RCP – When the Online and Offline World Collide
This is the 2nd Reader Contributed Post, RCP, by Ronald. Here Ronald talks about how success is relative, and how success in both the online and offline worlds can be so similar that they might actually cross paths, resulting in you having to decide which world to succeed in. If you would like to be a guest writer on The Reasoner, please contact me.
I hear the sound of someone calling me on Skype. I look at my clock. It reads 1am. I sigh, and ignore the call and lift the covers over my head.
I hear the sound of someone coming online. I again look at the clock. 1:59am. I shift in my bed and adjust my pillow. I again lay back down and drift back into sleep.
It’s now 5:15am, and my computer alarm clock is going off. In a sleepish daze, I turn off the alarm clock and head to fix my morning cereal. I find my glasses and sit down at my computer chair.
I check stats, browse through my feed reader, and respond to comments. Then I get ready for work.
A Collision Course
Things can go wrong with a blog during the day. Earlier today, Simonne from All Tips and Tricks e-mailed me saying Bes and I spelled “Reader Appreciation” as “Reader Appreciton”. I felt extremely embarrassed and e-mailed Bes to please fix it since I didn’t have access to my blog at work. And the site has been live for over two months.
Other times, when I have made plugin releases, the comments come flooding in (especially bug reports) and I can’t do anything about it since I am at work. I rush to get home after work and the gym, but by then I am so tired, the energy to perform any band-aids or blogging is just nil.
The efforts made in blogging aren’t always justified, especially since I have a day job that already pays the bills. So I must ask myself, what is my gauge of success? I find that the success in the offline world is a little different than that of the online world.
Success in the Online World
Perceived success in the online world typically has to do with three things:
- The amount of traffic and subscribers.
- The amount of revenue earned.
- The amount of influence.
If you don’t have traffic, money, and influence, is your blog really successful? Is the success I mention the recipe for the mythical A-Lister?
Success in the Offline World
Some would perceive success in the offline world as:
- How many people you control.
- How much money you control.
- How much influence a person has.
Some of the most successful people are politicians, simply because they command huge armies and huge budgets.
Is the Offline Success and Online Success Practical?
Some would call their blog a success after reaching a hundred feed subscribers. Some would call their offline life a success after being married and owning a house. I have come to question what I consider a success, both in the offline and online world.
In the online world, am I successful because I have reached a certain feed count? Am I successful because one of my blogs is making some money? Or am I successful because I enjoy what I do and people are benefiting from what I write?
In the offline world, am I successful because I have reached my education goals? Am I successful because I have a good job? Or is there something more?
The Online and Offline Collision
There seems to be a crossroad where there’s a point where you might have to choose which world to achieve that success in. Is it possible to achieve success in both the online and offline world simultaneously? Is that what the mythical A-Lister has accomplished? Or does one have to choose at some point?
Conclusion
The weekend is coming up. I’m looking forward to it.
Thanks for reading.
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( May 22nd, 2007 at 3:57 pm )
Nice post Ronald. The online and offline worlds do indeed collide, since we are all still trying to control the online lives by treating it differently than the offline life, and trying to be in command more. We are doing random things and anything possible since it seems, to many, that the online world is to be treated differently.
Success is success, though as you pointed out, perception of success is for many people something a bit different than success itself. Success is also relative, though when it comes to control, money and influence [power], many people tend to have similar views that the combination of those 3 means success.
I sometimes turn off the computer speakers when I go to sleep, or mute Skype itself.
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( May 23rd, 2007 at 12:16 am )
Wow, looks like we’re getting another The Reasoner here. It’s not enough that I’m getting all those thought-provoking posts/questions from Bes, now Ronald is making me think before I write a comment.
I agree with Bes – success is a relative thing. And also I think, it’s a temporary feeling, or at least it should be temporary. Today I may find it to be quite a success if my RSS feed count reaches #100, but tomorrow I would want it to go up to #1000, and then to #10K, etc.
We should never bathe in our success and always strive for more, for another challenge. I don’t mean that we should be greedy, not at all. We should however always move forward in life, or at least, try to.
And Ronald, please, get a life and go green – preserve energy by turning off the computer at night and use other alarms to wake up in the morning
Oh, and to answer Ronald’s question: Is it possible to achieve success in both the online and offline world simultaneously?
I think everything is possible as long as we really want it and we know exactly what we want.
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( May 23rd, 2007 at 12:58 pm )
You have a good point about RSS feeds. Human beings want more and more, and thus the feed subscribers or even number of commentors that we find satisfying today will end up being unsatisfactory to us tomorrow or later in time.
Well, to achieve success, we need to know what exactly we are achieving. People don’t aim for success. They aim for certain elements in life. A person can fail at everything in life, and still feel succesful because of the fact that they are living a life. Whether or not aiming for certain elements is good or bad compared to aiming for the “success” feeling is a topic for another day.
Most of the success theories are being influenced, specially online, by the idea of making money. People need to factor in everything, as realistically, everything matters: health, concept of relationships, money, food, home, etc.
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