait strategy.

I think it’s because this post kind of takes a turn. It starts off sounding a little grim, but it ends up sounding hopeful.

The thing is, I never expected so many people to read this post. As of right now, it has over 46,000 views on Medium.

When I sat down to write this a couple of months ago, as my tenth anniversary was approaching, I did so with genuine questions in my mind. I wanted to know if I had made a horrible mistake. I wanted to find out if I had been fooling myself.

It was really a journal entry for myself. I didn’t submit it to any publications, where it was sure to be read. But, sharing some of my most uncomfortable thoughts is my job as a writer. So, I just put it on my main feed on Medium. At least it was out there, but I wasn’t thrusting it into the world.

Publishing this post was a lesson that the power of a post is enough to carry it. I think it’s easy to forget that when the popular wisdom is to make sure you share on all of your social channels, and ask people to upvote, and maybe even send it to your friends. I did none of those things, and this one still took off.