Rich and Famous: Part II - June 18, 2008

As a follow up to my earlier post, I give you this post from Ryan.

Your blog will fail unless you post on it. Your delicious account is worthless if you're not using it. You'll get nothing from Wikipedia without editing. You'll never be the source of conversation if you don't personally start it. Your connections will dry up unless you make consistent contact. And all of the equalizing power of new media is lost on you if you can't step up and extend yourself.

His focus on building a new media resume but really the advice is universal. If you're not involved, you're not going to be successful.

And if I can add something that's not in his post: Don't be afraid to suck. Building a new media presence, writing a novel, starting a business, learning to juggle -- you don't develop any of these skills without actually doing them. And when you first start anything, unless you're some sort of savant, you're going to suck. That's not the worst thing that can happen.

I've been blogging for almost ten years. I started on diaryland, moved to livejournal then to blogger and now I'm under the Rudius banner. And I'm still learning what it takes to have a successful career as a writer. I'm not there yet by any stretch of the imagination but I'm working on it.

Before I could even start working on it though, I had get past my fear of sucking, of putting my work online and letting people read it. I had to get past my fear of walking into a classroom and listening to 14 other people tell me that my work wasn't as perfect as I had imagined it.

So here's your homework assignment. Take one thing you wish you were doing that you're not doing. Now, everyday take an hour (or maybe ten minutes) and do whatever it is. And in a year you'll be able to look back at how much you've improved. Or in a year you'll still be sitting around thinking "wouldn't it be cool if I did _____."

Posted by Ben Corman at 10:27 PM

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I love this. You're absolutely right.
It's better to know now what you need to improve on rather than constantly playing the "What if?" game with yourself. It's a sucky-ass game and nobody ever wins.

I have to say, though, Ben, it's easier for you to say this to other people because you've seen the fruits of your hard work. You're experiencing the rewards that come from overcoming your fears. But for other people, it might be a tougher pill to swallow because when one's faced with a huge mountain to climb, it's easier to just say, "Forget it," rather than accepting the challenge and working through it.

Posted by: Priscilla at June 19, 2008 08:40 PM

Hey Priscilla,

That's what separates success from failure. The ability to just do it, regardless of the consequences and overcome anything in your way.

I might be experiencing some small successes from what I've done so far, but I started in exactly the same place as everyone else. When I started writing I wasn't any good. And when I first submitted a story for other people to read, I had no idea how they would react (and they didn't really like that story).

Rich and Famous: Part II - June 18, 2008

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