Dec. 17, 2002
A part of me feels genuinely humiliated for sharing two recent (and huge) failures, understanding now why so many people keep their dreams tucked so quietly within them. To admit when something doesn’t work out is not only personally humbling, but publicly embarrassing.
People love to watch other people climbing the ladder of success. They cheer them on enthusiastically and do all they can to be supportive. Once they’re near the top though, it’s all a different story. Suddenly, the world fills up with folk who are hanging around eagerly anticipating your downfall. This, I discovered, is true for me.
During the poll that I recently setup, a couple of wicked letters poured in and while generally I know the authors and their motivations behind such letters, it was still upsetting to read them.
Why someone would take so much time out of their life to sit down and write a long, nasty letter about someone else was mind boggling to me. I wanted to discount it but at first, the letter had weight because I thought on some level they were right; I had failed and perhaps I wasn’t any good at what I was doing.
Then I realised that out of one thousand letters, only two were negative, which meant that I must have done something right.
I began to realise from the answers to my poll who my real audience was and what they really thought of my book. All but two of the answers were a huge YES! All but two of the answers were, “leave the book as it is!” All but two of the answers were, “Thank-you for writing.”
People had let me known that they wanted the same kind of book that I want – what’s already been written on the web. They let me know that they too didn’t want a self-help book or guide. They let me know that something I did, meant something.
Their feedback helped me to realise that although I still have targets to reach I have already accomplished several things of importance. It also means that I have much to lose and that certain people would now be only too pleased to help me lose it. However, I am not going to give them that opportunity.
Walt Disney once said Get a good idea and stay with it. Dog it, and work at it until it’s done, and done right.
With that, I am going to continue to fight to get my book published. I’m going to modify it, enhance it but not take away from the core which is the basic, simply telling of a journey. No gucking it up, no preaching and no morning pages to add to it. It’s my book and I’m going to get it published my way.
Arrogant? No, just determined.