Are you playing the wrong game?
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Hi Reader, I was a big video gamer back in the day. World of Warcraft. Call of Duty. Fallout. I played them all. My hobby turned into a writing gig. I landed a job as a video game reviewer for an Irish entertainment website. The writing gig didn’t pay much, but it was fun. I got all the latest AAA games for free. And, I traveled to a few video game conferences. I interviewed John Romero of Doom fame. And I wrote about the video game industry. But… Part of playing a video game is knowing when to stop. One day, I logged into my Xbox stats. I’d spent over 100 hours getting to skill level 100 in Skyrim. At the time, I was struggling to earn a living. Something clicked. Four days of my life… gone. Four days I could have spent building or creating something valuable. So, I quit playing video games. And I went on Hustle, Twitter and Insta. I followed dozens of wannabe entrepreneurs. They were having fun posting screenshots of their follower counts, subscribers, and download stats. I wanted in. I started a writing business. And for a few years, I played their game, too. I chased views, traffic, shares, reads, and downloads. I prioritized all these vanity stats because everyone else was doing it. A few years in, I found something out. The wannabe-preneurs on Hustle X are on a content flywheel. They’re playing the virtue-signaling game. And, like dungeon raids in World of Warcraft, it’s an unrewarding grind. I quit playing that game when I realized… A bigger follower count doesn’t mean much. If you really want to succeed with your writing business. Keep score of what matters. Who you help. How long it takes. And how much you earn. Write on, PS Got questions about starting a writing business? Hit reply and ask me.
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