6 | My First Failure as a Creator
Let’s glorify failures and learn from them?
Welcome to the 5 new people who have joined Aha! Square. We are now a chotu sa community of 109 peeps 😎
My college started last week and I have been pretty busy since then. It took me some time to realize that this is the new normal now and I have to make time to create stuff.
Today at a glance:
My first failure
Reasons of failure
Learnings
Quote by Ray Dalio
Cold-email guide
Antaripa’s Data Science notes
Why should success stories get all the attention? Let’s dive in.
My First Project
It’s September 2020. I am new to Twitter. All I see is people creating solid content and people appreciating it. Whatsapp newsletters were a hype back then. Palak Zatakia used to send his daily reads to over 70,000+ people. Whatsapp newsletters probably have the highest open rate if done right.
I did what anybody would have done. I decided to take a leap into this whole audience-building thing.
Wrote a nice message. Sent it shamelessly to my class group and my 60ish other contacts. Few responded. Many didn’t.
Oh and the content? One tweet every day with some thoughts of mine.
Why didn’t it work?
I sent content for 90 days.
Every. Single. Day.
You see, creating content is easy. Creating content that people share is very difficult. That’s a real tough nut to crack.
Around 50 people subbed in the first month. 5 people in the second month. And then the growth stopped. I was receiving sugar-coated feedback. What else can I expect? All of them were my friends.
New people were reluctant to subscribe since I had no credibility. I had 10 followers on Twitter.
Growth was stagnant, I started looking for excuses to stop this thing. I found one soon. Exams.
I sent out another message thanking everyone and quit it.
Lessons learnt
Build public credibility first.
Whatsapp newsletters are private spaces. People need to know you on public platforms first. Will you ever give your details to a random guy who thinks he is good?
Wrong intentions
A creator needs to have strong intentions for creating content consistently. Mine was to just gain attention. This was a very silly one. Now it’s very different.
Right goals
My goal back then was to just stand out from the crowd. Now it’s different. As long as I publish something online every week, I have reached my goal.
Right Feedback loops
This is crucial for someone who creates for the internet. I will write about this in detail in some other issue. But basically, it means to have a cycle that gives you constructive feedback. You then use the same feedback to improve the quality.
Dopamine shots
What do you get that dopamine shot from? As a newbie, it was all about the likes, RTs, and comments. Now I get those shots every time I hit publish.
Have I made it yet? Absolute not. But this failed project definitely did change my perspective. I am grateful for that.
If you are someone who is just starting out, make sure to not repeat these. Your growth will be exponential.
Quote of the week
It is far more common for people to allow ego to stand in the way of learning. ~ Ray Dalio
Resources
Cold Email Whitepaper by Abhinav Arora
This is the most detailed guide I’ve read about cold emailing. It has templates, tips, and hacks to make life easier. Read this if you want to build doors for yourself instead of waiting for one to open,
Bookmark this if you are into Data Science. They are very well written and neatly organized. Antaripa is OP.
Aaaaand that’s a wrap. Hope you liked this issue. Do share this on Whatsapp, Twitter.
Have a productive week ahead!
Rooting for you 💖
Mahaprasad
By Mahaprasad
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