Saturday, February 5, 2011

Succeed In Writing Because You Love It




Your gifts will make room for you and bring you before great people - Proverbs 18:16

This post is just a kind reminder of what you already know.

Don't worry about agents, publishers, genres nor question who will read your book. That is stinking thinking and ultimately counterproductive to success.

Just write it. Make your story the best it can be and don't worry about the results. After all, we can't control results. To think so is a grand illusion. We do have control over the chapters we write, the characters we create and the overall input we invest in the written product.

The only secret to success is to do what we love. We must do what we were born to do. God did not give us talent to waste. He gave us this gift so that we can positively impact the lives of others. The above subtitle bears repeating. Your gifts will make room for you and bring you before great people.

There is a space reserved at the top for each of us who live out those most viable principles of success. A study of extremely successful people share those principles in common. Here they are.

* Do what you love.
* Do your very best.
* Reach out to others with an open mind and pleasing personality.
* Give of your talents freely to help others.

Many successful entrepreneurs tend to give the above advice in many ways. Stanley Marcus, founder of Neiman Marcus stores will tell you "Take care of the product and it won't come back. Take care of the customer and she will."

He's simply giving us his perspective on the above formula: love what you do and create the best product possible. The customer, in this case, our readers will come back because we have loved our work and made it the best it can be.

On the contrary, do not write anything you don't believe in. Here's a case in point. Last year I was asked to ghostwrite a book for a handsome amount of money. I needed the money but I rejected the offer because the nature of the book was opposed to everything I believe in. It would have been a poor use of time and spiritually unproductive to entertain the thought beyond the time it took to thank the gentleman for the opportunity and dismiss the idea. I am not bragging, as it was emotionally taxing to have been exposed to an offer to which I am so opposed, especially because it involved a good deal of money. Here's my point. If we compromise on principle, we block out that space in which our gifts are creating room for us.

There is a new book entitled, "Do You," by Russell Simmons. Mr. Simmons is a man who was born broke, surrounded by shady characters in business, yet he became a billionaire at a relative young age. I plant to read this book, thoroughly during my next trip to the library and I will probably purchase it for my collection.

see http://www.globalgrind.com