Blog for Yourself

A couple of months ago my good friend and marketing consultant Stephen King came into my office and offered this advice: 

"You need to start a blog. It's good for Search Engine Optimization and blogging will improve your web presence for Doxcycle and Trilogy Software."

I paused for a second, and then responded. "First of all, I don't like writing. I'm not good at it. It takes me forever to write a paragraph, and when I'm done I'm not happy with it"

"Second, what am I going to write about? Third, who is going to read it?"

Steve went back to his work, and I thought that the conversation was over. Case closed.

About a week later Steve came back to me and tried again:

"You need to start a blog.  It's your social responsibility to other software entrepreneurs. You read Seth Godin and Eric Lippert, right?  You should be paying it forward. Write about your journey. Tell a story for the next generation of people who want to start their own business."

Again I responded:

"You're just making the task even more daunting. I don't have insights on the scale of either Seth or Eric. I ask you again, who is going to read this blog?"

Steve replied, "You are." And with that, he returned to his work.

I didn't think about what he said again until later in the week, when my Mother came over to help out with my children. Mom reminded me of a story from when I was growing up:

When I was about twelve years old, we lived on a farm nine miles east of Carstairs, Alberta. That spring, Mom asked me to clean the leaves, gravel and debris that collected in the lawn on either side of our 400-metres-long driveway. She knew I was an aspiring businessman, so she offered me $20 to do it.

I needed the $20 to buy some tools that I wanted so I agreed. I grabbed the rake and headed to the end of the driveway to start working. I raked for about 45 minutes, and then looked up towards the house and saw an ominous 360 meters of leaves and gravel. It was discouraging.

I put my head down again and got back to work. A few minutes later mom brought me a drink and offered to help.

"This looks impossible", I said, ready to give up on the $20.

"You are looking at it the wrong way", Mom says, and then pauses for effect. "Look back and see all you've done."

I looked back and saw a couple garbage bags full of leaves, and about 45 meters of neat and tidy lawn on either side of the driveway.  It was much more motivating.

"It looks pretty good!" I agreed. So I set back to work, and every fifteen minutes or so looked back on the work that I'd done as an inspiration to keep going.

It worked. I kept at it and finished the job. (Thanks Mom!) 

At Trilogy Software, we're near the beginning of our project. When I look at our product road map, I see a lot of work, including some problems we don't yet know how to solve. It feels ominous, and sometimes a bit discouraging.

And, that's when I heed Mom's advice. I blog for myself. Recording the challenges and the victories of a small startup. And on those discouraging days that come along now and then, I've got something to remind me how much we've done already.

Comments

[Canute Bigler]

Definitely subscribing to your blog, I'm very interested in reading what you have to write.