Compounding Articles: The Story of a Long-Time Investment

The more articles you plant, the more you will harvest 5 years from now

No matter what, just keep on sowing.- Jim Rohn

Two weeks ago, I reached an important goal in my life. I saved enough money to dedicate myself as a full-time writer.

A dream coming true.

However, like in any other dream, there is always the opposite side of the coin.

No matter what you want to do with your life, you have to do it with radical transparency.

To reach the perfect level of radical transparency, you have to find it with absolute honesty.

Your weaknesses, your blind spots. Put everything on the table. You must see every corner, every detail about your real self.

Having total clairvoyance about who you really are, but more importantly, who you really are from your readers' perspective.

Only then, you’ll be able to cultivate and design a machine that shapes your writing style and voice.

Your readers deserve your words to be as transparent as they intend you to be to yourself.

Do Not Judge Each Day By The Harvest You Reap but By the Seeds You Plant

Once I had the opportunity of being in a live conference with a man who later turned out to be my greatest mentor. His name was Jim Rohn.

With his carefully starched suit and tie, Jim eradicated happiness and elegance while sharing one of his vast life lessons on stage.

One law that changed his life forever, and mine too, the law of sowing and reaping, is actually a bible story. And Jim always proclaimed to be an amateur about the bible.

Frankly, today I still believe he studied the bible like one of his favorite books ever.

The lesson about the sower started with the sower. He was ambitious and had excellent seed. The first part of the seed planting went wrong, cause birds ate them.

Jim Rohn then said lesson number one: the birds are gonna get some of the seed.

Yet, you ask yourself: what does that mean?

Jim would continue with a parable:

I’ll have an important meeting and I invite John, my best friend, to be there because it can be good for him too. He says he’ll be there Tuesday night.

Tuesday night I show up, John isn’t there. I think: I wonder why John didn’t make it.

The answer: the birds.

I never forgot these lessons, and probably half of the complaints I did in the past disappeared because of the birds.

There will always be something getting in people’s way to avoid them pursue their dreams. And these people have two choices:

• chasing birds;
• keep sowing.

If you opt to chase the birds, you’ll have a problem. You leave the field. Which will distract you from your future. Birds will always be there. But you have a choice. You will always have the power to decide.

I usually use a fabulous phrase Jim Rohn taught me when things get weird: isn’t that interesting? And then I move on. I never think about it again.

The moral of this story is that if you keep sowing, you can always sow so much more than the birds can’t get, cause there aren’t enough birds.

You will come to cross many birds, cause there are birds everywhere. In your family, in your work, even in your head.

But remember, you have always two choices.

Chasing birds or keep sowing.

The same with your articles.

Be Patient. Some Things Take Time.

Compounding interests is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it…he who doesn’t… pays it.- Albert Einstein

One thing that made Warren Buffett one of the most successful investors of all time, was his understanding, at an early age, about the power of compounding interests.

Today, if you want to buy one share of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, you’ll have to spend $346,123.92. It’s on the top 10 companies of the S&P500, meaning it’s evaluated as one of the most valuable companies in the world.

Understanding how compounding interests work, you can transfer, in a certain way to Medium as a platform, that not only rewards quality but also quantity.

The more followers join you, and the more articles stay long enough to be seen and read, the magic of compounding takes place and accumulates, increasing your earnings.

That’s why top writers earn increasing amounts of money. And it will keep growing.

As a writer, see your journey as a marathon.

The more articles you write, the better the chances of success.

Conclusion

Writing about Jim Rohn and Warren Buffett, and trying to share the notion about a better and efficient writing strategy, is a heavy burden. A great responsibility.

These two gentlemen changed my life.

Jim Rohn left a legacy that has no tangible value. He left thousands of unforgettable lessons. People like Tony Robbins and millions of others followed and worshiped Jim.

Warren Buffett is still with us, in his 90 years old, always in a good mood, while his brain still works on his compounding interests, leaving an incredible fortune to philanthropy.

It will be difficult for me to share better inspiration than the lives of these two exceptional human beings.

However, I am absolutely sure you will not forget the story of the sower.

Forget the birds.

Just write.

Thank you,

Nuno