I've been an avid reader of Fred Wilson's blog AVC for many years. He recently posted about his 10 year blogging anniversary and how it's changed his life and how his community of readers keeps him going. This inspired me to finally get one of my big to-dos off of my list. I've always wanted to return to writing, but have kept finding reasons to not do it.
In high school I was the editor of my high school newspaper. I was exceptionally good at writing stories that stirred up trouble in the school. I wasn't exceptionally good at grammar, but it didn't matter... the stories are what people cared about. My theory was the more controversial the topic, the more people would read what I wrote. It worked. Whenever the paper came out, students across the school raced to read my articles. More than once it got me in hot water with school administration, but I remember it as one of my fondest high school memories. I also remember it being one of my first hacks. If you were the editor of the high school newspaper, you didn't have to take senior English and you got an entire period off for "prep". I planned my "prep" to be the last period of the day and instead of prepping, I just went home.
I can't remember where along the way I lost my desire to write... it was probably in the middle of cramming for physics tests on my way to a Computer Engineering degree at Oregon State University. I exchanged writing stories for writing software. I've tried to start writing several times since I became the CEO of CarWoo! and every time I try to start, I get half way through my first post and I end up being overly critical of what I write, or that people won't want to hear what I have to say and I end up filing it away in the "I'll get to it later" directory. I probably have at least 20 of these false starts...
As far as I can tell, there will never be a time that I think what I write is good enough. I'm probably never going to have the best grammar, but I do know that I have a ton of good stories and insight that I know can help and inspire people. I have learned a ton as a founder of two technology startups. I'm an engineer turned CEO, have more kids than most people, value my family, my employees, my customers and have figured out how to make it all work.
While I'm probably not going to be as controversial as I was in high school, I hope people at some point will race to read what I write, like I do when Fred Wilson releases one of his blog posts and when the kids at Ilwaco High School did when the high school paper was distributed.
Thanks Fred.
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special thanks to @millsbaker for reviewing, editing and encouraging me to get back in the game :)