There’s One Person You Need to Thank on Medium in an Article

They helped you like you didn’t know.

Do you remember your first day on Medium?

I know I do. It was a cold Friday afternoon as I dove into the Medium waters not really knowing what I was doing.

But that’s another story for another day.

I don’t remember if it was that day or soon after, but I gained my first follower. His name is John Gruber.

It made my day.

I gained a follower on a platform I barely knew anything about and had just started writing. Was this the start of something new?

Man, I hoped so.

Mr. Gruber set a precedent on Medium for me. The more I wrote, the more followers I slowly began to gain.

And it’s all thanks to him.

Thank Your First Medium Follower

Wherever you are in your Medium journey, you surely have a following list, right?

But do you remember your first?

If not, it’s okay, because you could do this for your first few followers or so. If you do remember, listen closely.

You should write an article shouting them out and thanking them. They were your first follower. It may not mean much, but to you, it began a whole new world.

Followers soon came in like the snowball effect. And it wouldn’t of happened if that first person hadn’t clicked Follow on your page first.

You’re probably excited when you gain new followers. I know I am.

But you should remember who helped you begin.

That first follower believed in you and your writing enough to follow you when you barely had any content. That’s pretty cool.

Therefore, you need to thank them.

They changed your life and you didn’t even know it. Because of them, you’re well on your way to finding success on Medium.

So give them a nice shout out. I think they would appreciate that.

It doesn’t have to be much, just a simple thank you for following you first. You could lead into discussing your Medium journeys too.

I know folks love reading about those.

It would surely make their day. When I did so a few months ago, I felt even better about myself and the platform.

I was grateful for that first follower.

You should be too.

It All Begins With One Person

When you think of large companies today like Apple, McDonalds, Coke and many others, you think of where they are now.

Everyone knows them and their product.

But they all started somewhere right?

Yes, they did. With that first customer.

Each of those companies had to have a first customer who believed in their product enough to buy it. This then created that snowball effect I was mentioning earlier.

Now, they’re the most well-known companies in the world.

One spark can start a fire.

One follower and customer can begin a company. Without them, who knows what would’ve happened to these companies.

Because of that first person, now the world knows who these companies are and what their product is. All because they were the first customer.

Pretty weird right?

I thought so too, but it’s interesting to think about.

If you have any thoughts about this too, or would like to tell me about your Medium journeys, I would love to know.

And while you’re at it, don’t forget to thank your first follower or first few.

They changed your life.

Now it’s time to give back.

Noah Nelson is a senior at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign majoring in journalism with minors in political science and history. He serves as a senior columnist for The Daily Illini, a writer on Medium and the host of his blog called Nothing But Noah. “Life: A Collection of Short Stories” is his first book available now on Amazon. Like what you read? You can write for Medium too!