Summary

The author reflects on personal regrets and the importance of embracing one's flaws to succeed in online writing, emphasizing that it's never too late to start a writing career and achieve financial independence.

Abstract

The article is a personal reflection by the author, who acknowledges being hard on himself for not achieving his entrepreneurial goals by age 42. Despite regrets about past procrastination, drinking, and the habit of postponing tasks, the author finds encouragement in the journey of another writer, Steve Middle, who began his writing career at 50. The author emphasizes the significance of authenticity and learning from mistakes, noting that sharing personal flaws has helped build a genuine connection with the audience. The piece also updates readers on the author's "Publish Every Day" project, which aims to generate enough passive income to quit commuting within a year. The author shares his earnings to date and provides links to recent publications, reinforcing the message that personal growth and success can be achieved at any stage in life.

Opinions

The author believes that it's essential to embrace one's flaws and life experiences to succeed.
He criticizes inauthenticity in online content creation, particularly those who fabricate personal struggles for profit.
The author values the wisdom gained from past mistakes and believes this wisdom contributes to eventual success.
He suggests that age is not a barrier to starting a new venture, such as a writing business.
The author is transparent about his financial goals and progress, indicating a commitment to accountability and inspiring others to pursue their dreams.

1 critical reason it’s NEVER too late to make huge money writing online

I can be extremely hard on myself.

This applies to all areas of my life, from relationships to health to business.

Truth be told, I’m probably worse than hard on myself: I’m unfair to myself.

You see, when I was young, this is not where I saw myself being at age 42.

Still trekking to an office several times a week, working for the man.

I always thought I’d be an independent entrepreneur by now, free to spend my time and money any way I wanted.

And I’m still hopeful that I can get there, but frequently I find myself falling back on regret.

Regret at all the time I wasted procrastinating, or starting project after project and letting them die on the table.

Regret about drinking too much, sapping my health, energy, happiness, and productivity.

Regret about always saying “I’ll do it tomorrow.”

Well, tomorrow is here, I have only myself to thank for not being where I should be at age 42.

But as one kind reader reminded me this week, that’s actually OK.

It’s all OK.

Here’s why.

Just because you’re in the second half of your life, it doesn’t mean your creative life is over. (Licensed by the author under the Unsplash+ License)

The long and winding road

Recently, I wrote a piece about my biggest flaw as an online content creator and entrepreneur.

It was about how my impatience for success sunk me more times than I want to remember and my subsequent regrets over those failures.

But as Steve Middle reminded me in the comments, we all take different paths in life that contribute to who we are.

Here’s what Steve wrote:

“Thanks so much for your article. I also really regret not having (seriously) started my writing career earlier. I was 50 before I committed to writing as a daily practise. Now it’s a vital part of my life I wouldn’t want to do without. And whilst I do regret time wasted, I also think my life experiences were necessary to help me build determination.”

And here’s what I wrote back:

“Steve, I know exactly how you feel, and I think you make a really good point here. I don’t know that I ever would have arrived at this point had my life not unfolded exactly the way it did.”

We are all flawed

I wanted to expand on that a little bit, because I think it’s so important.

When I started out on my writing journey, I touched on all kinds of topics, from writing to sports to politics to health.

For whatever reason, people really gravitated toward my very personal stories about my decision to quit alcohol.

I think people could see that I was a genuine person and had interesting things to say as I started to walk that path. People enjoyed walking it with me.

And I probably stood out because there are a lot of phonies here.

Let me give you one sickening example: about 5–6 months into publishing here, I noticed another writer who had really latched onto my tutorial content start to copy everything I was doing. Like everything.

Including suddenly writing about his own sobriety journey.

Only I could tell he was a liar right away.

He would write listicles filled with “personal anecdotes” that were so vague and not credible that it was clear he was drumming up a problem to try and cash in.

Later he would write posts about how he was making tens of thousands of dollars on side hustles with no evidence whatsoever.

It was all so transparent and cynical it made me ill.

Honestly, the very thought of someone pretending to have a substance abuse problem just to make money here turned my stomach.

Not surprisingly, that guy isn’t around anymore.

He quit. Probably because his work was bulls**t and nobody was reading it.

In my case, it was the desperation of hitting my personal rock bottom that was the catalyst for me to finally start something — i.e. rekindling my love of writing — and actually stick with it.

And it was exploring and sharing my FLAWS that resonated with people and built my initial audience.

This is much in the same way as I had to lose way too much money trading options to become a great long-term investor.

Our mistakes make us who we are — way more than our successes.

Steve reminded me of that.

Love yourself anyway

We’re all flawed.

I am. You are.

And you have a choice in how you deal with that.

You can wallow in self-pity, or you can embrace it and love what you learned from it.

It’s never, ever too late to build a writing business, get in shape, or chase whatever dream you have for yourself in your 40s, 50s, 60s, and beyond.

Sometimes you just need a little more wisdom before you arrive there.

Publish Every Day project update: Day 102

I’m trying to see if I can make enough money to quit commuter life within 1 year by publishing every day on various platforms and putting my earnings into passive income investments.

How much I need to retire: $250 CAD per day

What I earned on Day 102: $51.14 (writing) + $1.74 (YouTube) = $52.88 total

Publish Every Day update — total on Day 102

Publish Every Day update — earnings by day on Day 102

What I’ve published the last few days:

Friends, thanks so much for reading! If you enjoyed this piece, please do let me know in the comments. And don’t hesitate to share your own lessons learned as well!

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