A Dollar For Your Thoughts
Wouldn't it be nice if you could get paid just for having an opinion?
For whatever reason, my brain cannot stop thinking about this tonight and I am losing sleep so I have to write this out the best that I can. It also helps that I haven't posted here in far too long so it makes sense logically to finally post something.
I have heard a saying once that said, "Opinions are like armpits, everyone has them and most of them stink." What I think is interesting is that there are people out there that have crafted the simple idea of having an opinion into a mode of funding an extravagant lifestyle.
Critics.
Food critics. Movie critics. Hotel critics. Book reviewers. You name the industry and it has its critics. How did these people manage to get people to pay them to stay at a hotel or eat their food and tell them everything they are doing wrong. The masses on Twitter can easily tell you everything you need to know about a place and they don't get paid for it. What is the craft or the art or the science behind taking an opinion and turning it into a financially profitable critique? And then from there, how does a person turn this financial profit into financial stability, again just from having an opinion?
Obviously there is some sort of expertise that is involved with this. A food critic may have been a chef. A book reviewer may have been an author. But I am certain that this isn't the case for every successful critic out there. In my current profession I get to briefly teach individuals (whom I spend six weeks with teaching them about a very different topic) discussing the debated theory of the 10,000 hours (a theory credited to Malcom Gladwell and others). You know, the idea that to become an expert in something you have to practice that craft in all of its details and forms and in different and innovative and creative ways for a combined total of 10,000 hours. As mentioned, the theory is heavily debated but the principle remains constant. The more you practice and learn and focus on a craft, the more proficient you will become at it.
So in this theory, to become a top critic of all of my favorite things all I have to do is spend hours ironing out the details of those things that I love. Use the opinions that I have within and regarding those details. And then write and write and write and write and write.
Hopefully at some point a readership would begin to rise up and follow consistently and then said readership would begin to fund me in some way or another and it would take itself from there.
I am not saying I am going to do this but I think that it is something that could be fun to do. I just can't help but think about what the "glass ceiling" for success would be. At what point would my opinions be solid enough or read enough or revered enough or even simply clicked on enough to make money from it?
Is it even possible?
Possible, yes. People have proven that it is possible however to get to that point could be a long and wild and often fruitless journey.
What do you think though? Is it possible to do? What are some things a normal person would need to do to become successful at this?
For whatever reason, my brain cannot stop thinking about this tonight and I am losing sleep so I have to write this out the best that I can. It also helps that I haven't posted here in far too long so it makes sense logically to finally post something.
I have heard a saying once that said, "Opinions are like armpits, everyone has them and most of them stink." What I think is interesting is that there are people out there that have crafted the simple idea of having an opinion into a mode of funding an extravagant lifestyle.
Critics.
Food critics. Movie critics. Hotel critics. Book reviewers. You name the industry and it has its critics. How did these people manage to get people to pay them to stay at a hotel or eat their food and tell them everything they are doing wrong. The masses on Twitter can easily tell you everything you need to know about a place and they don't get paid for it. What is the craft or the art or the science behind taking an opinion and turning it into a financially profitable critique? And then from there, how does a person turn this financial profit into financial stability, again just from having an opinion?
Obviously there is some sort of expertise that is involved with this. A food critic may have been a chef. A book reviewer may have been an author. But I am certain that this isn't the case for every successful critic out there. In my current profession I get to briefly teach individuals (whom I spend six weeks with teaching them about a very different topic) discussing the debated theory of the 10,000 hours (a theory credited to Malcom Gladwell and others). You know, the idea that to become an expert in something you have to practice that craft in all of its details and forms and in different and innovative and creative ways for a combined total of 10,000 hours. As mentioned, the theory is heavily debated but the principle remains constant. The more you practice and learn and focus on a craft, the more proficient you will become at it.
So in this theory, to become a top critic of all of my favorite things all I have to do is spend hours ironing out the details of those things that I love. Use the opinions that I have within and regarding those details. And then write and write and write and write and write.
Hopefully at some point a readership would begin to rise up and follow consistently and then said readership would begin to fund me in some way or another and it would take itself from there.
I am not saying I am going to do this but I think that it is something that could be fun to do. I just can't help but think about what the "glass ceiling" for success would be. At what point would my opinions be solid enough or read enough or revered enough or even simply clicked on enough to make money from it?
Is it even possible?
Possible, yes. People have proven that it is possible however to get to that point could be a long and wild and often fruitless journey.
What do you think though? Is it possible to do? What are some things a normal person would need to do to become successful at this?
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