Some people just can’t stand to see others outperforming them.
One of our own, Tim Denning, recently felt the wrath of that level of jealousy, although it wasn’t the first time for the top writer. A fellow Medium author wrote an entire rant about poor ol’ Tim, and from what I can remember of the article, the writer seemed to be particularly miffed about Tim’s courses. Or maybe it was just another piece dedicated to the “lie” of Tim’s success—a dime a dozen in this universe.
Dunno. I can’t remember and it doesn’t matter—the article got canned anyway. I guess that’s what happens when you break the few rules that Medium requires us to follow.
But this article isn’t about that writer, nor is it about Tim—although I do like Tim, and personally, I’m thrilled he’s doing well. We should all be thrilled; he’s paved the way for the rest of us.
And really, what about his success can make a person so angry? How, exactly, can it negatively affect you?
Personally, I forgot about Tim and his presence here until I read that article. I was focusing on my own stuff. And, here’s the funny part: Tim didn’t feel the intended negative effects that the person behind the hit piece no doubt tried to inflict. Instead, Tim found a surge of subscribers and interest in his writing.
For me, though, as a writer who has aspirations for the same kind of reach that Tim has, the bizarre and angry rant against him only fanned my own flame. It made me remember that with that level of success, there will be people who may squirm in its presence. And it won’t matter, because that’s just part of being successful.
It inspired me to keep going with my own writing career — and here I was, considering tossing in the towel! So thanks, Tim, for enraging the green monsters within those who can’t handle the pressure.
And thanks for showing us that it’s possible to weather those storms.
Haters
I’ve experienced haters on Medium, too.
There was a writer who called me “fatphobic” for writing about my unhealthy lifestyle pre-sobriety, in which I mentioned that I’d gained a ridiculous amount of extremely unhealthy weight due to my deadly addiction. I’ve had another writer use an article to shame me for a comment I left on a previous article of his.
Then there was the time I wrote about the agreement my husband and I hold about our marriage—that one really got people fired up.
I know that the hate Tim is experiencing comes from a different place than those who had a problem with what I wrote about, but my point is this: there are always going to be haters. There are always people who want to shut you up and tear you down.
The trick is not to let them; it’s really that simple.
Give them something to talk about
All publicity is good, even when it’s bad.
The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about. — Oscar Wilde
Now, I don’t agree with writing to slander someone or to invoke negativity. In fact, I think a more productive use of a writer’s time is to write with the intention of either helping people or entertaining them.
Meanwhile, writing inflammatory articles with the hope that they’ll go viral is just plain dirty. While the article might go viral, as did Tim’s hater’s article, there are definite downsides: other writers won’t trust you or collaborate with you, and you’ll soon lose your credibility. The article is trashy and will likely be lost within the web once people are over the rush of their own outrage.
And there’s a very good chance that the article will be deleted, just like the Tim-bashing article has been. Write with purpose, not anger. And if your purpose is to bash people who are more successful than you, seek help.
Intentions
What’s weird about raging against a writer like Tim specifically is that he reached his success by writing about helping people.
Well, that, and he has pretty amazing headlines.
It’s not like he was running puppy mills and kicking babies or something—his writing is and has always been aimed at helping those who needed the help that he did when he first began his writing career. That’s what lit a fire under him, and he always writes interesting stories that serve a good purpose.
Most writers on Medium are here because we want to write about what we like. We’re not beholden to any clients who demand that we write endless articles on vacuum reviews or cryptocurrency. That’s why Tim is here, too: his method just worked better than ours has. But we can learn from him, even without buying his masterclasses—we can learn from his success. It wasn’t won by bashing others or whining about life.
He wrote with good intentions way back in those early days, and that’s never failed him. We should write with good intentions, too.
Misery loves company (sort of)
While writing a rage-fueled rant about someone who is 100 times more successful than you, it might make you feel better for a half hour or so. But when that article goes viral and you discover an army of equally miserable people, I would imagine that feels pretty affirming.
The trouble with that, though, is that it sticks to you like gum on your shoe. If you write about other people in negative, inflammatory ways, that’s really all you’ve got. That’s your whole shtick.
When you write with misery, you’ll attract miserable people. But besides making them more miserable and self-righteous about said misery, what can you offer? Can you create a course on being miserable? Sell a masterclass on how to be so angry that you pump out viral articles trying to tear people down?
When you write about how much you hate a person’s success, it’s bound to lead to your own downfall because doing so proves that you have nothing better to offer.
Naysayers
We’ve all heard the typical advice on and about this platform: don’t expect to make big bucks on Medium, they say. Only a handful of writers make all the money, they warn. You’ll never be able to make a living on Medium, they caution.
Blah, blah, blah.
The truth is that it is more than plausible that if you work hard enough and write to your audience, you can make a decent supplementary income, if not a full-time income, on Medium alone.
It’s not just Tim. Zulie Rane is another writer who makes a decent living on here, and she’s always been very candid about her earnings:
Zulie has 160K followers and writes a few times a month, but she’s not the only writer who makes decent money with her Medium writing alone. There are many writers who have slowly built up their followers and income, and they keep coming back, week after week, with more great content.
No one is doing that for free. No one.
Which is why bashing other writers, whether it’s aimed at their writing or the courses they create, is a pointless endeavour. Imagine what the writer behind Tim’s viral attack might have accomplished if they’d directed their energy in a more lucrative direction?
Regardless of their intentions or the result, I’m grateful for the viral hit piece because it inspired me to keep plugging away with my own writing. I’m not a top writer (yet), but I’ve grown by about a thousand subscribers each year, and I’m writing a book in my “spare” time, so I know I’m doing something right. I’ve never felt more like a real writer than I do now, and maybe someday I’ll be successful enough that someone will write a scathing hit piece about me—a girl can dream.
I’m still here, still writing, and I might just have Tim, and dare I say his haters, to thank for that.
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This post was previously published on Lauren Hall’s blog.
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