To Succeed on Medium, One Has To Be a Lot More Like McDonald’s and a Lot Less Like Lamborghinis
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The Quality vs Quantity Conundrum
There’s an extraordinary war of attrition going on the pages of Medium.
It is earth shatteringly brutal and it’s threatening to sweep everything in its wake; It is the war for eyeballs.
What’s interesting here is that reading and applying Sun Tzu’s Art of war won’t do you any good here. Nor will Clausewitzian philosophy for that matter.
Why?
Because the rules of engagement are quite simple.
Write.
Write all the time, every time.
And if you are intent on being seen and read, then you have to write across various disciplines and market your content across a number of social media outlets too.
It is all about mass production.
It is the McDonald’s paradigm; it counts for everything here.
Back in past life as a fresh faced teenager (yes, I was fresh faced once)in the 1990s, I worked in a number of McDonald’s restaurants across North and West London.
During that time, I learnt the requisite skills needed to mass produce Big Macs, Quarter Pound Cheese and Chicken sandwich burgers. It didn’t matter whether it was a high street or a drive through standalone restaurant, the skills needed to ensure that burgers and fries are readily available, were the same.
We simply churned fast food for the public to consume. whether it was good or bad for their health is a completely different kettle of fish.
Now contrast that with Lamborghini.
Their model is the converse to McDonald’s.
Alongside Ferrari, Bentley and Rolls Royce cars, Lamborghinis are among the most expensive in the world.
What’s also important about these brands is that they are not ubiquitous. This is for good reason, as it cheapens the brand, where absolute exclusivity is an imperative.
So what have Lambos and McDonald’s got to do with writing Medium articles?
Well, a lot as it happens.
