If I Started Content Creation—You Can, Too.

To all the lovers of Ready Player One—book or movie.

Let’s have a little history lesson. A hundred years ago, our grandparents considered a job to be working in a factory, or an industry. With time, automation replaced physical labour, and the definition of a job had to be changed. We began to value intellectual labour over physical labour, so having a job was working in an office.

Fast forward, even working for someone became obsolete, and a waste of resources. Consequently, people began developing their own businesses and the new definition of a job was managing your own establishment—entrepreneurship.

Now, even entrepreneurship is beginning to seem like a waste of resources. A seemingly ordinary guy without any degree (or even much schooling) can start uploading videos on YouTube and be carting away millions of dollars every year (Yes—It’s as serious as that!).

Don’t get me wrong. Having a degree and graduating school is also a platform, and we all need platforms to succeed—but even the definition of “platforms” is changing. According to Medium writer, Niklas Göke, “The platform of this day and age is your audience. Your people. Network. It’s trust.”

The job of the future is Content Creation!

Ready Player One. 

This one book changed my perspective of, literally, everything. I mean, I’d been reading for a while now, but none struck me as profound as this particular book by Earnest Cline. Now, I’m not a book critic, nor am I a movie critic—trust me, I’ve read and read the various perspectives of people about this “geek” novel. That’s not my focus.

Ready Player One is set in 2045. In summary, this science fiction exquisitely combines the elements of virtual reality and the 80s pop culture. James Halliday, a character in the novel who is recently deceased, hides three keys inside the OASIS (A virtual reality game that helps the whole world escape the stress of reality).

Anyone who finds the three keys will access vast amount of fortune, wealth, and power. Then, the keys could only be found using clues that existed in the 80s popular culture (video games, cartoons, movies, sci-fi, even books).

I don’t have to tell you that it was a death match, and a race to determine the fate of the world. To survive, our protagonist, Wade Watts, will have to win, and as well confront the confines of reality he desperately wishes to escape. (I hope I did a pretty good job of summarizing #wink)

The Power in Creativity.

As I previously tried to explain, I was not drawn to the book because of his “geeky” mastery of storytelling or anything. (If anything, it made me feel left out).

Rather, Earnest Cline drew my attention to that fact that writers can create anything. Yes—you read that right. Anything. Okay, we may not be inventors or manufacturers in that sense, but we can still create anything we want. As long as we can think it.

Earnest Cline was able to create an entire virtual reality where characters can take on any identity they want, be as wealthy as they want, and whatnot. I mean, the game had about a 1000 different planets—that’s just a whole other level of thought and development.

My point is, the only requirement (the only necessary one anyways) for you to be a content creator is that you know how to think. Content creators are thinkers. We ask questions, then ponder and meditate. Pretty easy right?

It Can Only Get Better.

To be honest, content creation is a fun, yet engaging process. You get to see things in a different light, to explore various niches, gain knowledge, and in the process, expand your thinking horizon.

Sure, just like any other career path, it also has its fair share of difficult times. Sometimes, it’s just easier not to think at all, or to be lazy and choose the path of least resistance. What about writer’s block, for content writers?

All these are real, and require you to be determined and focused so you can get the best out of the process. I’ve found out the hard way that giving up is not an option—neither is “relaxing”. You just have to keep at it.

If I were to have a CTA (Call To Action) for this piece, it would be that you start developing yourself in content creation. Whether as professional and time-consuming as Freelancing and Upwork, or more informal and audience-related as Blogging and Vlogging. You need to start creating.

By the way, before you get any funny ideas, content creation is not only about writing! Not at all. Graphics Designers, Web developers and Social Media Managers (“Influencers”) are also Content Creators. It really is a broad field—even more for you to choose. The opportunities in content creation are endless (I certainly would know).

Content Creation is the job of the future—start creating today!