Summary

The "Rule of 100" encourages content creators to produce 100 pieces of content to refine their skills and build an audience before considering quitting.

Abstract

The article discusses the "Rule of 100," a self-imposed challenge for content creators to produce 100 pieces of content as a means to overcome the initial hurdles of content creation. This rule is particularly relevant in the post-pandemic era, where online content consumption has surged, and many have turned to content creation as a career. The rule is designed to help creators navigate the early stages of skill development, experimentation, and audience engagement, leading to a point where the act of creation becomes intrinsically rewarding. The author, Shreya Badonia, reflects on personal experience, emphasizing that perseverance through the first 100 creations can lead to improved quality, recognition, and opportunities, even if direct monetization isn't initially evident.

Opinions

Content creation is a challenging but potentially rewarding career path that requires persistence and dedication.
The initial stages of content creation may yield mediocre results, but this period is crucial for learning and growth.
Setting a goal, such as the "Rule of 100," can provide a clear target and help creators push through the desire to quit.
The journey of content creation is uncertain, and focusing on the process rather than immediate rewards can lead to a more sustainable and enjoyable career.
Exposure and opportunities can arise from consistent content creation, even if financial gains are not immediate.
The concept of "flow," as described

The Rule of 100

Every Content Creator Needs To Adopt In their Creative Endeavours

The pandemic has taken many jobs and has left millions unemployed but it’s also responsible for creating a ton of opportunities for content creators. Daily online content consumption has been doubled because of the COVID-19 outbreak.

With the increase in consumption time, and every business flocking to the world of the internet, a lot more people have started taking content creation as a serious occupation.

If you’re starting out or are in the earlier days of content creation, you’d know how overwhelmingly difficult it can get.

“The hardest part of any important task is getting started on it in the first place. Once you actually begin work on a valuable task, you seem to be naturally motivated to continue.” — Brian Tracy

The results do not start showing up in a week or sometimes months. If you’re struggling to find the right audience and thinking of quitting, I’d like to introduce you to the rule which has kept me going in my 3 years of content creation journey.

The Rule Of 100

I can’t recall if it was a podcast or a book where for the first time I heard about giving yourself a deadline to try and make art, or a number of times I'll do this.

Expectation hurts. All kinds of expectations.

So before quitting or looking for a reward, I asked myself to create 100 pieces. Now 100 was a number I set for myself because I knew the first few pieces will be mediocre, in fact, I broke down the first to 100 to get a clearer picture for my content creation on a new journey on Medium

0–20: Understanding the platform and what works

20–40: First attempt at writing and experimenting

50–70: Analysing what has worked and repeating it

70–90: Getting the momentum and reaching a flow state

90–100: A stage where I can say I’ve written my best content

You can call this a Rule of X.

X is variable and you can give yourself any number before you think of quitting.

If you’re a professional writer/filmmaker or any creative person and know that you’re already good at what you do, then you can always keep that number lower. However, in that case, you wouldn’t want to quit on something you’ve been doing for years and something that you can teach to the world.

Content creation is a fun game but the only tricky part of this game is the rules keep changing. One video can make someone a star and that same video might not work for you, one story on Medium can get you 1000s of views and the next won’t get a few hundred.

This is why online entrepreneurs like Gary Vaynerchuk talks about creating content and creating a strong online brand for yourself.

One more thing that a lot of people miss when they think about quitting on a platform is the reward they get from the platform. I have made 58 videos on my YouTube Channel, which is yet not monetized. I have written 1000+ answers on Quora for absolutely no money for years.

What you may not know is even though I haven’t yet made any money from writing on Quora or making YouTube videos, I got a lot of exposure. I got invited to speak at various colleges and it gave me opportunities that I wouldn’t have got if I had quit after the 10th video, or the 20th or 50th.

More than reaching that number we’ve set for ourselves, the whole idea of this process is to get involved in creative work and reaching that point where you start to enjoy your work and you don’t even feel like quitting.

The author of Flow, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, describes the mental state of flow as “being completely involved in an activity for its own sake”.

After putting so much time and effort into creating and sharing your art with the world, you’d know what you lack and needs to be polished. You might even come close to your calling while making your art your career.

When you find yourself thinking too much about the numbers, focus on why you started in the first place. You didn’t know you could make money while writing your first blogpost at 15, you didn’t know you could post your videos on YouTube and make money, but you did it anyway — because you enjoyed it!

As Ayodeji Awosika says — “You realize that if you make it past a certain length of time, your odds of quitting drop to essentially zero.”

Finally

The Rule of 100 will help you continue this uncertain journey of content creation until you fall in love with the process, and once you do the thought of quitting will never cross your mind.

“Don’t think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it’s good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.” — Andy Warhol