Although I am no hardcore anarchist or Libertarian, I've pretty much always been interested in variations of "independence" and "freedom" as those relate to life and finding ways to work (aka "earn a living") outside the conventional mainstream of life.
The World Is Filled with Great IDEAS!
I watch a lot of projects "come to market" with great fanfare and enthusiasm... and they do, indeed, have lots of promise. I look at them, examine the idea, and think to myself "Yes, this really has some potential."
Colorful flowers
And so, I can totally appreciate why some hopeful entrepreneur starts them.
However, then I watch as many of them quietly disappear... the "shine" seems to wear off as the originators and developers of the idea discover that it is actually a lot of work to turn something into a viable and long-term successful venture. And so... they quit. Maybe because it's a lot of work. Or maybe-- as one young entrepreneur told me-- "it's just not fun."
Maybe I am just very "old school" here, but here's the thing-- a lot of the time, the projects themselves are still good... it's just that the group of people who are running the show had this notion that "success" should be easier than it actually is.
I've written on variations on this topic before, as it relates to Steemit and reaching blogging success here.
Great success with little effort is an extreme rarity
But the thing is, we hear about these instant successes and then we get the idea in our head that "easy success" is the standard by which things happen.
Close-up of Lavender blossom
Personal observation tells me that this simply isn't so. There are lots and lots of "good" ideas out there-- even a few "great" ones-- that end up going nowhere simply because their developers had expectations that success would come fairly simply... and wouldn't involve relentless grinding work to come to fruition.
And yet?
Many successful businesses are more the result of someone's very determined stick-to-it-iveness than having a particularly brilliant and revolutionary idea. In the end, the people left holding the fat bank bag are the ones that stuck with something, rather than abandoning it when the going got hard.
One line of reasoning I hear a lot is "Yeah, but I was DEPENDING on this to work! I needed the MONEY!"
Really? I'm sorry to be harsh here, but if you were "depending" on something to make money quickly when it actually is a project/idea that realistically would take 2-3 years to stabilize, then there is nothing wrong with the idea itself, and everything wrong with your piss-poor judgment.
Banking on becoming "the exception" to a well-established trend is ill-advised unless you have a lot of patience and very deep pockets.
Steemit and Blogging Success
Pretty much daily, I come across dozens of posts talking about "how hard it is for minnows" to get seen on Steemit, and how "troubling" it is that people are giving up and leaving because they are not enjoying success here.
What exactly were you expecting?
Watch Sunsets!
Phrased a little differently, when you started your twitter account, or created a Facebook page for your hobby or interest, did you either (A) magically have 10,000 followers within a month or (B) give up after a few weeks because (A) didn't happen? Or did you spend years building those accounts?
So now you're on Steemit, and there are "rewards" involved... so you're supposed to suddenly enjoy instant success?
I'm, sorry but DOES. NOT. COMPUTE.
I have done pretty well for myself here on Steemit with this blog NOT because I expected some magic "it" to manifest success, nor because I "got lucky" with the right Whale upvotes at the right time... but because I have relentlessly posted content I hoped might be of some interest with people and then socially interacted with the site.
Over 10,000 times, as of last count. Over a period of a year... and I am still working on it!
So whatever your project, just have some patience. Odds are you have a good thing, you just need to give it adequate time to develop!
How About You? Do you tend to start things with enthusiasm and then discover they are "more work" than you thought? Or do you have pretty realistic expectations? Do you tend to be patient with projects you get involved with? Have you ever quit something and then wondered if you'd have succeeded, if only you'd given it more time? Leave a comment-- share your experiences-- be part of the conversation!
Animated banner created by @zord189
(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for Steemit)
Created at 180213 10:13 PST