We’re told that, in order to achieve, we need to appease some algorithmic overlord.
“People’s attention spans are short these days.” They say. And perhaps that's true on the biggest scales.
And yet, pandering for likes sounds like the type of thing a trained monkey is taught to do in a circus.
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The people that I admire focus on improvement for the sake of improvement.
Over time, slowly, their people get attracted to them.
I've been in some circles with people who have massive online followings and it sucks to see them continue to chase superficial metrics only to realize it's never what they wanted. But, in Mike Doehla's words, that's like abs. People need to get it for themselves to see.
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The people that I admire view their social media platforms as a lagging, not leading, indicator of success.
Social media began as a place to connect with friends. It evolved into place to share projects and passions.
Nowadays you need full-on television production capabilities to compete.
That is, of course, if you view social media growth as a leading indicator in success. Those that consider themselves ‘creators’ do.
There’s nothing wrong with that. But it isn’t for me.
Instead, I wish to view social media as a lagging indicator––as a place to share what I’m doing in the real world.
I want to live a life where I can eat cold watermelon on a warm day without the world knowing. I don’t want to feel like I have to take a picture of the watermelon. I don’t want to feel pressure to say something witty about it. I want to eat the watermelon and enjoy the warmth of the sun on my skin and simply live in this precious fleeting moment.
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The people that I admire focus on their craft not for weeks, months, or even years. But for decades.
The more I do the work the more I realize that it’s about the work. The more results that I got the more I realized that the joy was in the craft of getting the results, and not the results themselves.
A few years back I produced a three-book series. I say produced, because I didn’t write them––a ghostwriter did. And he was very good.
The books are my thoughts but they aren’t my work. They were produced as a strategic business decision. Nothing about them makes me proud.
They sold. And they still sell. But they're just a thing that I did.
Seth Godin has been writing a daily blog since 2021. He’s ignored every social media trend. His writing is damn good though.
Warren Buffet ignored tech and crypto. During that time, people continued to drink Coca-Cola and buy insurance. He's become very rich.
The people that I admire do their own thing. They ignore the trendy thing, knowing that they’re going to miss out on opportunities and that’s fine. The tortoise tends to pass the hare, anyway.
To be clear, when I talk about people that I admire I’m not saying that I admire everything that they do. Instead, there are aspects of what they do that I admire. Drink the soup, spit out the bones.
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The people that I admire dissociate from short-term outcome goals.
For the last year and a half I've focused on social media growth.
It's gone well. I've gained hundreds of thousands of followers.
But it's been empty.
Work done with joyless urgency is a prescription for misery. (Click to tweet)
I'm going to start writing here again. It won't reach as many people as a quick Instagram post would.
But that's ok. Because the people who it does reach are my kind of people.
And it's become clear to me that the quality of my relationships (both online and locally) dictate the quality of my life.
-Jon
