The majority of people are creating someone else's empire with their digital time. Every like, every comment, every minute watching a short form video is one where you're consuming value rather than producing it. The net effect is that most treat the internet like one enormous screen rather than the planet-wide distribution system that it is.
The shift occurs when you start to see the internet not as a play ground, but rather, as an open market place.
Whenever you make something original, whether it’s an article, an illustration, a chunk of code, or an app, you're not simply putting something up. You are constructing a digital asset. Digital assets don’t have the copy costs that physical things do - you build them once and then they can supply value indefinitely, 24/7 to anyone across the world. You're creating something for yourself that works tirelessly in the background without need for your attention 24/7.
This requires a mind-set shift: Select friction over ease.
In other words, take the work of creation over the ease of consumption. Focus on ownership. Rather than paying rent to rent space in algorithmic platforms, learn to build a library of content that belongs entirely to you.
Understand that digital assets build and appreciate in time. If you're only just starting out as a creator, it may feel quiet and non-rewarding. You'll put hours of time into a given project and the responses may come few.
Yet every delivered project is a brick in a new foundation of your own personal digital real estate.
The Internet, perhaps above all else, rewards ownership. If you get out of the consumption rut sooner, you can start building the future of your life faster.
(I am a new creator and I am currently struggling heavily with low Resource Credits (RC), which makes it hard for me to reply to comments. If any large account has spare RC to delegate, it would help me immensely to grow on this platform!)
