Tech companies lied to us, and it's causing a creative crisis

While talent can flourish anywhere, sustainable success in digital creation usually follows a sequence: resonate, find your platform, build your brand, monetize thoughtfully, and expand strategically.

Hi,

One of the great failings of tech over the decades has been the idea that the democratization of the internet meant that anyone can be successful in anything for any reason. All you have to do is make a thing and everyone will love you.

The truth is a bit more like the end of Anton Ego’s famous line from Ratatouille “Not everyone can become a great artist; but a great artist can come from anywhere.”

Tech companies have for the last 30+ years focused on the first half of that quote, and why wouldn’t they? It’s easy to give people hope that they can basically do any old thing and be successful. That’s how you get people to adopt technology.

Unfortunately, when people who believe that smack full force into reality, you get a bunch of frustrated creators who think they aren’t good enough because the “magic” didn’t touch them.

But it’s not magic, it’s strategy. There is an order of operations creators should probably take in order to be successful, and you probably won’t get where you wa…