The Key to Success is Not a Content Strategy or System.
It's actually rather simple. This is the story that got me started, and brought the kind of success I would have never imagined.
Background
For those of you who were here at the outset of this publication, I first want to thank you from the depths of my heart for your continued support. This is all possible because of you.
Those first subscribers and words of encourage, however few, were enough to keep me going. Especially, in the difficult times.
For those who weren’t, I started this publication at a pivotal time in my life (2021):
Covid and vax mandates
Refusal to comply and termination
First born child
Financial stress the likes of which I wouldn’t wish on anyone
Ostracized from friends and coworkers
Stress on my family and marriage
Started from the bottom, you could say.
Freshly out of a job and with a newborn in our home…I didn’t really know what to do with myself. Wife told me I should start writing (in her defense, she’s been telling me to do this for years, but I was too consumed with academic medicine).
At that time, I encountered an essay (from 1936) by Albert Jay Nock - Isaiah’s Job.
This essay concerns a story about a task given to Isaiah (by God), and the difficulties he’d endure along the way in moving the people to His message.
From this story, we get the distinction of the “masses” from the “Remnant.” Which is precisely where I got the name for this publication - Remnant MD.
Recently, I hit an important milestone in the work I’ve been doing online. This milestone will obviously differ from person to person, and is not a metric that is calculated for you by Substack.
Doing some rough calculations, I realized that per hour of work, my net income from writing Substack articles is higher than my day-job as a doctor. This supports the motivation I’ve felt in taking the next step for this business, as outlined here:
When I wrote a brief note about this milestone, I was asked if I have any advice for those looking to start their own online writing journey.
And, so…I revisited this essay I read almost 4 years ago.
Before we proceed, I just want to point out that the author of this essay has the same birthday as I do. I didn’t know this years ago…and was floored when I found out recently. The universe is an interesting place.
Isaiah’s Job
One evening last autumn, I sat long hours with a European acquaintance while he expounded a political-economic doctrine which seemed sound as a nut and in which I could find no defect.
At the end, he said with great earnestness: “I have a mission to the masses. I feel that I am called to get the ear of the people. I shall devote the rest of my life to spreading my doctrine far and wide among the population.
What do you think?”
Many aspiring writers or radicals probably have felt something along these lines. I know I did. Not so much that I had an ironclad solution to everyone’s problems...
In my case, it was more like: I see the problems that others don’t…or at least refuse to say out loud. So, I am just going to say it.
Along the way, with the help of like-minded people, maybe we can get to something resembling a solution to these problems.
That’s all I really had at the time.
No answers. Just an irrepressible desire to talk about the problems.
I even thought about calling this publication: I have questions.
To answer his friend’s question, Nock refers to the story of Isaiah, nearing the end of King Uzziah’s reign (a long and prosperous reign ending in calamity).
…the Lord commissioned the prophet to go out and warn the people of the wrath to come. “Tell them what a worthless lot they are.”
He said, “Tell them what is wrong, and why and what is going to happen unless they have a change of heart and straighten up.
Don’t mince matters. Make it clear that they are positively down to their last chance.
Give it to them good and strong and keep on giving it to them…
The first part of this instruction is worth lingering on.
Give it to them straight. Be clear. Do not mince words. Later on in the essay, he even insists to not dilute the message, or make it more palatable to the “masses.”
[The Lord] added, “that it won’t do any good.
The official class and their intelligentsia will turn up their noses at you and the masses will not even listen.
They will all keep on in their own ways until they carry everything down to destruction, and you will probably be lucky if you get out with your life.”
This passage hit deep.
Reminded me of a lesson that Jordan Peterson used to preach: Sure, there is a cost in saying or doing something. But, there is also a cost in not doing it.
Damned if you do, and damned if you don’t.
Naturally, Isaiah asks: then what is the point?
God replies:
“…you do not get the point.
There is a Remnant there that you know nothing about. They are obscure, unorganized, inarticulate, each one rubbing along as best he can.
They need to be encouraged and braced up because when everything has gone completely to the dogs, they are the ones who will come back and build up a new society; and meanwhile, your preaching will reassure them and keep them hanging on.
Your job is to take care of the Remnant, so be off now and set about it.”
Here, we see the introduction of the term Remnant, which is in contradistinction to the masses. Nock goes to great effort to contextualize historically with respect to what was understood in the past as “the masses” and what is our modern post-French revolutionary notion of the term.
Briefly, the pre-modern term can be simply summarized as the majority. In more specific terms:
The mass man is one who has neither the force of intellect to apprehend the principles issuing in what we know as the humane life, nor the force of character to adhere to those principles steadily and strictly as laws of conduct…
Neither the force of intellect to apprehend the principles of the humane life, nor the force of character to adhere to them.
With respect to the field of medicine: cowards make bad doctors.
Stupid cowards…well, a recipe for disaster.
Nock goes on…
Everyone with a message nowadays is, like my venerable European friend, eager to take it to the masses.
His first, last and only thought is of mass acceptance and mass approval.
His great care is to put his doctrine in such shape as will capture the masses’ attention and interest.
This attitude towards the masses is so exclusive, so devout, that one is reminded of the troglodytic monster described by Plato, and the assiduous crowd at the entrance to its cave, trying obsequiously to placate it and win its favor, trying to interpret its inarticulate noises, trying to find out what it wants, and eagerly offering it all sorts of things that they think might strike its fancy.
Here, we see Nock referring to the trap the Remnant may fall into when they find the impetus to discuss matters which they consider important.
Think about all of the articles and notes in the Substack community (and other social media platforms) that seem only to be concerned about how to package their message in ways to maximize engagement. All of which are transparent attempts at succeeding in the attention economy.
If a writer, you aim at getting many readers; if a publisher, many purchasers; if a philosopher, many disciples; if a reformer, many converts; if a musician, many auditors; and so on…
In the examples that Nock illustrates, we see that the Remnant are not simply a subset of the population concerned with the Divine message.
No.
There are Remnant amongst all walks of life. Every profession. Every trade. Every interest. Every community.
This was my way of humanizing what is, fundamentally, a prophetic and divine story. A path that I could see myself embarking on, in my own little world.
Meanwhile, the Remnant, aware of this adulteration and of the desires that prompt it, turn their backs on the prophet and will have nothing to do with him or his message.
Ultimately, this urge to placate the masses becomes our undoing.
We cut ourselves off at the knees before we can ever take off.
Thankfully, Isaiah stayed true to the path of the Remnant:
…he was not worrying about circulation or about advertising.
Hence, with all such obsessions quite out of the way, he was in a position to do his level best, without fear or favor, and answerable only to his august Boss.
…
In a sense, nevertheless, as I have said, it is not a rewarding job.
If you can touch the fancy of the masses, and have the sagacity to keep always one jump ahead of their vagaries and vacillations, you can get good returns in money from serving the masses, and good returns also in a mouth-to-ear type of notoriety…
As it was known then, and true today, placating the masses provides the sort of reward that seems, on the face of it, what we desire: notoriety, attention, and money.
However, there is no intrinsic reward in pursuing this path. And, so…it is ultimately no different than the day-job employment-based model of exchanging your time and effort for money.
The goal of starting this publication (and the business that followed) was not to simply make money. If I wanted to play to people’s fancies, and do as they expect…there are ample opportunities to do so in the modern medical industry.
This path that I was forging had to be different. Intrinsically rewarding. Something I could find the energy and motivation to do no matter what.
E.g. as the head of a household with 2 toddlers (soon a third, God-willing) and a full-time job. Hobbies, interests and self-development.
There isn’t much time left in the day or fuel left in the tank. But, still we push forth. Because, I love it.
The thing that makes the initial part of this journey so difficult is also well-summarized by Nock:
What chiefly makes it so, I think, is that in any given society the Remnant are always so largely an unknown quantity.
…
Two things you do know, and no more: First, that they exist; second, that they will find you.
…
He may rely on that with absolute assurance.
They will find him without his doing anything about it; in fact, if he tries to do anything about it, he is pretty sure to put them off. He does not need to advertise for them nor resort to any schemes of publicity to get their attention.
Unfortunately, this path comes with one “downside” in that the Remnant are mysterious. They will rarely make themselves known, except in the unpredictable remarks or reflections which suggest that they have in some way received your message. So, you work always in the dark.
Thankfully, after almost 4 years of doing this, I have garnered enough of a readership that the fraction of the Remnant is significant enough that I receive regular feedback about the work I put out.
But, I tell you…that first year or two was like a desert.
It was comment or e-mail that I would receive once in a blue moon that kept me going.
That, and support from my Mother and Wife, which has been unceasing from the very beginning.
Without them, I am not sure what I would be today.
So, what is the secret to success?
It’s actually rather simple.
Difficult, but simple.
Find out who you are. What moves you. What you don’t need money or a pat on the back to continue pursuing.
Share your work with the world. You can pick any platform or medium.
Keep going.
In my opinion, this is an easier strategy than chasing engagement metrics and analytics.
You can leave that for those who don’t care so much about what they are doing, and are more concerned with the reward that comes for doing it.
On the other hand - if you are solely concerned with the approval of the masses…Then, go for it.
But let’s not fool ourselves or others into thinking you are anything more than that.
I consider myself extremely lucky to have found you and your insightful writings early on. It appears we were in the same boat, paddling to shore together. Thank you for being a Remnant. We, the other remnants, as elusive as we seem to be, are all out here. Cheering you onward.
Dear Remnant M.D.,
Thank you for sharing the story of how you started writing on Substack. I’m glad I found you and that I can call myself part of the Remnant. Your writing informs me and delights me. I’m glad you love what you’re doing. It means so much to us, your Remnant Readers. ❤️