Creating your own luck with a writing practice

Writing = compound interest

Writing is like compound interest. Einstein once called compound the Eight Wonder of the World. Ergo, writing is the Eighth Wonder of the World. I often get asked the question “I want to start writing, but don’t know where to begin?” I can totally relate — I avoided writing (and all the humanities) until my mid-30s. When I first began writing, I lacked the confidence in my ideas and thus hid behind curation. And even today I still have tremendous imposter syndrome and don’t refer to myself as a writer.

Consistency is an underrated virtue. And in our world of Instant Gratification we forget that to creating something beautiful requires us to show up each day. Even if we’re tired, hungover, unmotivated, or distracted.

The process is like dollar-cost-averaging. Boring and unsexy, yet methodical and agnostic to our emotional whims. That’s the only way it can compound. A nice trick is to pair consistency with accountability. If I stopped doing RadReads, I’d be disappointing a slew of people — this provides both feedback loop and accountability structure.

25 clicks. During my first six months as a writer, this was the average number of page views (mostly coming from family members). It’s impossible to play a long game, when you check the scorecard in real-time. Personally, I’m feeling this right now with the podcast. I’ve recorded 30 episodes, each one costing $200 and taking 10 hours. Yes, that’s $6,000 and 300 hours. The response has been strong, but definitely not commensurate with the “cost.” But it’s been pure joy — intense learning, living outside my comfort zone, and a work product that I’m infinitely proud of. Irrespective of the outcome.

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