Because… | #AtoZ #LetterB #nonfiction

…I’m playing catch-up.

Hi! I know you stopped by looking for an A-Z post of a short story, or perhaps the craft of writing. Perhaps you even looked so far as to see that my theme is “Catching Up.” Well, while I am spending a couple of days “catching up”, so at least on that point I’m on theme, there may actually be no fiction or writing talk.

Hey, look! Another on-theme post!

I’m writing this later in the day on the same day that I wrote the A post, in case you stop by later and are taken in by my post-dating. I’m writing to share not something relevant to the letter B, unfortunately, but I did have an idea to share.

I read this book that really resonated with me almost ten years ago. It’s called Go for No, it’s a very short read, and it’s probably worth the $4.99 audiobook price, but I don’t know that I’d shell out $10 for the ebook again. I’d be happy to lend my ebook copy to anyone who’s interested, though.

The gist of the story is a guy who sells copiers. He gets so excited about his first sale that he doesn’t meet his quote of 3 copiers per week, and then has excuses for why he couldn’t get it done. And then, for some reason, he changes his method. Instead of shooting for 3 “yes” results, he starts aiming for 20 “no” results. And in his quest for 20 no’s, he ends up getting more than his quota.

Or something like that.

I love this story. So when my boss was at a work convention in January (or February? I forget) and came back raving about Jia Jiang, of course I paid no attention. (That’s just how it goes. I didn’t doubt it was a good recommendation, but who had time?) Until today, when our office put on a Zoom conference call and broadcasted one of Jia Jiang’s talks.

It reminded me hard of Go for No. He talked about his quest to get rejected for 100 days in an effort to stop being scared of being rejected, and then of course it came out that sometimes he didn’t get rejected, and the lessons he learned from that.

So of course I got all motivated to get that first video done for that YouTube channel I set up several days ago and then “got too busy” to do anything with. Because of course I’m not too busy. I have the same number of hours in the day as I did before I started working from home, and as when I was writing stories like gangbusters in 2017. I just am missing the movitation.

Oh, and I’m scared. What if it sucks? (Of course it’s going to suck. I know this, and I’m okay with that.) What if nobody watches? (Of course nobody is going to watch. My friends will, if I tell them, and my parents might, if I start the video for them, but it’s a baby channel! Nobody will watch, and I’m okay with that, too.) What if nobody likes it? (That’s a very real possibility, but I’m not doing this because I want people to like it, but because since I learned that StampyCat worked from home and was able to quit his bartending job by playing Minecraft videos aimed at kids, this has sounded like fun! Maybe fame and fortune is part of it, but I can be realistic, hope for those things, and still do the job because it just sounds like a fun thing to do.)

So yeah. I’ve been recommended Jia Jiang’s Ted Talk, and I’m going to watch that later today (although I expect it will cover similar ground to what I’ve seen), and I’m going to make that video later today, even if that means I record in my kitchen with my family in the next room, listening to every embarrassing word I say.

Wish me luck!