Give It A Try

1 year ago, if I had come across a blog with all the posts I now have on my blog and if the guy running the blog writes daily, I would be trying to contact him to show me how.

Today, I want to tell you that no matter how big your dream is or how tough the journey seems or how impossible your true desire is: Please give it a try. Don't think, "What if I fail?" Think, "What if I succeed, like Mike?"

image: createmixedmedia.com

If I end up not meeting my goal of writing an article a day for the rest of my life, it wouldn't be because I couldn't do it. I'm now 100% convinced I can. It would be because I got too old to type out the article. 8 months ago, I thought I was making a decision I can't pull through, pursing a goal that is doomed to failed. That the day I won't write an article is just by the corner, standing beside reality. And it's just a matter of time before I meet them both.
Now, I believe I have changed that reality.

Definitely, things didn't turn out as I was expecting. In fact, I wasn't expecting that I would still be churning out an article a day by today. I just wanted to give it a try, and if it was getting too difficult, I'd quit. Now, I'm paying monthly to use an email service that mails my daily posts to my esteemed readers. Since posting less technical and boring stuffs that rank high in google search, I have been getting less traffic and making much less advert revenue. I probably won't be getting a cheque from Google this month. I recently got a N20,000 Spectranet modem and paid extra N7,000 for 15GB data bundle. My monthly expense on keeping the blog up is now about N10,000. N7,000 for monthly internet and about N3,000/month for email service.

By the way, the Spectranet internet service is superb. I've used it in Lekki, Ikoyi, VI, Lagos Island, Obalende, Oworonsoki, Gbagada, Maryland, Ikeja, Agege, Oshodi, Dopemu, Iyana Ipaja, Oke-odo, Abule-Egba and Ahmaddiya. The speed is better than any other internet service I've used before, and consistent. I'll recommend it for anyone living in Lagos. You don't need to get the N20,000 MiFi modem. There are cheaper modems. Just that the MiFi one is small (can be put in a large pocket), has a 10hrs battery and allows you to connect your other devices wirelessly to internet.

What have I gained by giving my goal a try?

1. I'm achieving what I was almost sure I would fail at -- writing an article daily
2. I became true to myself. I stopped trying to separate all the different aspects of my life: Work, Facebook, Twitter, Business, Family, Friends and my Dreams. I consolidated them all. Though I still wish my colleagues at work and close relatives won't stumble on my blog. I rarely check my Facebook and Twitter for fear of seeing a comment by someone very close to me. But for once in my life, I'm taking a big step in trying to stop being a different person to different sets of people.
3. Sometimes, I'm amazed by the creative articles I come up with. All my favorite authors are no longer superhuman. I now see myself in the same light I view them. I can feel my writing career growing wings.
4. I'm now able to make real business decisions. Like choosing to write creative articles that won't fetch me traffic and keep pulling down my ad revenue over posting technical stuffs that are boring and will get me traffic and increased ad revenue. I used to think it would be an easy decision, until I actually had to face that fork in the road. I considered pulling the plug on some of the stuffs I was paying for to make the blog more friendly, since I wasn't going to be earning much anymore. After thinking hard and long about it. I decided to even spend more. And to apply that principle to other areas of my life. To separate value from earning potential. To spend more on value than just mere gain.
5. I made new great friends: Nelo, Adeleke, Nosa, Sunday, Idowu, Austin, Ahmad, Sir Asuku, Ahmzy, Olatunji, Hussain, Don, Chichi, Ebubedike, Misbahu, Ugochukwu, Babs, Temi, Alabs, Adebayo, Ife, Ify, Adetollah, Dipupo & DJ White.
6. Best of all, I now try more daring things. Like planning to resign to build my own biz.

So whatever big dream/goal you have, give it a try.