Publishing a blog on a regular basis teaches you many things. You experience the highs, and you also often become the victim of people who try to take pot shots at you and bring you down. However, in the end it depends on how well you can channel your inner Jerry McGuire.
What is it that separates those who succeed from those who fail? It’s the willingness to sacrifice and take a chance on that idea that keeps nagging at you in the back of your head. The one that won’t let you sleep, the one that you think of over and over again, in the shower, in the car, while you’re walking the dog, while your standing in line at the supermarket, the idea that’s like that little annoying cousin at a family picnic who just won’t go away.
Sometimes we just get caught up on the conveyor belt of life, we push something – out the door – to meet a deadline, real or imagined. We sacrifice greatness and quality because we’re lazy or unmotivated. We settle for mediocrity because we’re afraid to grow, afraid to try something new, and most importantly, we’re afraid to fail.
Not everything we do has to be great. Some things just have to be good enough to get the job done. However, sometimes we fool ourselves, we settle for second best, because it’s easier. We push it out and hope that no one notices it’s crap.
I’m lucky. I have friends who will challenge me (sometimes in private, sometimes in public). And when I publish something that doesn’t posses that suigeneris MG quality and flavor, I get called out on it, and that’s good, because it sucks being seen as a disappointment.
What’s the take-away here? If you’re going to do something, do it with gusto. If you’re going to be a filthy rotten low down no good dirty spammer, then by gosh do it right! If you’re going to go the content route, spend the time, build it right, do the research, stomp all over the person who holds the spot ahead of you. They have one page, you have three; they have ten pages, you have thirty. Don’t settle for second.
Won’t whine and complain that nobody pays attention or links to you. You want links, you want attention, stand up and do something hard, do something exceptional, do something amazing, do something note worthy, do something impossible to ignore, do anything other than being a crybaby.
Lastly stop settling for average. Create something new and different, take the risk, take the chance, go the distance. You don’t get to be a Rockstar sitting on your arse trying to be a B-player. The only thing that will do is make you that guy sitting alone in the bar wondering why nobody talks to you, and then coming back home and crying about it on your blog.
This post may have pissed off a few people, and you know what … good! What are you going to do about it? Are you going to take it lying down, or are you going to prove that you have what it takes to be a player. Telling me I’m wrong doesn’t prove anything.
Going off and creating something great on your blog, website or business, now that will prove something, and just maybe you’ll have found your own Jerry McGuire while doing it.
Michael Gray (aka Graywolf) is a search engine optimisation and social media consultant based in
New York . This is an edited reprint (with permission) from a post on his blog,
www.wolf-howl.com.
Need to vent? Have your say… rant [at] australiananthill.com.
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