In writing publicly, there is always a particular dilemma that arises: do you write for yourself, or for others?

If you write for yourself, you are being selfish, and your audience might lose interest. But if you adopt a more generous route and write for other people, are you being authentic and writing what you really want to write?

For years, I struggled with this stalemate. I couldn’t work out the balance that would satisfy both my creative spirit and my desire for recognition. It felt like I had to choose either doing my work, or receiving praise. They were mutually exclusive.

One day, I gave myself an experiment. I would write only things I wanted to write; ideas that were burning inside of me. These weren’t posts that would receive many views or likes – my analytics told me that already. But I did it anyway.

The results weren’t surprising. The posts got fewer views than usual and my statistics began to drop. And I’ll admit – a part of me found this depressing. If only I wasn’t so selfish, I wouldn’t have lost my readers.

But over time, something curious happened: I began to love what I was doing. Despite my record low viewership, my real writing voice was beginning to emerge and my ideas became more and more refined. I soon became proud of my posts and thought every piece was unique.

Then the funniest thing happened: my viewership went back up again. I went from losing 70% of my readers over a week, to gaining over 1000% in a year.

What I learnt from this experience was that selfish work is generous. Copying what’s been done before is safe, but boring. It will never get you further than what other people are doing. You might think you are being generous, but you might merely be familiar.

The most generous thing you can do as a creator is to be yourself. People might avoid you at the beginning, but as you discover your talents and polish your craft, people will notice and love you for it.

Here’s to more generously selfish work.