Hi friends, ????????
The idea of personal blogging has been in my mind for some time, but never could I get the courage to start writing. It the new year time of 2021 and the perfect time people start new things, so I convinced myself to put out on the internet, hoping one day I would become the Virat Kohli of internet blogging (For some of you who don’t know Virat, he is the most successful Indian cricket player).
There was this constant battle between me and my mind asking following question when I think about putting myself out in the internet.
- Who am I to put content online with no such remarkable life experiences or successful career?
- Who and why would someone on the internet read my post?
- What do I write about when everything is available on the internet?
- What will my friends and family say if they discover this blog? Will they make fun of me?
- What if my language, grammar, presentation suck?
These are the fears/questions I faced whenever I thought about starting a blog. Even though I am 100% sure that these would-be same things people faced/still facing who is putting themselves out to the world through any medium.
That’s when I came across the book, ‘Show your work’ by Austin Kleon. It’s a small book, maximum read time would be less than 3 hours for anyone. I highly recommend this book to anyone who fears the public but wants to show your product to the world.
The book starts by saying that it’s the time of internet and people love to see the journey and behind the scenes stuffs just like the end product. Before there was no medium to share the process of creation, just the end product (say a book or a painting) was shared. People want to know how it is created. Sharing it creates more audience with common interest. Apart from that, sharing your process is the best way you can learn something new. (Now you know why I shared my 2021 goal to become TypeMaster2021 to achieve a remarkable typing speed of 100 wpm.) Your audience can also become your accountability partner and can sometimes guide you with more resource to learn. For that you should be findable. It’s absolutely no cost post process for anyone to be findable in this era of social media and internet connectivity.
Austin Kleon also says that beginners are lucky. They have a very little to lose, can try anything, make mistakes, learn from it and only lack the formal training. He also uses the following quotes to remind us that life is short and don’t wait until we master the skill we like to showcase.
“All of us are amateurs. We don’t live long enough to become professionals”
Charlie Chaplin
“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life.”
Steve Jobs
I was also worried about the fact that I am a not a genius like William Shakespeare or Albert Einstein, to create original contents. The book says that the internet is a copy machine. Original content is a fraction of the entire internet. We don’t worry about copying others content. Actually, we should aim at making our content worth copied by others. It’s all about collaboration and refining your product. Take ideas and get influenced from numerous sources and then sprinkle your final touch to it.
These are just a few of the main ideas of the book ‘Show your work’ by Austin Kleon, which gave the energy to start this blog. I am planning to start a book review/thoughts series on this blog. Soon I will post detailed thoughts here and update the link at the bottom. I guess this would help someone, someday to showcase their work.
With love
Sreedeep