"Find what you love to do and make it your life's focus - this will ensure you'll never 'work' a day in your life."?Would that this advice were easily accomplished! I speak in jest a wee bit here; most people know from a very early age where they have a stronger interest and inclination in the business world and they pursue that direction with general success.
I was what you might call a late bloomer in this regard. I knew from a very early age that writing came easily to me. I went through grade school, high school and college years being told by countless teachers and professors that I had a gift and talent for writing. You would think this would have rung some sort of bell over my fair head that the logical thought of, "HEY! Pay attention here - you're supposed to be making a living as a writer!" would magically click. It didn't, as bizarre as that sounds, not for more years than I care to admit.
I spent long, countless years in misery in the retail world...cosmetics, high end jewelry, art galleries, moving eventually into management with many of these. For the longest time I could not get shed of a sales driven environment. While I did that type of work very well, the daily warnings that we were all only as good as our last sale, or only as good as my store's last weeks' numbers just sucked my Soul completely dry.
I spent more years floundering about in the corporate business world until slowly, experiences began to coalesce and it finally became clear to me that this is what I love best...writing. Thus began the next phase in my personal journey to manifest this existing talent into a money making concern. That, also, took longer than I would have preferred. We contrary humans always want success to instantly come as soon as we identify where we want that success to happen, don't we?!
An interesting little sidenote is that all those years of retail misery have turned out to be a blessing in disguise as I now am embarking on a new writing genre for social media management. The endless repetition of role playing for customers, the endless psychological tests taken to ascertain what "type" of core personality I and everyone else had (think Myers-Briggs stuff), the endless demands to come up with snappy, savvy rebuttals to all complaints or refusals to purchase - those have all stood me in good stead with writing equally snappy, savvy marketing copy. File that one in the "Who knew? / Go figure! / Funny how!" column.
It's "funny" how the thing that came the easiest to me my whole life - writing - has turned out to be my true strength, foundation and joy. "Funny" also, that it took so many years of going around and about the Back 40 to get here. It's "funny" how all those detours, although pure misery to experience and plod through at the time, turned out to provide vital, core experiences from which to draw an immediate skillset and plug it into a still very new and growing phenomenon. It's "funny" how all the things I felt, at the time, were distractions and inconsequential nonsense gave me an ability to adapt in a rapid-fire manner to address a given clients' needs for writing appropriate copy as a technical writer in various industry applications.
Finally, the fact that I have what I like to call a Low Boredom Threshold and a boundless curiosity about everything under the sun has proven, yet again, to serve me very well with this new endeavor of writing for social media. I have always had this driving need inside to conquer new territories, learn new things....a need to devour them voraciously until I reached a personal satisfaction level that I knew that topic or experience to the best of my ability. That is one of my favorite things in the world to do. Then I'm on to the next adventure, racing forward to conquer the next challenge. It's "funny" how being a Jill of All Trades has, once again, proven to be a handy proverbial ink well in which to dip my writer's quill.
Is there a point to this ramble? Perhaps it would be to recognize that life's obstacles and road blocks, while at that moment instill untold levels of frustrations, are providing valuable training and life skills from which to draw for future success. It's "funny" how that seems to work out.
