The question that has always vexed me most is when a subscriber
\nwrites and asks:<\/p>\n
“Should I become a freelance copywriter?”<\/p>\n
“Should I start an Internet marketing business?”<\/p>\n
“Should I [fill in the blank here]?”<\/p>\n
Now, if you ask me HOW to do these things, I can give you some
\nsolid guidance.<\/p>\n
But if someone asked me SHOULD they do this or that, I used to
\nthrow up my hands and say – “How can I tell you that? It’s
\nentirely up to you!”<\/p>\n
However, when I was reading the New York Review of Books
\n(3\/7\/13, p. 46) last week, I came across a quote in an article
\nby the late Isaiah Berlin that I think gives a useful answer to
\nthe question of “Should I?”<\/p>\n
Berlin wrote: “One chooses as one chooses because (1) one knows
\nwhat one wants, and (2) is ready to pay the price.” (I added the
\nnumbers.)<\/p>\n
As for the first reason, (1) choosing because “one knows what
\none wants,” I would argue that you already know what you want or
\nyou wouldn’t be asking me if you should do it.<\/p>\n
Conversely, if you have spent years thinking about a thing and
\nhave taken no forward action, you probably don’t want it that
\nbadly.<\/p>\n
It reminds me of a story about Mozart.<\/p>\n
Supposedly a young man in his late teens or so approached Mozart
\nand said “Maestro! I want to write a symphony! Please, please
\nteach me how to write a symphony!”<\/p>\n
Mozart looked him over and said “You’re too young to write a
\nsymphony.”<\/p>\n
“But Maestro Mozart, you wrote a symphony when you were twelve
\nyears old,” the teen pointed out.<\/p>\n
“Yes, but I didn’t have to ask how!” Mozart replied.<\/p>\n
If you really want to do a thing, you will pursue it and do it.
\nIf not, then not. You won’t have to ask me or anyone else
\nwhether you should.<\/p>\n
The second part of Berlin’s statement says that you will choose
\nsomething if you are (2) “ready to pay the price.”<\/p>\n
This price may be:<\/p>\n
** Long years of education, practice, or apprenticeship before
\nattaining your wish.<\/p>\n
** Facing the possibility that, after all that time and effort
\nand investment, you may not succeed.<\/p>\n
** Taking a financial gamble as you invest in your new venture
\nor dream – a gamble you could lose.<\/p>\n
** Sacrificing time with family, leisure time, and other
\nactivities in the relentless pursuit of your vision.<\/p>\n
** Risking the disapproval of friends and family who do not
\nsupport you in your quest and say you are foolish to do it.<\/p>\n
** Becoming so successful that you alienate those friends and
\nfamily members who are less successful and resent your
\naccomplishment.<\/p>\n
** Taking so long to reach your goal that by the time you
\nachieve it the other pleasures of life have passed you by and
\nnow you are too old to enjoy your success anyway.<\/p>\n
If after reading the above list with your eyes wide open, you
\nagree that these are prices you are willing to pay to achieve
\nyour dreams — then I encourage you to go full steam ahead.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, if you quiver with fear after reading this
\nlist or want to put your head under the covers, you may not have
\nthe constitution required for entrepreneurial or artistic
\nventures or similar grand aims. And perhaps you are better off
\nstaying where and as you are.<\/p>\n
One other observation: a psychologist once told me people do not
\ntake action until the pain of their current condition – whether
\npoverty, boredom, fear, or unhappiness — exceeds their fear of
\nchange.<\/p>\n
I think his observation is right on the money.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The question that has always vexed me most is when a subscriber writes and asks: “Should I become a freelance copywriter?” “Should I start an Internet marketing business?” “Should I [fill in the blank here]?” Now, if you ask me HOW to do these things, I can give you some solid guidance. But if someone […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1848,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1848"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=865"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":871,"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865\/revisions\/871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}