Two Risks for Influence

Things I’ve learned from blogging 500 days in a row . . .

Writing is risky work. (Insert any form of communicating, really.)

The first risk is giving thoughts form. In my head they are safe. They can remain jumbled and disconnected. They can swirl around with no commitment and no consequence. As soon as I articulate them, I subject them to the limitations of words and the rules of writing. But the risk has a payoff. As soon as I get my ideas on “paper”, I can see them, there in front of me, from a new perspective. One of the gifts of writing is that I can now legitimately hold and examine what once was safely tucked away and ephemeral.

The second risk is that it invites others to hold and examine those ideas, which is to say that writing is always an invitation for criticism. It takes courage. But this risk has a payoff, too. While it opens my thoughts to criticism it’s also an invitation to dialogue. When I write, I’m always implicitly saying, “Here’s what I have now; take a look, and tell me what you think.” It’s dangerous because it's relational.

Writing is risky.
In private, it allows me to examine my own thoughts.
In public, it allows others to examine them, too.

Both are essential steps to having influence.