Why You’re Not Famous Yet

Every day, I open Instagram, and secretly hope that one of my videos got one million views overnight. It’s as if I’m shaking a Magic 8 Ball asking, “Am I famous yet?”

The freelance life can feel like a long, uphill climb. The entrepreneur’s journey can feel like trying to scale a wall again and again. We want to reach the top. We want to get in with the cool kids. And it sure seems easy for people with a few hundred thousand followers to launch their business. 

It can be so tempting to think If only I had more followers, this would all be so easy.

But more money and more influence brings more to lose, and more stress. I’ve worked with a number of creators who have millions of followers across multiple channels. And they’re more stressed than I am. They wonder why they aren’t more famous. They wonder why their engagement is dropping. They wonder how they can monetize better. 

This isn’t a blog about how you shouldn’t try to grow your audience or make more money. This is a blog about how gratitude is the antidote to the feelings of inadequacy we have. Today is a training ground for gratitude. It’s a skill and a discipline we have to cultivate. It’s easier to be grateful now than it will be when you’re successful. If you only have one good thing in your life, then you only have to be grateful for one thing. But if you have have a hundred good things in your life, and you haven’t trained yourself to be grateful, you’ll be overwhelmed by everything around you. Every good thing you have will be tainted by entitlement and want.

So start by saying thanks for what you have today. 

Stressing about why you’re not famous yet isn’t the way to get where you want to go. Being grateful for the work you get to do every day, and showing up to diligently and cheerfully work your ass off is the way to get there. 

Good luck out there.