Following Who?
Extended thanks for many followers
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Once again I want to thank all of you who’ve helped here on Medium by following me. I will continue to follow those who follow me because its interesting, fun, educational, friendly and courteous. I’m well above that 100 threshold so I don’t continue this for my numbers, but I do seek out and follow new writers who are under 100.
While there is a value on Medium for that first “100” followers, the real value is finding readers who will read your stories and comment. That’s the real value because it is the next step beyond the required “100.” I’m actively reading from those I’m following.
But there’s even more to “following”…
Ask yourself who you are following. No, not here on Medium, though that’s a good thing. The real question is who do you follow in your life? Your parent or parents? Your sibling? A public figure? A pop star? Some special person you know? Those are obvious starting points we all encounter in our lives. But they may not be the most important.
Suppose you start a journey from Chicago to New York and you take a wrong turn. You’re enjoying your trip so much that you just keep driving. At some point you notice a sign with a strange bit of information. It tells you that in about 100 miles, you will reach a town called Sterling. You think for a minute and you don’t recognize that as an expected town. “Where am I” becomes the pressing question. A map tells you that you’re on your way to Denver instead of New York!
You’d have to ignore a lot of signs to get that far into a mistaken direction, but in our lives that’s exactly what we do. We have trained ourselves to ignore the signs we are on the wrong track, going the wrong direction. The world around us helps by keeping us distracted and rewarded for continuing away from our desired destination, and often to simply forget that some better destination exists.
So, once again, who are you following for real? I’m delighted that you’re following me on Medium, and though I’ll try my best to write quality stories and share the brightest and best information I can find, at the end of the day I’m just as human as you are, or any of the other 100,000 people you could choose to “follow.” This idea of following has become a tool of…
