Do It Anyway
I’ve always wanted to be a writer of some kind. When I was young, as in 12, I started writing both a book of poetry and little mini plays based loosely on Star Trek, along with another friend of mine. When I got to college, I continued writing poetry, but I also started writing music and song lyrics, as well as taking a shot at composition. After I graduated college, I continued writing music, but now I’d added trying to write a novel of some kind. On this front, I started 3 stories, but never got through the first third of any of them.
As the years went on and I worked on my professional career, all of my writing activity eased off, as I concentrated more on the work than the dream. It wasn’t until I decided to go into business for myself that I resumed writing of any kind. Now I had to create marketing letters and material, and I decided to write a different type of book.
After the book was finally finished, I decided it was time for another kind of writing, and I started writing my first newsletter. This time, though, my intention was quite different. One usually writes poetry, books, and music more for themselves than for anyone else; if someone else enjoys it, that’s a bonus, but it’s not the intention. When one starts writing a newsletter, it’s for someone else to read, because you’re hoping to show your knowledge in some fashion. So I sent the first newsletter out to many people, before requiring subscription, both friends and some business associates. I asked everyone what they thought of it, as my first effort.
To say it was a rousing success wouldn’t be accurate. More than 90% of the people I sent it to didn’t comment at all. Out of those who did, more than half of them absolutely hated it, and out of the half that didn’t hate it, half of them were lukewarm. However, what was funny is that no one hated any of the content, or even commented on it. What they hated was the layout, the editing, some of my choices of words,… in essence, what happened is others had an idea of what they wanted to see, and I hadn’t given them what they wanted to see. What else was interesting is that most of these people disagreed even with each other on what they wanted to see; there was no possible way that I could draw a concensus on what I should possibly change because there wasn’t one defining complaint from everyone who had something negative to say.
At that point, I had a decision to make; give up the ghost and the dream, try to change for everyone, or continue, do things my way, but possibly with a few modifications. I decided on the latter, and I’m glad I did. I’ve found that not everyone can sustain a newsletter in some fashion, and I’ve been going for three years at this point. I’ve found that if one tries to please everyone you won’t please anyone. But I’ve mainly found that the creation of something is more important, more satisfying, and ultimately more enriching, than giving up or trying to be something you’re not. And, after those three years, I seem to have settled into a style that suits me fairly well; sure, the topics don’t always please everyone, but that’s why there are so many other newsletters, and so many other opportunities for someone else to write whatever they feel they want to say.
And it’s that type of diversity that makes the world go around. So, if you’re hesitant to do something because you fear what others might say, do it anyway; what do you have to lose?
