Writing my last little article (on media manipulation) was an exercise in frustration. I had originally started it in Jan and had start-and-stopped on it over half a dozen times.
Finally out of frustration, I cleaned it up best as I could, and posted it into the wild.
Two fascinating things happened:
1. It resonated. I had thought the topic might be a bit too specific/esoteric, but dozens of people replied to my email on it with their analysis and thoughts.
Some guy named Ryan Holiday liked it so much he got it republished on the Observer.
Not too shabby!
2. I got some interesting feedback. A resultant of how coincidences are far easier to see when looking for it, the same theme kept popping up for me –
In that same Ryan fella’s article, this quote:
“How has Iron Maiden lasted through the years? It wasn’t just by making great work—it was by making a lot of it. ”
The Woody Allen quote:
“If you make a lot of films,” he said, “occasionally a great one comes out.”
And via my friend Roland, my favorite of the bunch (by Ray Bradbury):
“Write a short story every week. It’s not possible to write 52 bad short stories in a row.”
As someone who tends to just shrug at quotes, me even noticing one is a big deal, much less three.
Create dammit
When I started writing more frequently on SJO, my goal was to produce consistent output. Along the way, I got a bit too obsessed with making it perfect, which made it a bit too chore-like.
Consider this a reminder, both for myself and you – don’t get too sucked into only putting out perfect things. There’s a lot of learning and creation in just ensuring you have consistent output.
Just Do It
It’s akin to a lot of wantrepreneurs – they way overthink it, when really they just need to be a bit more like Nike and just do it.
An excellent example of this is my buddy James Clear. He’s a relative newcomer to the scene, but he promised to output 2x a week (which he finally reduced to 1x a week last year). I’m sure James will be the first one to admit that not everything was a home run.
The cumulative effort? Oh must millions of visitors every year and hundreds of thousands of email subscribers. NBD.
There is no secret formula. It’s akin to weight loss – simple, but not easy.
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