Lesson from a Keyboard Key
The Pilot Story
The Backstory
It’s been several years. I still had nothing. Many template starts in various systems, yet I couldn’t wrap my mind around how to fit it in. I worked the angle professionally many times over, but I never figured out how to fit regular content publishing into my personal online presence that was more than 140 characters. Blogging or writing always seemed to escape me and my portfolio.
I’ve always been an enabler of story and content distribution, and I’ve advised how to position content for maximum reach and engagement by channel, but I wasn’t the one who sustained content pipelines over time. I thought to myself, “I’m not the writer or story teller. I help others accomplish their publishing goals.” Am I afraid of writing something that’s not a business case or project charter? No; my time was more efficiently and effectively used connecting content between systems and audiences. That’s where my value creation lived.
So, I moved on to the next thing building the pipes on a web server or social network, so content could flow to have the most impact with the least amount of effort… for someone else. The gap was still there; the desire was still there. I needed to write something. That’s what so many experts advised, so I kept a list of topics and thought about it for a long time — at least a few years — waiting for the moment that it would be time for it to come together.
The Object
It wasn’t until I noticed on my work keyboard that the letter “c” was completely worn off, and it was probably missing for a long time; I hadn’t realized it. I didn’t realize it because I didn’t need it… my hands know where the letters are, and the label on the key didn’t matter anymore. I wondered and thought about my own gap in publishing content… what am I missing? What haven’t I noticed?
The missing “c” was there all along. It just wasn’t labeled, but it worked. Wait a minute. I thought about my collection of ideas, love of symmetry and parallelism, the need to have things organized, and a desire for applying meaning. In the summer of 2015, I was working on my new website design, listening to story podcasts on my way to work, and stumbled across Medium, and I had an aha moment…I need to tell stories. I have stories and lessons not situational posts. I was thinking about it all wrong. My regular posts on my Twitter “micro-blog” satisfied the on-demand, what’s happening moments and that shouldn’t be duplicated in another channel. Who would remember it in a saturated “situational posting” world anyway?
I like to think I have a knack for extracting lessons from situations and objects or benchmarking a scenario and applying what was learned to my own environment. I need to just do it… make the time. That’s what led me to this pilot post. It’s my first stab at creating my line of stories and sharing the lessons I see in one place and applying them to business and life. This story is not perfect, but I guess that’s the point.
The Lesson
What can be learned from this situation? What are the take-aways? Here are a few that I figured out:
- Blogging and story writing should be thought about differently.
- Write “like nobody is watching.” Do it for yourself.
- People remember stories, especially the person who wrote them.
- Write to learn and share knowledge with others. It’s why we exist.
- It takes time to see that the answer may actually lie in the gap.
So, there you have it. This may or may not work, and my approach to sit down and just crank out text as I think might backfire. I will experiment with my story structures, writing style, and objects, in order to find a groove that works. The missing “c” is here.
Written by Shaun Holloway.
