I Felt Like Quitting

1% Better 3/9/23

Mar 09, 2023

As I sit in this house in Mexico, I’m starting to realize what “vacation” actually is. I’ve been here for about a week now and leave on Friday. Mexico is an absolutely beautiful country with the best food you’ll ever eat. If you haven’t been yet, I’d highly recommend it.

Despite being on vacation, I haven’t stopped writing for my newsletter and Twitter. In fact, I haven’t slowed down a bit. I thought I’d take a vacation and do what makes me happy. It turns out vacation isn’t for taking a break from work. It’s for taking a break from activities that subtract energy and only doing activities that add energy.

Being in the warmth and sun adds tremendous amounts of energy. Also, writing tweets, newsletters, and interacting with you guys, my community, adds energy.

I might start taking vacations where I don’t go anywhere, I just spend a week exclusively doing activities that add energy and cutting out everything that removes it.

You know you’ve truly made it when your day job adds energy instead of subtracts it. Fight endlessly for this.

Anyway, onto the alpha…

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1% Better @1BetterbyNFTGod

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I Felt Like Quitting

I get a lot of DMs and emails from people talking about how their content isn't landing and they feel like quitting. They ask if I've ever felt that way.

Let me tell you something. Since I started NFT God in December 2021, I've almost quit 100 times.

In March 2021, I sent out my first tweet (I only really started tweeting seriously in December of that year). I sat there nervously at my desk in Brooklyn, thinking about what to say.

How should I introduce myself to the world?

Will people even like me?

So I sent out this tweet:

NFT God @NFT_GOD

Digital Real Estate on the blockchain is the biggest asymmetrical investment you can make today #Bitcoin

1 like. Total. Ever (well up until I publish this newsletter and some of you undoubtedly press like on it to troll 😉 )

Goddamn! I spent so much time and energy on that tweet! I put my pride on the line! And I'm only rewarded with one goddam like? Look at all these accounts with a million followers! Their content stinks compared to this tweet and they get thousands of likes. Screw this! I quit!

Luckily I didn't.

Later that year, I returned. After spending $30,000 on a cartoon monkey with snot coming out of its nose (for the first time), I make the big announcement to the Twitter community:

NFT God @NFT_GOD

Finally got my ape, isn't she a beaut? @BoredApeYC #bayc #mayc

One like??? Again??? I thought ape follows ape? What the hell is this about? What was the point of spending a Tesla on this picture?

I'm quitting and selling.

Eh well maybe not just yet. There doesn't seem to be a lot of people sharing value in Web 3. I'll tweet casually after work and try to provide some value to people.

So I did- every single day for months.

At the same time, I started an email newsletter. I got five subscribers, and it took me four months before I finally hit ten subscribers.

I was sending an email out every single week.

Were people not enjoying the newsletter? Should I just quit? What a waste of time.

Whatever, I'll keep writing this for the fun of it. If people read it that's awesome. If not, then that's fine too. So I kept going.

I start publishing threads every week. In fact, I start publishing daily threads for months:

NFT God @NFT_GOD

The Daily Alpha 4/22: Disastrous launch for Akutar, The Nike MNLTH reveal met with disappointment then euphoria, Moonbirds can nest, and what will Adidas do next? 🧵👇

I spent a goddamn hour on each of these threads and I only get ten likes??? (Side note I was doing daily Web 3 rundowns in threads before threads were even a twinkle in your eye).

Should I just quit? Nah, maybe I'll just switch to writing about what I like, rather than trying to please people. So I wrote weekly threads about programming and self-improvement.

I hit a tipping point in June 2022, a full year and 3 months after my first tweet. I go from 5,000 followers to 15,000 in a week. I put out a thread that goes super viral. 9k likes:

Here's the issue. My next thread wasn't nearly that popular. WTF. Did I drop off? Am I over? Am I a flash in the pan? I should just quit.

Nah, I'm not going to let likes and attention corrupt me. I'm going to keep writing about what I want.

January 2023. I lose it all. I get hacked. All my accounts are hijacked. My wallets completely drained.

This space will be the death of me. I should just leave once and for all.

No, I'm not going to let some hackers destroy me. They might have my money, but they didn't take my will to build something special.

February 2023. The Twitter algorithm completely changes, and my engagement is cut by 75%. Dopamine hits destroyed. That could be it for me. Why play a game that has ever-changing rules?

Nope, time to experiment and figure out this new algorithm. Growth stops for no one.

And so here I am. March 2023. 104,000 followers and 21,000 subscribers. Building the brand I've always wanted. My dreams unfolding in front of my eyes.

Engagement, likes, and follows don't matter. Doing it for the love of the game matters. Doing it to be your authentic self matters. If you're considering quitting, ask yourself if you're quitting for the right reasons. If it's because you're not getting enough likes, you're not only quitting for the wrong reasons, you're also writing for the wrong reasons.

If I had quit any of those times, it would be all over.

Instead, I looked inside, reminded myself of why I was doing this, then tried to get 1% better that day.

Keep pushing.

1% Club Update

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Some of the best and brightest creators across Web 3 and other communities are in the Discord.

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Want a taste of the culture? We now have a free section! Feel free to join the Discord here: https://discord.gg/1percentbetter

I’ll be in there chatting all the time!

This week we’ve had some incredible mastermind sessions in the Discord. Here is next week’s schedule:

Every day: Digital shared workspace (I’m in there every day answering questions)

Sunday: Town Hall led by NFT God

Tuesday: Visual Content Creation with Amir (weekly)

Tuesday: Accountability Meeting with J0nga (weekly)

Thursday: How to Create Graphics That Make Tweets Go Viral w/ NFT God

By far the best part of the club is the work sessions. All day every day there are people in the voice chat working together. It’s almost like a digital coworking space.

No pressure to turn on your mic or camera, everyone just sits quietly and works. Every once in a while a conversation breaks out and ideas are exchanged. It’s an awesome experience! Plus I’m in there every single day to answer questions.

If you’re not in the Club yet, join 650 others by signing up below. I promise it’ll be an investment in yourself you won’t regret. If you find you’re not getting value from it, I’ll personally refund you the $5:

What is Your Favorite Book?

Thank you so much to everyone who’s replied to my tweets or emailed me this week! Look forward to hearing from more of you soon! To be featured in this section feel free to reply to my GM tweets with prompts. Take care and have an excellent weekend!