Learning’s Great, but Eventually You Need to Become a Doer
You can spend a lifetime learning. In fact you can go to the same event on a yearly basis and learn something new everytime you show up because every year is a unique experience. However, there comes a point in time when you have to shift your primary emphasis from learning to doing.
I pasted something to a Facebook group not too long ago with the purpose of organizing a few local authors, that share the same publisher, to work together to run a booth at a local book festival. The idea was to put the booth under the name of the publisher’s name so that we could lower the cost per author. One of my good friends told me she wanted to go, but she was considering flying out to Los Angeles to attend an industry conference she’s already been to on several occasions. Besides going to an event that’s total cost is significantly greater to attend, my friend Patty would be foregoing sales revenue to attend an event on the pretense that she might learn something new. Personally I don’t believe enough new material will be provided to justify skipping a local book festival.
Funny enough this really is common place behavior for authors. Patty doesn’t shy away from sales opportunities, but some authors I know would willingly stand in front of a firing squad before willingly interact with the public. So for most people conflicting events provides a rational justification for avoidance. Avoidance can become a dangerous defense mechanism to success, if left unchecked. If you refuse to ever confront the things that make you uncomfortable you’ll suffer a fate worse than failure, avoidance leads to mediocrity and irrelevance. Don’t confine yourself to a life of mediocrity, be a Doer!
© Christopher L. Hedges and AverageJoesStory.com, 2015. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Christopher L. Hedges and AverageJoesStory.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
