I Write to Inspire

When I started seriously writing back in my teens, I could’ve never imagined the road it would take me down. When I defined myself as a writer way back when, I imagined an easy life in a cozy chair with a pipe hanging from my mouth.

That’s right. I thought I’d end up as an academic. It was my impression that unless you made it big as a novelist that’s the only thing you could do with writing. And I thought it would be an easy road.

Was I mistaken or what?

It was stupid for me to think that I’d simply call myself a writer and — poof! — there was my golden ticket. Nothing in life works out quite like this (except maybe the lotto, but even that spells disaster for most winners).

Writing, and more specifically, being a writer, takes hard work. It takes dedication and years of experience.

And yet writing is essential. The great leaders of the world know how to communicate well. Richard Branson’s blog, Steve Jobs’ commencement speech, Elon Musk’s 35 million dollar book deal.

Good writing is the foundation of strong communication, and strong communication leads to good writing.

On a smaller scale, we are all writers in some fashion or another. We send emails daily, we craft proposals, we build task lists. If our writing lacks clarity, we will fail to motivate others, to inspire the actions we desire others to take.

My official title is now ‘marketer.’

Somewhere along the line, writing lead me to blogging, which lead me to web development, which lead me to marketing. But I see myself as a communicator.

My primary job is to write the bones of much of the communication my company has with its customers. Web pages, social media posts, eBooks, articles, infographics, videos, and more. Some of these don’t even end up looking like writing when they’re finished, but words are there at the foundation. They’re the scaffolding that allows these things to exist. Writing is essential to making any of this communication coherent and complete.

And it’s funny that I call the people I write for ‘customers’ here, because in truth I see them as friends and colleagues. I want them to succeed. Every word I write is carefully chosen to help them learn how to achieve their goals. With every sentence I hope to start a conversation or ignite an idea.

I write because I want to inspire others.

I started writing because I felt it was a way to enrich my own life. It allowed me to step back and dissect this crazy world we live it.

And now writing allows me to converse with others in a thoughtful way on a daily basis. Who would’ve ever thought writing could lead to such fantastic things?