Those who speak French may know that the origin of the English word “essay” comes from the French word “essayer” which means “to try.” What many may not know is that the man who coined the term and popularized the writing genre was French philosopher Michel de Montaigne, a peculiar man with an even more peculiar view on life.

I first encountered Montaigne through my reading for a philosophy class that examined the relationships (mostly through letter-writing) between famous male philosophers and their less-famous (but not less-important) female counterparts. Reading excerpts from Essais, which is a total of three books 107 chapters, ignited the writer and amateur philosopher within me.

But even though he was writing during the 1500s at the time, his topics and his approach to various subjects like vanity, death, love, and imagination were relatable and digestible to me.

Essais is in its simplest form an autobiography of a French statesman. But his use of personal anecdotes to deconstruct intellectually rigorous topics, his affinity for digression, and his constant need to contradict himself makes Essais so much more than that. It is a book of human error (while also examining it). And unlike other philosophical ruminations, it doesn’t rest on pretense on stature. No wonder he influenced some of the most brightest writers and philosophers like René Descartes, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and William Shakespeare.

Montaigne’s approach of simply trying without fear, whether it’s his ideas about life or his qualms about traveling, has had a significant impact on my writing. Adopting his no fucks given approach has helped to dissipate any writer’s block or fear I encounter. If any writers are reading this, you know how much of a godsend that is.

So what does this have to do with content marketing?

Through my encounters with entrepreneurs I have found that when to comes to content marketing and marketing in general, many of them are afraid to just try. You can do all the preliminary research you want, but sometimes what works is just putting your content out there and tweaking your strategy and style as you go along.

Because when you’re afraid to just put content out there, the content you do end up producing comes out forced, strained, and inauthentic, which just so happens to be the consumer’s biggest turnoffs.

So become more like a French philosopher from the 1500s. Stop worrying about the possible reception of your content and go out there and try. Try and see what works. And if it doesn’t work, try another method. And again and again until you’ve hit your sweet spot.

You’ll find that you’ll start worrying less and enjoying connecting with your consumers more. And that’s what content marketing is all about anyway.

And who knows? You might do something as innovative as creating an entire new genre. You’ll never know unless you take that first step and try.