Don't Force the Money Too Early

Don't Force the Money Too Early | nik.art

Monetization can short-shift the potential of your work. There’s a path to making meaningful money off almost anything, but that path is usually long and hard. It’s supposed to be. A decade, two, sometimes three or even more.

Today’s media and culture make it look like six-figure paydays for a side hustle are the standard two years into the journey—but they’re not, and, often, they merely indicate an unsustainable business, not a brilliant one.

This isn’t to say you should only charge for your work once you’ve mastered the craft in some far-off cave in a mountain. But you should give each product and service ample time to ripen. Let it reach its authentic potential, and flesh it out until you are 100% satisfied with your own standards. Then, present it to the market, and start adjusting from there.

My friend wants to start a coaching business. In the past, he tried working with a few clients for free, then charging the next batch. In hindsight, he rushed into monetization, he told me. "Now, I’m more open to developing the service until I know for sure it provides the value I want it to give to people. Even if it takes a few years."

When I start writing an article purely because I care about the topic, that’s a good start. It’s the beginning of a battery charging. "Authentic product loading…" Then, I have to keep working on the article until it’s done. Only I know what the standards are, what needs to go into it, which words must be added, and which should be cut. The work takes as long as it takes.

If I’m hell-bent on publishing that article in hopes of making money from it, I sure can set a deadline and crank it out in a week. But it’ll likely hit the market too soon, and its "authenticity battery" won’t be full by the time it goes out. I pulled the charger at 50, 60, 80% and said, "No, you have to earn something back now!" And while I may end up making some money from it sooner, in the end, not bringing the piece up to 100% of my personal, unique artistic standards will likely hurt its lifetime earning potential.

If you’re trying to make a living from your calling, the quality of the work must be the number one priority—because if you’re cheating where you care the most, that creates a hole no number on your bank account can fill. Don’t force the money too early. Ship like you mean it, and let the dollars follow.

Nik

Niklas Göke writes for dreamers, doers, and unbroken optimists. A self-taught writer with more than a decade of experience, Nik has published over 2,000 articles. His work has attracted tens of millions of readers and been featured in places like Business Insider, CNBC, Lifehacker, and many others.

Nik has self-published 2 books thus far, most recently 2-Minute Pep Talks. Outside of his day job and daily blog, Nik loves reading, video games, and pizza, which he eats plenty a slice of in Munich, Germany, where he resides.

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Don't Force the Money Too Early

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