Early Success Can Ruin You. Let Me Explain.

Your moment of luck is coming, and I want you to know what to do with it

I wrote a semi-viral article on Medium 3 months in.

It got 80K+ views and earned me $2000. It was my twentieth article on the platform.

You know what I thought at the time?

Hell, this is easy.

So, instead of writing even more, instead of starting an e-mail list, instead of creating a product I could sell, or at least finding a good product to become an affiliate of, you know what I did?

Nothing.

Because if I could do it once with minimum effort, I could do it again anytime. Right? Right??

You’re not as dumb as I am, so you probably know the answer.

Successful solopreneurs are great at keeping the balance.

They balance delusional optimism and incredibly hard work.

Those two are completely different mindsets.

Delusional optimism was what I got as a result of my early success.

It’s an important part of the recipe for success. Only delusional optimists can get excited over selling a few units of a $5 digital product because FUCK, THIS WORKS!!!

It is this excitement that gives you the energy & inspiration to create more digital products.

When I tell my husband I got Medium back up to 3 digits (when it earned me $7 in May), I can see in his blank stare he’s not remotely impressed.

But I am. I know what this means. If I can go from $7 to $150 in 4 months, this means I should be able to make $2000-$4000 by the first quarter of next year.

But delusional optimism alone isn’t enough. You need a work-hard mindset, too.

When I first saw my story explode, it made me write less, not more. I was like, hm, if I can make $2000 per article on every few articles I write, there’s no need to write 5 per week.

I’m fine with 3 per week. Maybe even two.

Plus, why start an e-mail list? Why sell products? I can make enough money on articles alone.

Life’s easy, people. EASY.

As you can see, I had the delusional optimism all mastered.

But I was an idiot. I missed out on an amazing opportunity. I had to work more, not less. That’s what success is. More of the same. Success, if you want to build on it, leads to more of the work you’re already doing.

This is why I always tell my students they need to be careful about what they choose to work on. Because what if it becomes successful?

Prepare for success.

You never know when you’ll get lucky. Something you’ve written may get viral, and then what?

You’ll get all eyes on you, and it would be amazing if you knew what to do with the attention rather than let it burn out without taking advantage of it.

Here are a few things you can set up right now so that when success comes, you make the best of it.

First, choose one call to action for all your stories & your bio.

The best thing you could do is invite people to join your e-mail list. This means you’re getting their contact details, and you can offer them anything in the future: you can send them your other articles, a newsletter, sell them books or digital products.

However, some creators prefer to get subscribers on YouTube or try to sell their Amazon e-books.

Either way, make sure it’s one easy call to action. “Easy” also means it should be either completely free or very low cost.

Second, start writing more, fast.

If you’ve written a successful article, then you should be ready to ride the wave and write a lot more articles. That’s how you get established as a thought leader in your field instead of becoming a forgotten one-hit wonder.

Can you write viral articles on purpose?

No. No matter what anyone tells you, no one can predict virality.

But you could boost your chances with these:

• Use a personal story. Your experience is unlike the experience of anyone else, and we want to see your point of view.
• Learn to write awesome headlines. I love to look at the most successful writers on Medium and learn from their headlines. I write at least 10 headlines for each article before I choose one.
• Make a simple point. You don’t need to say a lot; just make one point, one argument, and unpack it in an interesting way. What’s your key message? What are you trying to say?

Your lucky moment is coming.

Tim Denning says to invite the Good Luck Fairy to flirt with you; all you need to do is have ideas and try a lot of them.

You don’t need to KNOW if they’ll work. You don’t even need to be perfect in trying them. In fact, it’s a given that you won’t be perfect.

Try anyway.

Write more, do more, be on more platforms, read more stuff, and meet more people. Go places.

And always believe the world is your oyster because it is.

Your lucky moment is coming, and now you know what to do with it.

Let’s see if we can write our way to $500K per year. Join my free newsletters for solopreneurs One-Person Business Success here.