I did it. I finally opened a Medium account.
It’s not like I had to struggle to do it, especially since I’ve opened blogs before in under an hour. If anything, I broke the record this time and had everything set up in just a few minutes. So why did it take me so long to do it?
The short answer: greed.
I didn’t want to open “just a blog.” I wanted to create a sensational monetized platform that would soon be bringing in six figures. I wanted to be paid to write, paid to share my ideas, paid to do the thing I love the most. Paid, paid, paid.
And then I sat down for a second and just analyzed my thought process. I already have a full-time job as a content writer and get paid a pretty good salary to write. I’m not exactly poor at the moment (touch wood) and don’t even have any particular ideas that would be easily monetizable. For so long, all I’ve wanted to do was write for myself, going the extra mile to turn my Instagram captions into mini-essays just so I could push my content out there. So what’s the rush? Why can’t I think of monetization a little bit further down the road?
My inner girl boss screamed at me. “You stupid cow, why would you put your time and energy into writing content for free when you could be making MONEY?” I told her to shut up, and that she was just a figment of my imagination, the first-born child of the hustle culture mentality we have been spoon-fed with since birth.
Which brings me to my next point — why are we so eager to monetize everything we love to do? Is it greed? Or a desire to prove our worth and capabilities to people we don’t even know at best, or even like or respect at worst. Why is prostitution still looked down upon, but dancing in your underwear on TikTok being praised for the finesse? Have we gotten to the point where we are so greedy that we don’t even want to lift a finger unless we’re being paid to do it?
On the other hand, being paid to do something you love is great. It’s fantastic. And unlike prostitution or dancing in your underwear on TikTok, writing is definitely a less controversial way of making money. Many of us are tired of working 9–5 jobs anyway and would love to have a business we could run from home.
After weighing out the pros and cons, I decided to start writing for myself and anyone else who is willing to enter my brain, and maybe even discover something about themselves. So I decided to shut that screaming inner girl boss up for now and do what I love, just for the sake of doing it. And if it brings me any opportunities down the road, I’ll be more than happy to take them on.
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Note: while editing this post, I actually found out that medium has a partnership program, so maybe none of what I wrote above makes sense anymore. Still, I’m not planning on using it anytime soon. I want to keep my hobby pure and untouched, at least for the time being.
