Ive made my living running this blog for the past five years. I owe a lot to this blog. Its enabled me to travel, take on interesting side projects, communicate with thousands of people and live well.

Given my positive experience, youd think Id encourage other people to do the same. Except when my friend asked for advice about starting something similar, I told him not to do it.

It wasnt because I was afraid of competition. My friend was planning to start up a business which wouldnt compete with mine. Even if it did, thats rarely a problem. I spend more time collaborating with people who write about similar topics than competing with them.

It also wasnt because his idea was bad. In fact, it was actually pretty good. Which is saying a lot because literally 95% of business ideas people share are terrible. (Interesting side note: whenever someone makes me promise not to steal their idea before they tell me about it, I know its going to be terrible. Real entrepreneurs arent worried about people stealing their ideas.)

No, the reason I told my friend not to go into business was quite different. The reason is not actually about business at all, but something general enough that it can apply to many, many life decisions without you realizing it. Let me explain

Success isnt the same in all fields. Some areas show relatively rapid initial gains, followed by increasingly difficult long-term gains. Some areas show relatively slow initial gains, but those improvements accelerate so that improving them becomes easier and easier.

I wrote an entire article outlining the difference between these two types of growth here.

Blogging is a clear example of exponential growth. The more effort you put in, the higher the return on investment. When I started this blog, my hourly rate of income was zeroputting in a lot of effort for literally zero pay. Then I remember my first month I made any money at all, which calculated as an hourly rate would probably be only a few cents per hour.

For me, the time from zero income to earning enough to surpass the poverty threshold was about five years. The time to go from that to comfortably earning six figures was only three. Thats the power of exponential growth.

But that growth also means that if youre not going to be in the game long-term, it doesnt make sense to get started. I knew when I started my blog that I wanted to go full-time with an online business. I wasnt clear exactly how I would do it, but I knew that my goal wasnt to make a little extra side income, but to do it full time.

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Scott H Young Blog