![]() Meeting many of my now dear friends, including Kevin R o se, Matt Mullenweg, and many others.One could easily argue that the national exposure that accompanied The 4-Hour Workweek and later books was a necessary ingredient for: Let’s cover some of the great stuff first. ON THE BRIGHT SIDE, SOME VERY REAL BENEFITS If you’re interested in building a large audience you also truly care about and with whom you are vulnerable, even more precautionary tales are in order. If you’re interested in building a large audience to become rich and famous, some warnings and recommendations are in order. Or, in a world of TikTok-like acceleration, before they let the genie out of the bottle without thinking it through. My hope is that this post will help people better understand the wall their ladder is leaning against… before they spend years climbing towards the top. I will also talk about some of the risks and downsides, which can be horrifying. I’ll mention some of the rewards and upsides, which can be incredible. Chief among them will be answering the question: if you win the popularity game, what might you expect? Some previous unknowns on TikTok, for example, have attracted millions of followers in a matter of weeks. There are legions of people on Instagram alone with audiences of this size. I am a micro public figure with a monthly audience in the millions or tens of millions. ![]() They cannot walk around in public anywhere in the world. 13 years, 5 books, 1,000+ blog posts, and nearly 500M podcast downloads later, I’ve learned a few things about the promises and perils of seeking fame.Īnd I say “seeking fame” deliberately, because-let’s be honest-I’m not really famous. Suffice to say, I didn’t realize that this type of thing was part of the Faustian fame-seeking bargain. This experience profoundly fucked me up for a long period of time. That’s when he turned off the video and killed himself. He finished by saying that he was sorry, but that he had to end things. He thanked me for all of my help over the years and explained that it had helped him through some very dark times. He was clearly agitated and clenching his jaw, making contorted faces and speaking strangely. It was succinct: “James learned so much from you, and he instructed me to give you this video.” I clicked on the attachment. That day in 2010, however, I actually received an email from James’ longtime assistant. I’d given him advice, he’d built a few successful businesses, and we’d developed a nice virtual rapport. He was a great guy and a huge help to other readers. I vividly remember the day I received an email from someone we’ll call “James.” James was a frequent commenter on my blog, and we’d become friendly over time. To kick off this post, let’s start with a real example from 2010. Soon, I was engulfed in a hailstorm of both great and terrible things, and I was utterly unprepared for any of it. It was quickly translated into approximately 40 languages, and shit went bonkers. It hit the New York Times Hardcover Business bestseller list, where it stayed for an unbroken four years and four months. The 4-Hour Workweek, my first book, was published in 2007. In retrospect, there was a lot of self-loathing from tough childhood experiences, and I desperately hoped that love from without (i.e., from masses of other people) would somehow make up for hate from within.Īs luck would have it, I got to test this hypothesis. At the time, I was 28.įortunately, unlike during my darkest period in college, I wasn’t serious about suicide. That’s an actual sentence I spoke to one of my closest friends. “If I’m not famous by 30, I might as well put a bullet in my head.” ![]() Letters of John Adams Addressed to His Wife I shall envy neither their music nor their colors. Let the butterflies of fame glitter with their wings. Let the cymbals of popularity tinkle still. ![]() I had more hair, a flip phone, and absolutely no idea what was coming. ![]()
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