Are you a Good Writer or a Great Writer?

This 1 little tip could change you

You have probably heard the saying before time is money. As a writer, you need to see if your habits are helping you make money or actually lose money.

Goal Setting

Having a clear and specific goal is what separates the good from the great. I have read a lot of books and referencing Jim Collins’ “Good to Great” book.

Though this book talks about the good versus the great businesses, you can apply the same to your own life. You can be a good writer or you can be a great writer.

Greatness is not a function of circumstances. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice. Jim Collins

You have probably heard of McDonald’s, right? McDonald’s doesn’t make the best hamburger in the world but they are a great business. They use a simple concept and are a well-known restaurant around the world.

Their secret is real estate. McDonald’s spends a lot of money to place their restaurant in the right location. Real estate is about location. The best location for a restaurant will get a lot of traffic.

Are you a Good Writer or a Great Writer?

If you wish to be a writer, write.

Epictetus

We can’t claim to be a Stephen King with his years of knowledge and experience. But you can be a great writer if you create a habit to write more often.

Your next article may not be the best article you ever wrote but the 20th one you write could be.

A good writer may write an article a week and hope for the best. A great writer may write five articles a week. Basically, you are getting more eyes on your writing as compared to releasing one article compared to five articles.

The one article you write may not entice your reader to read more than the title of your story. When you have written five articles, one article out of those five may encourage a reader to find out more about your story.

Sometimes writing is a numbers game. You can write so many articles and not everyone will read all of your articles. People have different interests and preferences. So the more you write, the more you will build up a following of readers.

Create BHAGs

Don’t be afraid of failure. This is the way to succeed.

LeBron James

A key point Jim Collins pointed out in his book for the great businesses was they created a BHAG. BHAG stands for Big Hairy Audacious Goal.

Sam Walton who founded Wal-mart in 1945. He started with one single dime store which is equivalent to a small grocery store such as a Walgreens or a CVS drug store. Sam didn’t open his second store for seven years. Sam had the patience to perfect his store before 25 years later growing his store to a chain of 38 Wal-Marts. As the economy began to accept these discount stores, Sam was in the right place at the right time.

Writing online can be the same for you as it was for Sam. Create your BHAG. Fine-tune your goal. Figure out your niche if you haven’t already. Keep writing until you have a string of articles that span across your portfolio. Your articles could lead you to more offers one day and you could get hired by a company to write for them consistently bringing in a steady paycheck.

Many people think Wal-Mart was an overnight success. As you can see, it took Sam many years to get Wal-Mart to where it is today. In the United States, there are 4,756 Wal-Marts. Worldwide there are 11,501 Wal-Marts.

Create your BHAG and stay focused.

You do want to be a great writer?

Tom Handy is a top Finance, Investment, and Bitcoin writer on Medium, and the father of two kids. He retired from the Army and sits on several non-profit boards. You can find him on Twitter @tomhandy1.