Generally, I’m a fan of Elon Musk (although Neuralink is terrifying). I think he’s insanely smart and, especially from a freedom of speech standpoint, I’m glad he bought Twitter (X now, I guess). We can argue about that if you want (and I’ll happily listen to your side) but it’s not really my point here.
What is my point? Glad you asked. I paid for Twitter Blue for a month or two when he first relaunched it. I was curious what he was going to do with it so I figured it was worth a try. Long story short, I don’t pay for X Premium, or whatever it’s called now. The reason? I didn’t find the value in it. What it offered at the time… a blue checkmark (I don’t care), an edit button (again, not that big of a deal and probably should be a free feature), the ability to write longer tweets (I actually find this annoying and rarely click to expand when people do this). Maybe there are more improvements now, but at the time it wasn’t worth it for me. This rant/comic is not really about X or Elon Musk. It’s about providing value.
Whether you run a business or you’re an employee, in your professional life you have to provide value in order to succeed. Nobody owes you a job. People employ you or hire your company to solve a problem they have. If you’re not solving that problem, you’ll no longer have a job. Business is pretty simple that way. It also means that if you work harder and get better you can level up and get paid more. Now, obviously that’s not always guaranteed. I worked very hard for previous employers only to be let go because of things outside of my control. It happens. But the best way to advance your career is to make sure that, no matter what position you’re in, you’re providing value for the person who pays you.
Would I try X Premium again? Yeah, maybe. But my first and current impression of it is that it wasn’t worth my money. Once your client/employer/audience has a perception of you that what you offer isn’t worth their money, it’s really tough to change that. Just something to keep in mind.
Also, if X Premium is now worth the money, or if you’ve had a better experience with it than me, please let me know.
More Artwork…
From the sketchbook… sometimes it can be tough to keep out the distractions:
And here are a couple recent commissions that I did as gifts…
Hey, did you know I draw for money? It’s true, check out the details about Sketch Foundry and if it sounds like something that would be a good fit for you (or someone you know), I’m offering a big discount. If you use the promocode EMAILSIGNUP you can get $200 off any subscription forever!
As always, thanks for the support and I hope you have a great week!
-Brad