Postcard from Barbara
When Nick Williams and I were first getting to know each other, I asked him, “So are you a writer who speaks or a speaker who writes?” He smiled, shook his head and admitted he wasn’t sure of the answer.
I knew my answer, however, since I’d been pondering it for a very long time. When I began my first business, The Successful Woman, my vision was to create personal growth seminars for women. It was a radical notion at the time when all such material was written by men, for men.
It wasn’t long after I launched that I realized participants could benefit by having on-going support once the seminar was over. And so The Successful Woman newsletter was born. I knew nothing about creating such a publication, but found a helpful print shop owner who explained the mechanics.
The bigger challenge, of course, was that I had never considered being a writer. I jumped in reminding myself that I could only learn by doing. Before long, I had a substantial list of subscribers (who kept me going) and some surprising national publicity that brought more opportunities.
As you may have noticed, we live in a world that seems to run on routine. Most of us grew up with a Life Planning Program that went like this: 1) get an education, 2) get a job, 3) stay put, 4) live predictably ever after.
Happily, more and more of us are exchanging that Routine Life Plan for something more exciting and satisfying. That something more frequently involves trading predictability for discovery.
Running an evolving business gives repeated nudges for not staying put. You quickly learn, if you’re paying attention, that new skills and perceptions lead to new invitations to explore and learn.
Best of all, you learn that who you are today is not who you have to be tomorrow.
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