How to survive the first 6-12 months as a creator on X

1. The War on Attention

You're on a busy street. Scratch that. Imagine you're on a street so packed you can barely breathe. On top of that, people are not only yelling at the top of their lungs but are actively aiming to gain your attention.

It's safe to say that if you're not wearing protection, you'll fall pregnant from the seeds of other people, and birth their knowledge babies without knowing who the real father is.

A creator is a knowledge worker first and foremost. Which means your mind is the single most important asset in your possession. It is the mint that prints you money — and just like the federal reserve, only the elite control that shit.

You are the elite in this instance.

Takeaway

Open your mind to new perspectives, people, and experiences — but know when to retreat to home base with locks and padding on the door.

2. Tactical Hell

Let’s keep it real.

Creators are glorified consumers. Rather than meaningless consumption you now consume with purpose so that you can create something of value.

Being intentional doesn’t mean you know how to discern what is treasure from trash. You don’t know what you don’t know and this is why you should be wary of Tactical Hell and its minions.

Tactical hell is the never-ending reaction to an ever-changing battlefield. Think of it as the edge you get when the season or “trend” changes.

It relies heavily on being swift and jumping onto new opportunities before the peasants do. This is typically how “elites” separate themselves from commoners by the way — by receiving the intelligence first.

Here’s the problem.

I’m not saying that tactics are bad, what I am saying is that far too many people get caught in the battlefield for so long, that they forget what the war is all about to begin with.

You know what happens when people lose their meaning to fight?

They lose their will, and they quit.

Takeaway

Never forget the overall strategy that gives meaning to your maneuvers and tactics.

3. Religious Warfare

Leading on from tactical hell — remember, each tactician is a salesman at heart (even me).

Every seller will place their "dream outcome" of their methods at the top of the altar to increase its perceived value for you to revere.

You will hear things like:

"Likes ain't cash"

"Fans over followers"

"Did it without paid RTs"

NONE of these are wrong per se, I am merely making the observation that when you have tens of thousands of people warring over your attention, naturally, just as in the real world, people will fight over whose "God" you should worship.

Some even form denominations so far down the line that they almost become cult-like.

Just like in an election season, the over-saturation of campaigning to persuade your vote is a surefire way to distract you from what's actually important and keep you among the squabblers.

Takeaway

Everybody's hierarchy of values is different. What's true for one is not true for another. Serve a faith that serves you best and stick to it. King's serve, peasants squabble.

4. Emotional Dictatorship

If you are human, I guarantee somewhere down the line you will have shitty thoughts that possess your mind out of nowhere.

"This guy never followed me back"

"How are HIS tweets outperforming mine?"

"This dude used to engage with me but now he stopped"

The worrying part is, most of us don't acknowledge it rationally, and instead let it fizzle beneath the conscious surface.

When something isn't brought to light, it remains in the dark and dictates your actions at a subconscious level — emotional dictatorship.

You're going to think shitty things because deep down we're all shitty people, let's keep it a thousand. It's what being human is all about and I fucking love it.

The next time you're feeling a little toxic, channel your inner monk.

Recognise, accept, investigate, & detach.

Suppression is how you get things to come back with a vengeance.

Takeaway

Being in a space with lots of humans, you are going to feel the full range of human emotions, even the ugly side. Let it come out so that you can let it go.

5. The Double-edged Sword

When venturing into a new endeavour, you don't know up from down or left from right. Naturally, you seek guidance.

Being information-starved is like being an impressionable teenager.

You will believe anything just to relieve the anxiety of feeling lost so that you can fit in with the "it" crowd.

This opens you up to being led by those who love the feeling of "leading" more than the certainty of where they are going.

A classic case of the blind leading the blind.

When you seek information from everyone, you will struggle to orient yourself, and thus increase the risk of being overwhelmed.

The times you need advice the most, are times you need to be most weary of advice itself.

Always maintain a position of power by proactively researching the problem yourself. Summarize the principles, test your own theories, and ask for advice based on your own experiences.

You may as well be asking what the meaning of life is if you're asking lazy questions like "How do I make money?”

Takeaway

When you're lost, everything will feel like an answer — this doesn't make them "right". Use your power of discernment, and be proactive in your investigation.

6. Rat Race 2.0

Metrics, like money, is our way to discern someone's "worth" as quickly as possible (as shitty as that sounds).

Judging a book by its cover is how we conserve energy so that we don't have to open and read every detail of everyone we encounter.

Nobody likes to be reduced to a number, so we make subtle "power" plays to diminish other people's worth in favour of our own.

"This guy has 100K followers but I get more engagement than him, shower me in glory now."

This race of one conjured out of insecurity, is a great way to finish last in a race no one else is running.

As cliche as it sounds, the only race you're running is the one against yourself.

Comparing yourself to other creators is like a marathon runner comparing himself to a swimmer, or a ballet dancer.

Different definitions of success, different methods.

Takeaway

We play this game to escape the rat race, not to be trapped in another.

7. Foundations

Everyone focuses on the "how" but nobody takes the time to ask "why".

How do I get more followers, how do I get more engagement, how do I get this person to like me? We chase and chase until we wear ourselves thin and ultimately quit.

This is because the "how" is always a means to an end and not the end itself. This means that once you accomplish something there will always be something bigger waiting on the other side.

Asking why is like drawing a line down the middle of a page and marking "pros" on one side, and "cons" on the other. In other words, it is a scale of balance, a reasoning of what is good and what is bad, a moral question.

This is what makes it tough, but it's this line of questioning that will ultimately ground you while everyone else is floating on the surface.

Takeaway

Ask yourself: "What is the big problem I am trying to solve, and why does it matter to me?"

Recap

1. The War on Attention

   • Open your mind to new perspectives, people, and experiences — but know when to retreat to home base with locks and padding on the door.

2. Tactical Hell

   • Never forget the overall strategy that gives meaning to your maneuvers and tactics.

3. Religious Warfare

   • Everybody's hierarchy of values is different. What's true for one is not true for another. Serve a faith that serves you best and stick to it. King's serve, peasants squabble.

4. Emotional Dictatorship

   • Being in a space with lots of humans, you are going to feel the full range of human emotions, even the ugly side. Let it come out so that you can let it go.

5. The Double-edged Sword

   • When you're lost, everything will feel like an answer — this doesn't make them "right". Use your power of discernment, and be proactive in your investigation.

6. Rat Race 2.0

   • We play this game to escape the rat race, not to be trapped in another.

7. Foundations

   • Ask yourself: "What is the big problem I am trying to solve, and why does it matter to me?"

Thank you for reading, I hope you found this insightful — until next time.

— Mat