You’re Not A Failure. You’re Just Waiting For Success

Here are a few things I wish someone had told me when it felt like my writing career was going nowhere.

I remember the first thing I ever wrote online. It was a short piece about feeling lost in life. I posted it on this tiny blog I had, not expecting much, but still hoping someone would care. So I hit publish. Refreshed the page. And waited.

Nothing happened.

The view count stayed at zero. I checked again that night. Still zero. I sent it to a couple of friends. They said something vague like, “Oh cool, I’ll read it later.” They never did. And we didn’t talk about it again.

I told myself I didn’t mind, but I did. I read the post back and started to hate the tone, the sentences, the whole thing. I felt stupid for even sharing it. Like I had tried to show people a part of me, and all I got back was a feeling they didn’t care.

That was years ago, but I still remember how it felt. So, I know what it feels like to feel stuck. To wonder if you’re just wasting your time. And even now, after almost seven years of doing this full-time, I still find myself experiencing self-doubt and wondering if I’…