One Size Doesn’t Fit All

Learn from others, but strut on your own path

I came to Medium as a reader. I liked the quality of what I was reading, so I became a paid member when needed. When I learned that Medium pays the writers who publish on the platform, I jumped at the opportunity.

I have been trying to earn a living online from my writing for more than a decade without much avail. The main reason is that I am not very good at marketing myself and my work. Medium has a built-in readership. I was sold.

Success is the progressive realization of a personal and worthwhile goal. ~ Paul J Meyer

As always, I jumped right in with both feet. That’s who I am. Getting started has never been a problem. Staying the course or finishing it is a different story.

I learned quickly; Medium may have a built-in audience; I still need to find my own tribe of readers. At least, I was in the right ballpark this time.

I took in everything I could on how to be a successful Medium writer. I almost lost my bearings again, but I have learned a thing or two in the past decade.

I realized that I often got off track because I gave too much credence to the people I was learning from. I gave too much attention to making money part, and almost always forgot that doing was the primary goal, not making money.

The truth is, it is not even writing that I am interested in. It is communicating the thoughts that set me afire. I am a teacher at heart, always have been, even as a kid.

When we forget that learning is not the same thing as following in someone else’s footsteps, we get lost. You can never take the same path as someone else because it has changed by virtue of them having traversed it.

Take your own road less traveled, or make your own tracks if you must take the busy road. We are all different, and one size doesn’t fit all.

As always, thank you for reading and responding. You might enjoy these related stories as well.

Rasheed Hooda is a published author and a regular contributor to ILLUMINATION, a writers’ community on Medium where writers support each other.

He is a self-proclaimed weirdo who lives a Freedom Lifestyle and writes about related topics — Travel (a top writer), Personal Growth, Freedom, and entrepreneurship. (Get the Newsletter)

“You can let others tell you what it means to be successful, or you can decide it for yourself.”