Reflection on Six Months

Six Months Ago, ILLUMINATION Was Just an Idea

Key messages to writers and readers based on six months of successful operation

2023 Update

Illumination now serves 19,000+ writers and 67,000+ readers

Introduction and Context

ILLUMINATION publication is six months old now. It is our sixth month anniversary today. This significant publication was an idea in my mind to solve problems causing pain and anxiety to writers on this platform six months ago.

The problems were related to writers’ anxiety stemming from rejections, being isolated, struggling to raise their voices, and the curation process. I sent my invitation to selected 100 writers offering a solution on 19 March 2020.

How it manifested

It manifested through a few capabilities from an abstract domain — the mind. This significant publication started in my inventive mind, formulated with my academic rigor. Being an inventor and a scholar can be an advantage in moving from the abstract to the tangible domain. Every venture starts with a thought.

This formulated idea was crafted with my Design Thinking and Enterprise Architecture experience. Then the design was implemented with my leadership vision and strategy. This was the fun part for me as the whole process intellectually stimulated and caused multiple mental and spiritual orgasms that I could characterize in a simple term.

Being an inventor, an Enterprise Architect, a Design Thinking practitioner, a technologist, and a leadership researcher helped me design the concept. But the mental part was the tip of the iceberg.

Reality brings challenges and includes the larger part of the iceberg. The reality domain requires totally different capabilities and skill sets. I needed entrepreneurial diligence and altruistic energy to operate this venture.

The purpose of this post is to provide my reflections of the past six months and provide valuable lessons that I learned in the process.

These intensive six months provided me with important life lessons, which I categorized under five major headings.

1 — Financial Aspect

Orchestrating many hidden tasks and activities consumed my mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical energy. I cannot put a figure on the price of this energy, but I can give you an idea from financial terms.

I put hundreds of hours of personal time and effort into transitioning from abstract to tangible outcomes. Considering my consultancy rate per hour in the industry, I invested around 200K value of my personal time. The financial return from my investment via my personal content was around 2K, which supported my charity fund.

By the way, even though my publication helped several writers to reach out to the broader audience and get viral stories, none of my stories went viral. It was not a problem for me as the pleasure of serving others was invaluable.

So financial gain was trivial, contrary to perceptions. As you may know, publications do not bring any income: no advertisement coverage, no service compensation. Volunteering editors run the operation.

I am grateful to have the support of 40 volunteer editors who invest their time in the success of our vision.

Do I regret this poor financial return?

Not at all. The pleasure of serving 4.3K writers and 34.5K readers is an invaluable life experience. Besides, gaining 500 collaborators whom I did not know six months ago is a by-product of this investment.

2 — People Aspect

I met four types of people whom I grouped under four categories. The pattern was like a v-shaped funnel.

The first group consisted of those who believed in my vision, supported me, and uplifted my spirit. This group was around 70% of my stakeholders. They are the ones who helped me to transition from the intangible to the tangible domain. They are the hidden power behind this venture.

The second group is those people who remained neutral. They are like writers who used our service but did not participate in our activities. This group was around 20% of my stakeholders. They contributed to the growth of the publication by bringing new readers. I am grateful for their contribution.

The third group consists of writers who criticized and challenged the process and approaches. They asked for more information and requested confirmation constantly. This group consists of around 9%. They helped us to add further rigor, which was a valuable contribution. I am grateful for their input.

The fourth group was the most difficult one to deal with. They tended to sabotage our efforts and try to kill our dreams. Fortunately, this was less than 1% of our stakeholders.

Even though they intend to harm us, I still owe them gratitude because they indirectly helped us grow. After each defaming activity, our growth increased substantially. So this group also served a purpose. I am grateful for their contributions.

This brings me to the next important point in dealing with difficult situations.

3 — Difficult Decisions and Actions

Out of 4,300 contributing writers, I had to deliberately remove one writer who passed the ethical threshold by calling the majority of our writers as “crap”. This was an unacceptable assertion publicly; hence I have no regret in my decision and action.

A few writers left the publication for personal reasons and took a competitive position. This is fine by me. I respect the choice of people as long as they don’t deliberately harm me.

However, hundreds of new writers join regularly, which matters the most to me.

Since we have zero-tolerance to plagiarism, we removed around 40 writers whose work was identified by our editors as plagiarism. The editors not only use software tools but also evaluate it using their editing capabilities. This action helped the platform to have a healthier ecosystem.

We rejected several submissions against Medium rules. The writers of the rejected stories were upset, of course, but the integrity of the platform outweighed their emotions.

4 — Pleasure of service

The main purpose of creating this significant publication for me was to solve an important problem in the ecosystem. The problem was the pain that many writers experience. It was not just a perceived pain. As a writer, I felt the pain myself; therefore my vision was compelling as articulated in my first post for communicating the mission of this publication.

I attempted to solve the problem systematically and iteratively.

It is not possible to have significant gains without small steps.

Big gains included a lot of hard work, collaboration, and follow-ups.

Bringing 4,300 writers and 34,500 readers into a virtual environment is not a trivial task. Each member is an individual and poses conflicting requirements and demands. Introducing the core values such as diversity, inclusiveness, and collaboration helped me to create this community.

I see a publication only as a tool to help writers. My focus is to support the writers to achieve their goals using the power and capabilities of my publication. The experience of writers are evident and keeps me motivating to put more energy on this venture.

I never saw writers as exclusive to my publication. I encouraged them to write for other publications and supported their personal publications.

I am humbled and proud to serve a large number of writers and I hope I am at least contributing to the reduction of their pain points.

I am also excited to serve a large number of readers by giving a wide variety of reading options that matter for society.

5 — Hope, Optimism, and Growth

Excellence is a journey. I don’t see an end to growth for serving my target audience. My target audience consists of writers and readers. Leveraging the power of what we achieved, I created a new initiative to extend and enhance the value to my target audience.

My new initiative is to create a platform to serve writers at all levels starting with the accomplished ones. This top-down approach is a design construct to achieve a critical mission.

I obtained the support of around 300 accomplished writers consisting of industry leaders and superstars of the platform. These writers helped me set up a new platform by sharing their outstanding content for advanced readers.

This platform is designed to cross-pollinate accomplished, experienced, and aspiring writers. Whilst the accomplished writers can immediately contribute, the experienced writers will use the platform with the assistance of our 40 volunteering editors.

We also help our aspiring writers by giving them a goal, creating a roadmap, and supporting by educative and mentoring initiatives to achieve their goals.

There is an order behind the perceived madness. The patterns will be clear to those with open mind.

The name of this new initiative is called ILLUMINATION-Curated. We send the invitation publicly. The pilot program is running for two weeks serving around 10,000 beta readers. The progress is remarkable. External readers are also enjoying the content via a Flipboard magazine.

We will share the findings in a post soon.

Thank you for reading.

You might find more information about our publications in the attached articles.

Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.

If you are a new reader and find this article valuable, you might check my holistic health and well-being stories reflecting on my reviews, observations, and decades of sensible experiments.

Sample Health Improvement Articles for New Readers

I write about various hormones and neurotransmitters such as dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, GABA, acetylcholine, norepinephrine, adrenaline, glutamate, and histamine.

One of my goals as a writer is to raise awareness about the causes and risk factors of prevalent diseases that can lead to suffering and death for a large portion of the population.

To raise awareness about health issues, I have written several articles that present my holistic health findings from research, personal observations, and unique experiences. Below are links to these articles for easy access.

Metabolic Syndrome, Type II Diabetes, Fatty Liver Disease, Heart Disease, Strokes, Obesity, Liver Cancer, Autoimmune Disorders, Homocysteine, Lungs Health, Pancreas Health, Kidneys Health, NCDs, Infectious Diseases, Brain Health, Dementia, Depression, Brain Atrophy, Neonatal Disorders, Skin Health, Dental Health, Bone Health, Leaky Gut, Leaky Brain, Brain Fog, Chronic Inflammation, Insulin Resistance, Elevated Cortisol, Leptin Resistance, Anabolic Resistance, Cholesterol, High Triglycerides, Metabolic Disorders, Gastrointestinal Disorders, Thyroid Disorder, and Major Diseases.

I also wrote about valuable nutrients. Here are the links for easy access:

Lutein/Zeaxanthin, Phosphatidylserine, Boron, Urolithin, taurine, citrulline malate, biotin, lithium orotate, alpha-lipoic acid, n-acetyl-cysteine, acetyl-l-carnitine, CoQ10, PQQ, NADH, TMG, creatine, choline, digestive enzymes, magnesium, zinc, hydrolyzed collagen, nootropics, pure nicotine, activated charcoal, Vitamin B12, Vitamin B1, Vitamin D, Vitamin K2, Omega-3 Fatty Acids, N-Acetyl L-Tyrosine, and other nutrients to improve metabolism and mental health.

Disclaimer: Please note that my posts do not include professional or health advice. I document my reviews, observations, experience, and perspectives only to provide information and create awareness.

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