Burn it Down When You Get to the Top

A story about life inspired by ManyStories

Andy Spears
2 min readJan 23, 2024
Celebratory email from ManyStories

What happens when you get to the top?

Do you celebrate?

Do you do a little dance?

Do you just keep going and see if the top gets any higher? The top of the top, perhaps?

Or, do you just decide to burn it all down?

These were the questions I asked myself when I got the above email from ManyStories.

Sure, I’ve had “Top Ten” writer status several times at the content-sharing site.

But this past week, I earned #1.

Surely, this means all kinds of Medium cash will flow my way.

Ok, so ManyStories is great and all, and I’ve definitely come to enjoy the positive emails they send out.

But this latest “recognition” won’t change my writing life.

It might mean a few more views on my content, a few more dollars earned.

But receiving the email caused me to pause.

It made me think about what has happened in the past when I’ve reached a high point in my life or work.

Did I sometimes savor the moment? Sure.

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Andy Spears

Writer and policy advocate living in Nashville, TN —Public Policy Ph.D. — writes on education policy, consumer affairs, and more . . .