Thread by @dickiebush

After 9 months writing online:

• I had under 100 followers
• I wrote blogs no one read
• I was ready to give up entirely

But in the 2 years since then, I've added 380k followers & grew a newsletter to 70k readers.

So what changed?

These 6 "perspective hacks" ↓

1. In the beginning, no one is watching—and that's a good thing.

At first, I thought to myself:

"No one is reading this. What's the point?"

And this bummed me out & held me back for a while.

But then, I reframed it into an advantage.

Here's how:

The fact no one was reading in the beginning was my beginner advantage.

It was like taking shots in an empty gym.

I could put in reps & improve my craft without pressure from a constant stream of eyeballs.

Ironically, this made growth easier—which leads to the 2nd realization:

2. Think in percentages, not absolutes

In the beginning, the numbers are small.

• 1 like
• 2 replies
• 6 followers

It's hard to feel like you're making any progress.

Luckily, a little bit of mathematical "trickery" can get you through this early growth "slog."

Here's how:

There are two ways to look at growth:

• Absolute changes
• Percentage changes

So going from 3 to 6 followers is either:

+3 followers
+100% follower growth

Which of these is more motivating?

Clearly the second one!

So in the beginning, apply "percentages" to your metrics.

3. Realize: no one on Earth is thinking about you as much as you think

I still remember the first time I hit publish.

I expected a wave of criticism from every single person I ever met to pour into my inbox.

But much to my surprise, that didn't happen.

Here's what did:

I hit publish on that first blog post—and heard nothing but the internet's crickets of indifference.

Turns out, these people I thought would read every word (mostly my high school friends) were way too busy thinking about themselves.

And now I think about this graphic daily:

4. I do not need to be an expert—I just need to be one step ahead of someone else

In the beginning, I had a massive case of impostor syndrome.

I'm not an "expert" in anything—why would anyone listen to me?

But then I reflected on my own learning style and realized:

People don't want to learn from "experts."

Why?

Because most "experts" are out of touch with beginners.

Instead, it's much easier to learn from someone a few steps ahead of you.

It's why 3rd graders always love to learn from 4th graders (not 8th graders).

Now for the last 2:

5. Optimize for progress, not perfection

I thought before I started writing, I needed to have:

• The perfectly designed blog
• The perfectly optimized note-taking system
• The perfectly planned content calendar

Turns out, I didn't.

Here's why:

Chasing the "perfect" system is nothing but procrastination disguised as productivity.

Truth is, you have no clue what the ideal system looks like—so you're going to waste hours building & rebuilding it.

And if this sounds like you, come back and read this thread later:

6. Don't compare my step 1 to someone else's step 9—especially on something that compounds exponentially.

Lastly, I remember looking at the people with huge followings and thinking:

"There's no way I'll ever get there. Why even bother?"

But here's why this was a mistake:

The only difference between me and them back then?

How long they had been playing the game.

And that's why I write threads like this—because 3 years and 15,000 tweets later, I'm on the other side.

And I would have done anything to receive advice like this back then.

To recap, try these 6 "perspective hacks":

1.  Embrace the empty gym
2.  Realize: no one is looking at you
3. You do not need to be an expert
4.  Think in percentages, not absolutes
5. Optimize for progress, not perfection
6. Don't compare Step 1 to someone else's Step 9

Boom, that's it.

I hope you found these helpful, even if you only apply 1 or 2 of them.

If you enjoyed them:

1. Follow me @dickiebush for weekly threads every Tuesday at 9 AM

2. Hop back to the top tweet to like & reply with your biggest takeaway:

https://twitter.com/dickiebush/status/1645786605284732929?s=20

And if you're a beginner looking to get started writing online:

Here's a free 13,000-word Ultimate Guide with everything you need to get started (and avoid the classic mistakes I made):

startwritingonline.com

I studied math at Princeton—because my freshman English class made me never want to write again.

So when I entered the real world, I had to spend 1,000 hours learning to do it well.

Now I share what I learned every Monday with over 60,000 readers.

digitalwritingcompass.com