Some Inspiration For A Friday

As I was scrolling through my social media posts, I stumbled across a message from one of my fellow classmates from high school. Amy Weaver, CEO of Direct Relief was just mentioned in an article for Forbes magazine. Amy is truly an inspiration but I wanted to share her thoughts (you can read the full article here if you wish. FORBES ARTICLE

“Don’t cling too hard to the career path you think you should follow, or focus only on the next logical step up the ladder. Embrace the jumps to the side. You may feel like you are zigzagging, but with each non-linear move, you will gain new skills, meet new people, and collect experiences – these will be your building blocks. When I think about the most pivotal moments in my own career, not one of them was a straightforward promotion or an obvious next step. Each transition was either a lateral move to a new field or location or sometimes even a step backward to create a longer runway. And now as I look back, it feels like I’ve been climbing in a straight line to exactly where I am meant to be.”

As I read her thoughts, I reflected on what it takes to be successful in the publishing industry. I do believe, too often, that many authors are ruining their chances for success in publishing by not really thinking through all of their decisions. 

Amy stresses that we should "embrace the jumps to the side.:" Wow, this is so true. Honestly, you cannot predict what is going to happen in this industry. There will be a lot of "zigzagging" as Amy notes and authors have to go with the flow. You will change editors. Your publishing line may collapse and merge into a new line. Your publisher may go out of business (we hope that is not the case, but it has happened), but as Amy notes, "you will gain new skills, meet new people and collect experiences - these will be your building blocks."

Unfortunately, as I noted, many authors have ruined their success in this business by not appreciating these learning moments. Instead, they hold on to these supposed negative shifts away from the plan THEY wanted to follow. Holding on to these feelings and emotions simply ruins that creative side of your writing you worked so hard to achieve.

I honestly wish I could say everything will go the way you want it to in this business. Heck, I wish everything can go the way you want in everything you do. But I cannot promise that. What I can say, is that everything that occurs in your writing career will be a learning moment. Your job is look at each event in your career, examine what you learned, and use it in your next step in your career!