You Can’t Cope In Life If You Are Always Copying People

Copying is theft. Copying with sense is not.

Over the past 6 months, I've been obsessed with a writer on Medium.

He is Godfrey The Great. I like the way this guy writes.

Are you asking me about his niche?

Good question.

He’s a nicheless writer: He writes about anything and everything that interests him.

He’s the niche himself.

He currently has over 13,000 followers on Medium.

He has over 700 followers on X.

The Medium algorithm made me discover him.

It recommended one of his stories on my feed, and since then, I've been an ardent consumer of his articles.

I've been following him since he had 200+ followers.

As a beginner writer, I just wanted to be like him. I know that can't be possible. But I said to myself, “Guy, you can make it possible.”

Did I?

You will discover it later.

You must have noticed that I write in the pattern of one sentence per paragraph.

I learned it from him.

Godfrey's articles are always magical.

His storytelling is amazing.

How he logically connects paragraphs to paragraphs sweetens me.

In this age of the internet, when reading has become difficult, Godfrey will write compelling pieces that, even though you want to skim over them, you can't help but read them till the end.

How did I discover that?

His articles are always entertaining, educational, and highly inspiring.

After reading the first paragraph of his article, you won’t know when your eyes will jump to the second paragraph, and to the next one, and to the next one, until you reach the last paragraph.

Game over! You just finished the entire article.

In all honesty, I would say Godfrey is a hardworking and talented writer.

He writes every day, both on X (formerly, Twitter) and Medium.

He currently publishes an average of two articles per day.

Yes! It’s quality in quantity.

I could remember that in the days of his 200 followers, despite consistent publishing, he got discouraging traction—no substantial views or reads.

As much as I would like to help, I couldn't leave an impression on those articles.

Since making a comment and leaving an impression requires installing the Medium app on my phone, I couldn't, because, as of then, I have no intention of writing online.

I only read on Medium with my web browser.

I'm talking about 2023.

I started writing online on January 1 of this year.

The going has been tough, but I've maintained a consistent habit of hitting the green publish button every day.

Like Godfrey said, he published for four months before he got any traction.

I'm not worried, though; this is my second month.

It can only get better.

Now I've copied a lot from Godfrey.

Helpful?

I would rather say awful. There are some good sides to that though.

Let me explain.

First, I cannot become Godfrey.

He is as unique as I am.

We are in our separate worlds.

I'm from Africa; he lives in the Asian part of the world.

Internet subscriptions gulp money here; I can't say if that's the same for Godfrey.

Godfrey is a native English speaker; he has a strong command of English.

English is my second language, although it is the lingua franca in my country.

His mother is a first-class graduate of English. She’s also a lecturer at the university.

What about his dad?

The man is highly literate and well-travelled.

I know this because he had written about vacations with his dad.

And he has also mentioned his father’s intellectual dexterity.

The same doesn’t apply to me.

Godfrey came from a highly influential family.

He once said Alexander the Great was one of his ancient grandfathers.

I had no such history.

Why am I saying all of that?

Because

• Chances,
• Environment,
• Opportunities and
• Luck (even though it might not exist)…

… is different for us.

One more.

He had monetized his writing.

Even though making an impact is the golden goal, I'm still ineligible to make money.

This is where I’m going:

It's good to copy.

But copy only when you can cope with the dynamics and mechanisms of life.

You can’t copy and get a carbon-copy result.

What do I mean?

It’s not possible to copy and get the same results.

Yours could be outrageously excellent or ridiculously worse.

The question is, “Will you be able to cope with that?”

As a writer, your first published story can bring you into the limelight. You could get gigs back-to-back.

The experience will differ for some people.

• Some will write for a few weeks and get mind-blowing results.
• Some, after writing for years, still won’t get noticed.

This happens with Godfrey had a great experience:

Just one of his stories exploded. It was that story that got him the reward for all his hard labour.

As of the last time I checked, the story has 79k views and about 200+ comments.

He got this success after writing for a few months. Almost a year.

Who knows what would have become of him if he had stopped at the first month?

What if he stopped at 3 months and 12 days?

It’s evident that he will not get any traction.

His effort will go down the drain.

I learned of a Medium writer who wrote daily for three years without seeing any progress. It was at the end of three years that she exploded.

That's daunting, right?

Sure.

But that woman sticks with the writing plan and sees it as her goal in life.

Now her earnings from articles could afford her a decent life.

Why, then, should you copy?

• Copy to improve yourself.
• Copy to challenge yourself to be better.

Don’t copy just to replicate—a photocopy cannot become the original.

When you copy because you want a similar result, you may end up giving up along the way due to the inexplicable dynamics of life.

What works for A might not work for B.

Different strokes, they say, are for different folks.

I hope this article is useful.

Thanks for reading.

Oluwaseyi.

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