Last updated on 2021/10/02
Ideas are awesome. Ideas are great.
However, ideas don’t pay the bills. Ideas don’t manifest themselves out of thin air, hopes, and dreams.
How often do we have ideas?
MDIs are great. MDI stands for Million Dollar Ideas.
How often do we find ourselves sitting around and some amazing and practical thought worms its way from the back of our heads to a shining spotlight position of prominence right up front?
This would be the type of idea that you find yourself coming back to while sitting around bored. The one that rents space in the back and pops up early and often.
The one that, if implemented and turned into reality, could easily net you at least a million dollars.
Personally I have these all the time. The concept and ideas are easy. MDIs exist all around us. The huge, yawning gulf between a MDI and an actual, cool million bucks is so big and vast that it feels like it is impossible to span that distance.
It has also popped into my head quite often that many others must also create ideas all of the time.
However, there is a big gulf between all of those wonderful, fun, crazy, and outlandish ideas.
Very, very few of us actually follow through and try and make them a reality.
Your first podcast will be awful.
— We’re Not Wizards (@werenotwizards) April 1, 2019
Your first video will be awful
Your first article will be awful
Your first art will be awful
Your first photo will awful
Your first game will be awful
But you can’t make your 50th without making your first.
So get it over with, and make it.
A couple of years ago I made a decision to start writing.
At the time it was easy. It was a new project and I, like most Engineers, love those.
There were statements to make, things to say. Creating a blog was a relatively easy way to build a platform to say them.
It is with a great amount of pride that this is my 100th published post.
The day that the first post was created I remember looking at the side of the blog under Archives where it lists months and years of past posts.
It was empty at the time.
There was a huge sense of wonder there. What would it feel like to see dozens of months in that list and know that I had turned this dream into a reality?
Well, I am proud to say that I did it, I am here, a century has been met.
So here are a few things that I have learned in writing and publishing 100 posts.
Getting Started Is Absolutely The Hardest Obstacle To Overcome
The tweet above almost says it all.
What it is missing is that the amount of effort to start the ball rolling is the hardest effort you will ever make on your dreams.
Everything else after that is easier.
This initial spark to get started is a big theme for me. Having had someone tell me that one of the things they are most jealous of in regards to writing things and posting them online is the confidence that I have to just go do it.
Let me tell you something – that confidence is now here due to creating and publishing 100 ideas.
It was nowhere to be found on day one.
You will never have the confidence you need to make something successful unless you just jump in and do it.
If you are trying to go from point A to point B then as you are starting out point B doesn’t really matter.
It may change. It may be so big and grandiose and in the distance that it feels impossible to get to.
However, you can get started. You can take your first step or write your first article.
Do that and see how easy that is.
Then tomorrow don’t think about point B. Just do it all again.
Eventually you will realize that you have months worth of posts or completed work and your goal is achievable.
It can be done, you just have to get started.
What You Consider To Be Your Best Work Will Not Be Your Most Popular
One of the biggest lessons learned from starting hundreds of ideas and actually completing and posting 100 of them is that your opinion of your best work and what others see, read, and react to will be two different things.
A lot of my posts get cross posted on Medium.
The post on there that has the most views (27k) and reads (15.8k) is not something that I would consider some of my best work.
The post is 99% of Successful Software Engineers Practice These 10 Habits and Skills and while I consider it decent, it was written after observing some habits that I felt frustrated about more junior people on my team should be working on.
Compare that to some of the work I am most proud of.
7 Things I Want Any New Engineer On My Team To Know is an article that I wrote to welcome new Engineers and to put into words what I expect and how things are realistically going to go. As one of my favorites, it did get some attention with views (15.3k) and reads (6.1k) and was published in the largest publications on Medium (at least as per this article).
Do You Have What It takes To Recognize ‘Big Idea’ Moments? is one of my personal favorites. This is probably because at a deep level, everything I write is a reminder and motivation speech back to myself. This article got a whopping 21 views and 3 reads. It also wasn’t picked up for publication.
The point here is that you can plan all day and scheme and work hard, but sometimes success comes down to consistency and luck.
You can’t control the luck. Things go viral or blow up when you least expect them.
You can control other things like how often you work and how much effort you put in. The more of each of these things the better your chances of getting noticed and making that next level.
Success Comes When You Don’t Expect It
One thing people always tell you about the dating game.
Dating is always easier when you don’t try.
The same goes with success in chasing your dreams. This statement seems so ironically counter-intuitive at face value.
Does it mean that effort is wasted? Does it mean that hoping, dreaming, and scheming isn’t worth it because you are trying too hard?
No. What it means at a deeper level is that success and the rewards that come with it cannot and should not be your goal. If you focus on them alone then you are setting yourself up for failure.
If publishing a book is your only measure of success and you get rejection letter after rejection letter then your efforts and perception are going to be miserable and it will be that much harder to reach your goals.
However, if you focus on the right goals and keep pushing and are ok with making things that are achievable and controllable your main targets then the other things will be much much easier to handle.
For me, success in writing was in building the platform and getting my message out to the world. It was not wrapped up in how many people saw that message.
However, as I pushed through I have seen some success in views and feedback and even making a little money on the side.
It will come, just remember to focus your attention on the things within your control.
Patience And Perseverance Is The Secret To Everything
There are so many get rich quick schemes, lose weight fast methods, and instant everything these days.
When starting to publish online in a form where money can be exchanged for views, it is easy to fall into the trap of reading the “must-dos”, “don’t-dos”, and “ultimate success” articles.
There isn’t anything wrong with these other than their perspective.
It is extremely easy to write from the perspective of the mountaintop. It is fun and rewarding to throw some wisdom down to those below looking up.
The problem is, there is no easy path here. Those people struggled and persevered to get where they are now.
They don’t want you to really know that because then you wouldn’t be reading all of their articles.
This is a self-fulfilling prophesy. You read the articles when you are on the climb up, then throw one or two down to the masses from up top then move on and start climbing again.
The only secret here is that there is no secret. It IS a grind, and once you are through it looking back it always seemed easier than it was when in the moment.
The best mantra to fulfilling your dreams comes from a fish. Her name is Dori. Follow her lead and you will see success.
Just keep swimming.
So as I wrap up the 100th post, I find myself asking:
What’s next? What are my goals now?
When I started this effort, the goal was pure, clean and simple.
Create my own soapbox. Build a platform that I could present my thoughts and ideas in written form.
That soapbox happened to be a website on the world wide web, therefore it became a conduit from me to the world.
The site was an outlet where my anger and frustration at the world around me could be let loose. It was where I could provide a guiding hand to those struggling with the same challenges that I had been through. It was the one place where I felt comfortable stepping up and saying to strangers: There might be a better way.
The initial goal here has been met. The soapbox has been created. The platform is established.
Now what?
I find myself focusing more on the projects and enjoyment of those than in the creation of the platform right now. This leads me to modifying my goals to fit what I find enjoyable.
As one of my first posts was about how I like to beg, borrow, or steal good ideas, I find myself falling back to something that has become almost a mantra for why I am going to pushforward with writing. This statement is from one of my personal inspirations, Coding Horror.
This is a blog that was started by a gentleman named Jeff Atwood and in his About Me section he called out an answer to why he chooses to blog:
Mostly for selfish reasons. I needed a way to keep track of software development over time – whatever I am thinking about or working on. I research things I find interesting, then document my research with a public blog post, which I can easily find and refer to later. Hopefully other people will find these posts helpful, relevant, or interesting.
That is it – my mantra and my new goals. Writing messages and love letters to myself about technology, personal projects, and other interesting Engineering topics that hopefully someone else might enjoy reading. If at least one other human finds themselves reading these words and hopefully being entertained or inspired then that will be a happy day for yours truly.
As always, thanks for reading!
PS – as this is post #100 as a milestone, here are a few stats from the first 100:
First Post: September 15, 2019
Posts/Month: 4.76
Kevinwanke.com users: 10,076
Kevinwanke.com session: 11,241
Countries represented by users: 154
Medium Views: 72,613
Medium Reads: 32,410
Medium Fans: 1270
Medium Followers: 397
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