How To Be Successful
Everyone wants to achieve some level of success in their life; and to each of us, that level is different. The baseline of success to me is being able to support oneself doing what we love. That could be blogging, creating art, music, etc. If the day comes that I can support myself by blogging on Steemit and able to quit my day job, that is success to me.
No matter what our ideas of success look like there is a well-thought-out plan to getting there. We will talk about these steps in a way that relates to Steemit as well as monetary compensation in general. These ideas are not new, and I did not invent the concept, but we all need to understand the thresholds. Remember, the most critical part of success is the doing.
Get Decent
The first step is to get decent at whatever you do. Notice the word choice here; you do not have to be a master of your craft to be successful. In any skill-base, there are several levels. The first are those who are interested in the skill but have yet to try. This makes up about 20% of all the people interested in your given niche and have zero hours of practice.
The second group of people are the newbies. The newbies include anyone with less than one hours' worth of practice under their belt in any given task. This group makes up about 50% of all the people who like a given topic. It may take some people less time to reach the newbie level, and others may take more. It's all about how much effort we put into practice.
Now we hit the "get decent" level, and that is the amateur stage. Most people agree that to reach this level we need between 100 and 500 hours of deliberate practice. This practice is the kind that challenges us and forces us to grow our skill. Doing tasks in our niche that we are comfortable with does not count; we have had to push the boundaries of what we know.
Once we reach the amateur level, we are more skilled than 70% of everyone interested in our niche. It is here that we can sell our services if we desire, or stand out as a coach. However, if we plan to be a coach, or sell our skill-base, we need to provide value to anyone who comes across our path.
Provide Value
There are several ways to provide value to your readers, viewers, patrons, and clients. The two most significant ways as a content creator are through entertainment and education. In the case of my blog and other content I create, I focus on the educational value I can bring. I found it more fitting to my personality than being an entertainer.
Entertainment Value
Challenges
Doing challenges around your niche is a great form of entertainment for your audience. @waphilip does something like this in his 90 Day Workout Challenge on @dtube. But you do not have to come up with them on your own. If there is a trend like we saw with the Ice Bucket Challenge for ASL, you can add that to your content as long as it fits your niche.
Documentation
Documentation is a form of entertainment for many people. Look at all the vloggers out there documenting their life for all the world to see. Vlogging entertains the viewer and allows us as creators to create a deeper connection with our audience. A great example of this is @heymattsokol's Steem based income report. While I may not find that topic entertaining, others may.
Comedy
Comedy is a given. People love to laugh and have a great time, and entertainment is often comedy-only. It may seem like the harder form of entertainment out there but keep in mind that the internet is huge. There are bound to be other people out there with the same sense of humor as you. An example of this is @andrewgenaille's comic about @gmuxx cutting my ear off.
Educational Value
Educational value is the one I find easiest to offer. Teaching people about cool technology and giving them tips on how to make the most of their blogging on Steemit. It is this very thing that leads me to do one-on-one coaching with other Steemians who want to get the most possible out of their blog. It's also what led me to tech support for my friends and family, against my will.
Adding educational value is in direct relation to the "get decent" section we talked about. You need to be better than 70% of all the people out there in your given subject for this to pay off. The only reason I can teach tech subjects like Linux and tell people how to blog better is that I've spent the time to reach the amateur level.
If you choose a niche that you are not at least 100 hours deep into then, it's not the right niche for you. I would never teach someone about gardening because I have not spent the time needed to be decent. @halcyondaze has that niche on lockdown, and it is obvious he spent the time learning the craft. If you are not sure what your niche should be head over to my post titled, Easily Unlock The Greatest Niche Designed For You
Grow Your Audience
From here we need to grow our audience. It takes time and lots of patience to get to a place where your passion or blog can support you financially. But as long as you don't give up, you will make it to the goal. Doing what you love to support yourself only takes between 100 - 1,000 true fans. A true fan is a follower who loves everything you do. They will upvote all your posts, buy anything you sell, and comment every chance they get.
Keep in mind that every follower we get on Steemit or other sites does not make them a true fan. For every 1,000 follows we may gain ten true fans and is why it takes a lot of time, patience, and effort to reach the true-fan threshold. But as I said, if you never give up, keep striving to get better, and engage with the followers you have, it is bound to pay off.
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Well-written @jrswab. Continuous development is important for every skill-set to truly get to a place or point of adding value. Like the saying goes, the moment we stop learning, at that point we start dying. Thanks for your post once again, valuable content I must say.
Be patient and do what you love, or the other way around.
P R E A C H !
Good post! The emphasis on value is really key. Most people put the emphasis on the value for themselves: "What does it do for ME?" is flawed thinking when creating anything.
BUT:
You can also use this flawed way of thinking to your advantage by simply asking yourself what you would want the thing that you are creating to be if you would be the consumer of it.
So if you are writing a Steemit post just ask yourself what you would love to read in a post like that. Scratching your own itch is always a good way to go about creation.
Well said mate! Thanks for the awesome comment <3
This is awesome @jrswab! I’m a huge fan of the “1000 true fans” concept. I also really like the concept of “get decent” ... Great article!
Thank you sir! Looking forward to getting to know you more.
Success is when you are happy, people around you love you, you can not be successful and you have a lot of money, because happiness and love of people do not buy money, success requires self-confidence, looking forward always,@jrswab
I agree with you on this and that is why I said that success is different for everyone. For me success is being able to earn money doing what I love so that I can spend time with friends and loved ones more often.
We all just want to be successful right off the bat - especially on this platform. All great advice to really hone your craft and find your niche and then good things will come! Big fan of the Creators Guild Discord!
Thanks, @tamala! It is a common theme here that new users expect to find their version of success much faster than it will ever come. It probably has something to do with all the instant gratification we get on the internet today.
I think you clearly have some experience in this subject man.
In life, achieving any goal we put to ourselves always requires a lot of time and effort. That's why when starting a new business or any entrepreneurial activity, having patience is key. Because good results are usually years down the road. With patience, discipline and a lot of effort, we will eventually reach a place in which we are comfortable and happy with what we have accomplished.
Cheers mate!
Quit that stupid job! Steemit needs more content like this, and you deserve more time with the ones you love!
Love you mate and thanks for all the kind words! Time for me to do lots of maths XD
Great advice/information👍
Especially the value part!
We all share a desire to be successful. Well, start with a fresh mind and have faith in yourself :)
That's the right attitude!