A lot of people have blogs where they talk about their businesses, their lives, whatever. A lot of those people who have business blogs use them as a marketing tool to make their life sound great, which in turn could generate more customers and more revenue. Professionals and Experts tell small business owners to start a blog about your business, because it keeps you engaged and expands your influence. So I'll let you in right now on the first secret of this blog:
That is part of why I'm doing this.
Now I know what you're thinking... "Wait, if he tells us that, isn't the magic lost? Didn't he just show everyone his cards?" Yes, yes I did. But if that was the only reason I was doing this, I'd be just like every other businessman... and I am not like every other businessman.
For starters, I'm young. Young enough to still believe in dreams, impossibilities, and high and lofty ideals. I'm young enough to believe that integrity and honesty are the most important attributes of a person, and that taking steps just to get ahead and make more money makes you a slime ball.
I don't want to ever be a slime ball.
That is also part of why I'm doing this.
I was listening to this audio CD the other day, and the speaker said "If you aren't doing something interesting enough to write about... find another job." That got me thinking... What I'm doing is definitely interesting enough to write about, and there probably are not a lot of people who would write about it with my level of honesty and transparency. I realized that my voice as a writer would probably ring out louder in this field, since I don't approach things like most people in this field.
I want to reveal truth in a way no one else is doing.
That is part of why I'm doing this.
I began to think about how many business owners are just like me, how many of us poor souls have started something and gotten way over our heads, and it seems no one is there to help. So many "experts" are telling us to keep going, and giving us inspirational bullsh*t, (I don't really curse in my posts, but I couldn't think of any other way to put it) and we feel just as discouraged as before. We feel like we can't do it, like it isn't working, like we are laboring in vain. A "good" business blog would downplay all that and focus on the positives, or worse- tell you to downplay all of that and focus on the positives. While this has some truth to it, I believe it's more complicated than that, and that you cannot arrive where you hope to be until you face the reality of where you are. People need to know that they are not alone, that things are hard and ugly sometimes, and that they can go from the muck of despair to the top of their business if they stick with the process.
People need to know they're not alone, and that is part of why I'm doing this.
All this is really a creative process. You might not think of it as that at first, but it is. To do something you have never done, you have to become something you have never been, and becoming is always a process. That process is messy, and it's chaotic. That's why I call it "The Creative Process." You are in the process which is creating you into a new kind of person, and creating your business into a thriving wealth machine. It's as if you are painting your new life on a blank canvas. That process is filled with "colors," some which you discover, some which are thrown onto your canvas against your will, and some which you learn to use. In this blog, we are going to honestly look at the process, and leave no color or method untouched. I hope to share the paints and tools of my life with all of you, and to receive wisdom, experience, and community from all of you. We all have something beautiful to bring to the table, even if to us it just looks like that awkward orange color that doesn't seem to go with anything.
We all have the chance to become something beautiful together,
and that is why I'm writing this blog.
I hope you will join me in the journey. I hope you will be a painter with me, not just watch me paint. I hope you will find encouragement here, along with honest evaluations of the hard stuff, and will be empowered to keep running with me, until we all paint our masterpiece.
Because it is never about the money.
It's about the dream.
