The FIRE Fame Cycle

The FIRE Fame Cycle

At first you won’t. And then you will a little bit. And then a lot. The FIRE fame cycle may just overtake you. If you are a content producer, at least. The washing machine will swirl you around and then most likely spit you out. The question in the end is will you come out more clean or more dirty? Or put another way, will you find the happiness you are looking for or just more treadmills.

I don’t pretend to know the answer. Nor did I ever reach the lofty heights. But I had a taste for a moment in time. Now you might see me as just a guy who writes on the internet and puts out podcasts. I’m sure you could use more cynical terms if you wanted to. Washed out. Tired. Burned out?

Maybe yes and maybe no.

Yearning

Yearning is the glorious beginning of the FIRE fame cycle. Sitting on the sidelines or maybe just dipping a toe in tentatively. You feel like you are a no one wading into a stream of golden fish. Your scales are so plain. You brush up against your superiors and yet they keep moving.

Somewhere in there you learn to move faster too. Some of the sparkle rubs off on you. You become the beacon, albeit humble, to a brand new swimmer. Your eyes look up above, but so blessedly do the eyes of those below you.

Before you know it, there is a following. A beginning. Possibly enough to garner some attention. Some much hoped for attention.

Exposure

Sweet. Glorious. Exposure. To some, the best part of the FIRE fame cycle. You can be anything and go anywhere during the fantastic path of becoming. Success swirls around and leaves a sweet taste in your mouth.

Until the sweetness turns into bitter. Either the attention keeps growing or it doesn’t. Some give up and disappear. Others grasp at more and more desperate measures to be heard and seen. Yesterday’s record page views is tomorrow’s version of failure.

Your words get picked apart, turned upside down, and occasionally used against you at the whim of occasional individuals goading crowd think.

Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

The Choice

Now we come to the true decision tree of the FIRE fame cycle. There are three paths that lie ahead.

Path 1: fight and fight for more notoriety, money, or success.

Path 2: Quit and decide that this road is not for you.

Path 3: Search for happiness, connection, and joy that being part of the conversation allows you. And ditch everything else.

Final Thoughts

I think path 1 is like continuing to work full time. It is stressful, anxiety producing, and leads to less freedom instead of more. Path 2 is an option, but feels like it wastes all the personal capital that has been invested already. Path 3 might just be solution to the FIRE fame cycle woes.

Not very glamorous or glitzy.

Maybe not even changing the world.

But still making a difference.