A song with twelve plays was still worth making if it taught you the next one. Views aren’t the only payoff.

Numbers measure reach, and reach is only one thing a piece of work can give you. The other return is what it left in you: a chord change you now own, a lesson about structure, the proof that you can finish. That part shows up nowhere public, and it compounds. Judging only by audience throws away most of what you actually earned.

After the next thing you make, write down two things you can do now that you could not before. Keep that list where you can see it. Then start the next one quickly, since the lesson only pays off if you make something else.