SiteWhy you should always go for the gold
Last week Linda and I conducted a telephone mentoring session with the writer who’d won the drawing for the free half-hour of mentoring for signing up for our Renegade Writer e-courses. Both of us were impressed with this part-time writer’s magazine credits. We’re talking top-of-the-heap consumer publications that have a certain cachet.
One thing that struck me was this writer telling us how surprisingly straightforward it was dealing with the editor at a particularly snazzy pub. The editor had gotten right back to her, it sounds like edits (if there were any) were painless, and –gasp– the editor was quite nice! Like many of us, she’d assumed that dealing with a magazine of this caliber would be a royal pain in the tush. We wondered aloud that one reason why this writer had such early career success with this market (besides her obvious skills and talents!) is that her competition looks at the masthead and thinks, “No WAY could I ever get in there. I’m sure there are thousands of other writers with more clips/better educations/nicer hairstyles/(fill in meaningless superlatives) they’d want to work with.” So only the audacious grasp the opportunity.
We seem to have some backup with this theory. Last week I was reading The 4-hour Workweek blog and I was struck by Tim Ferriss’s post about why bigger goals equal less competition. I loved this: “If you are insecure, guess what? The rest of the world is too. Do not overestimate the competition and underestimate yourself. You are better than you think.” I’m going to put that up on my office whiteboard since it’s too long to tattoo on my inner arm. Good advice. [db]
8 Responses to “Why you should always go for the gold”
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SJS
Said this on June 23rd, 2008 at 3:53pm:So true.
Monica Bhide
Said this on June 24th, 2008 at 10:56am:I think this has such merit. He is absolutely right and I have the experience and scars to prove it! Each time I have attempted something realistic, I have let myself down. the higher the goals that I set for myself, even if I hit the target halfway, i am always better off then when I started.
Great post.
Courtney
Said this on June 24th, 2008 at 7:36pm:I had read a similar quote somewhere about five years ago…something about how it’s not necessarily the great writers that get published, but the audacious ones. “Audacious” has been my favorite word since. I even have passed on this little tid-bit to others in different situations too. It’s the same for any job, really. It’s not even always the most qualified person for a job, but the most confident (without being OVERLY confident and thus exposing insecurity of course). This is what keeps me going every time I hear myself wonder if I can do something. Like Monica above, I set very high goals for myself because if I meet lower goals I stop there, if I keep working towards higher goals even if I just get halfway there, I’ve probably still gone further than reaching the lower goals.
Fantastic post.
DianaBurrell
Said this on June 25th, 2008 at 10:08am:Courtney, I love the word audacious, too! My mother always used to call me that when I was a kid (and not in a flattering tone) :-/
diane
Said this on July 6th, 2008 at 7:50am:my new year’s goal every year is to be more audacious!
it pays off, too… i’ve cracked some big markets, and my other top tip is to keep chasing up until you hear a no – not every day, but every few weeks. editors are busy people, and emails go astray – my best 3 assignments were the result of chasing up my pitch at least 3 times (persistence pays!) x
Sjs info
Said this on November 20th, 2008 at 6:40am:Until & unless we set goals for ourselves, how will we realize that at the end have we reached the ultimate destination where we wanted to?Setting goals & reaching even to half the mid way of it is a not bad according to me.Atleast now you know that you came across half of it successfully.
Kate
Said this on March 19th, 2009 at 12:04pm:An interesting philosophy. I have to wonder if it will still hold up in this market.
Holly Bowne
Said this on January 7th, 2010 at 9:18pm:Oh, that IS an awesome quote and so true! I’m printing it out right now.