Today’s Wordsmith Deck question is, “If all jobs paid the same, what would you choose to do?”

 

I am among the luckiest persons on the planet.

 

My answer is, “Write.”

 

And that’s what I do for a living.

 

It took me a long time to decide to just “go for it and the consequences be damned,” but as soon as I started writing full-time as a profession (in 2007), I succeeded (not wildly, not revenue-busting, but staying afloat), and then I realized I could probably have started a lot sooner.

 

I’ve been a writer since grade school, and a nationally published feature writer since 1969, but I never truly believed in my ability to overcome the obstacles that being a professional (adequately paid) writer required.

 

And that’s the thing about having doubts, or listening to other people’s doubts and fears:

until you shut them out entirely and just  go for it, you never will! 

 

You’ll think, “It’s too hard…it’s pie in the sky… it’s tilting at windmills…I don’t have what it takes…” or some other lame excuse for not taking the bull by the horns and deciding it’s your fate: win, lose or draw.

 

And how sad is that?

 

I’ve written millions upon millions of words for clients since hanging my shingle as a freelance writer in 2008 after working for a full year as a fledgling copywriter for an on-hold phone messages company (and winning their Employee of the Quarter the last two quarters I worked there).

 

Am I rich? No.

 

Am I happy?  Absolutely!!!

 

I’m doing what my spirit has always called me to do.  That’s what makes me feel rich and fulfilled.

 

So answering today’s Wordsmith Deck question has been easy, and a reminder.  I’m one lucky dude!

 

Yes, it took courage, and ignoring my fears (and others’ fears), so I’ll pat myself on the back for that.

 

I’ll also pat myself on the back for the decades I spent writing without the thought of getting paid for it, because it was those years that honed my skills and taught me HOW to communicate, how to string words together in just the right way to communicate clearly and concisely, without wasting words.

 

But the fact that the Information Age and the Internet came along at just the time that my skills were fully developed was sheer luck.  I would still be writing in my journals for posterity instead of helping clients communicate and win in their niches if not for those two serendipitous changes during my lifetime.

 

That’s where the luck came in.

 

But it was the preparation in advance of the opportunity that made the difference between my success and failure as a writer. 

 

If I had hung up my pen and keyboard and not kept at it, honing my skills, I would not have knocked clients’ socks off. Nothing I wrote would have converted for them and my testimonials page wouldn’t exist.  I’d have been shut down and snuffed out by unhappy, dissatisfied clients instead of uplifted and touted by delighted ones.

 

My message here is that there’s a fine balance between just throwing up a shingle and proclaiming yourself to be a terrific provider without fully preparing to delight in advance, and being able to say, “Here I am!” and document the value you’ve brought (or can bring) to your target audience.

 

I see far too many people putting the cart before the horse and shooting themselves in the foot. Online reviews last for-freaking-ever…and it’s bad reviews that send people screaming for the exits. Great providers have very few of those.  I have none (yet!) and hope never to get one.

 

My Lowest Ratings

 

My lowest ratings (out of 5 stars possible) have all been 4 stars.  4 is still a terrific, positive rating, even though it rocks me back on my heels, because my aim, always, is to under-promise and over-deliver, to exceed every client’s expectations. When I get a 4, I feel I haven’t done that.

 

The very few 4’s I’ve received (that I consider legit) have been because I didn’t exceed their expectations. But had they told me so before ending the contract, I would have redoubled my efforts and kept at it until they were delighted. That’s just me. They weren’t on tight deadlines. There was time for revisions.

 

Illegitimate 4-Star Ratings

 

 

One person confessed that she just didn’t believe in giving 5-star reviews ever, no matter how good. (Go figure!)

 

Another said she was completely satisfied and would use me again, and then gave me four stars. (No, she won’t be using me again; my choice. I don’t work with people who shoot me in the foot ratings-wise! As I said, ratings last forever in cyberspace.)

 

Another told me, when I inquired about her rating, that her smartphone wouldn’t let her choose five stars, so she chose 4. ACK!

 

Those three clients alone account for nearly HALF of the 4-star reviews I’ve received since 2007!

 

 

So, yes, I’m in the right career.

 

And yes, I think you can probably get into the creative career you want, as long as you’ve adequately prepared yourself to hit the ground running when the opportunity arrives.

 

You can’t just sit and dream about it. You have to keep doing it whether you get paid to do it or not. And that isn’t even hard to do when you love what you’re doing.

 

Writing has always been a delight to me, never a chore.  That’s why I knew I was designed to be a writer.

 

As the saying goes, “Do what you love and you’ll never have to work a day in your life.”  (Work as in “sweat, fret, or grudgingly engage just to earn a paycheck.”)