Courage toward uncertainty

Courage, reach, and growth can strengthen our public-facing writing — and motivate us to be more generous communicators

Over the last year, I have regularly read books on entrepreneurship. About one book a month.

Why am I enthused by entrepreneurship?

Do I tinker with tech in a Silicon Valley garage?

No.

Do I run a small business?

No.

I write professionally. And after bombarding myself with entrepreneurial principles and stories, I realized that to be an effective public writer — and communicator — it helps to think entrepreneurially.

Why entrepreneurship? First, as gestured by startup experts, like Eric Ries, Reid Hoffman, and Dorie Clark: entrepreneurship extends beyond the garage-to-market success stories of Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg. It transcends seed money, VCs, or making mounds of cash. Rather, entrepreneurial thinking can help us strategically get stuff done. It can motivate an active writing lifestyle. And, it can help us “write-to-be-read” by super-charging our zeal toward getting our words into the world.

Several components fuel this mindset:

Journeying this uncertain terrain, entrepreneurial writers seek to win over readers by providing value. But, when consulting entrepreneurial principles, we should be careful to not lose ourselves in the process. Balancing “us” with “them” clearly involves risk. However, the entrepreneur mindset isn’t meant to deter us from risk. Quite the opposite. Instead, it can help us enjoy risk. It can even excite us about risk. Armed with this mindset, an entrepreneurial writer bravely marches into uncertain spaces and confidently shares their writing with others.

It may not be romantic to say, but effective writers sell their product: both on and off of the page. They aim their writing toward demand or some type of curiosity. This requires knowledge of the market — which ultimately requires knowledge of the audience. To this end, the entrepreneurial mindset pushes us to fully consider the persuasive dimensions of our writing — that is, how we encourage people to invest time in reading our work. We can think of these readers as “reader-investors.”

Successful entrepreneurs seldom view their startups as merely “cute hobbies”; instead, they take their startups seriously. They recognize the willpower and commitment necessary to transform vision into reality. Similarly, as writers, we can see our own writing as a serious enterprise as well: one that is driven by firm resolve.

Writing-to-be-read requires both attention and activity. It involves actually writing rather than dreaming about writing. And, once we finally complete a book or article, we should fully — and outwardly — celebrate it. Rather than hide it away in a desk drawer or share it with a few friends, we should share it with the world — that is, readers who we don’t personally know. In other words, we should throw it against the wall to see if it sticks. If we feel even bolder, we can also pitch it to an acquisitions editor. Because, why not? What’s the worst that can happen? We’re rejected? If so, then we pitch it to someone else. No big deal.

Will we sometimes gain traction? Sure. And that’s exciting. Will we sometimes fall short? Sure. But that can be exciting too — depending on our willingness to learn. Much like any successful entrepreneur, we can — as Dorie Clark promotes — “test-drive our paths.” We can embrace our writing endeavors as experimentation. We can adjust to particular driver seats and gauge how the gas pedals feel under our foot. As such, we learn from the experiences. If we seek feedback from our experimentation, we can grow forward, refine our habits, and teach ourselves to be better writers.

I’ve been publishing for over ten years now. And writing has never been more fun for me than now. Why? Once I internalized entrepreneurial principles, I’ve been able to more openly reach others outside of my profession. This openness makes writing exhilarating — and it makes the missteps exhilarating too. But most of all, an entrepreneurial mindset balances a win-win dynamic. It requires that we generously provide value to a range of readers while we also grow alongside them.

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