From One Failure to Another!

This entry is written as a part of AW January Blog Chain. Theme: "Writing". Laurie has an excellent entry, The Writer's Path. Here is mine:

Throughout my student life, I was a good student. I was always one of the top students in the class and like most good students; I had little idea about failure. I always wanted to be a journalist from my childhood. I started writing in newspapers and magazines at the age of 20 (1995) and I got a taste of failure perhaps for the first time.

It took quite a while for me to understand that writing in the newspaper was entirely a different ball game from what I was doing in university. The editors were not interested about my writing and my ideas. They even did not see anything exceptional in me. I have to admit that it was a bit difficult for me to accept this kind of neglect and sometimes, I felt too much frustrated. I tried for 3 months in 1995 and after I saw that only 5 of my articles/features out of nearly 30 were published, I got fed up and stopped trying. However, the good thing is that I did not lose my dream of becoming a journalist.

So, I again gave it another shot in August 1997. I had almost the same result- even worse. However, this time, I was mentally prepared. I was determined to continue as long as it takes and it took nearly 9 months. After 9 months, I got a much needed break in May 1998. I felt very happy but that was not the end of the story.

I have seen many ups and downs in the last 10 years. I have experienced a number of failures. I have often failed to earn enough money from writing to pay my bills. So, I did many things. I was a university teacher for few years. I taught students at home, did a lot of ghostwriting and did lots of other things.

I started professional blogging in March 2006 and at first, I had hardly any success. The most important part of professional blogging is to get a lot of page views. It was a scary thing for a person like me who had little knowledge of marketing. I was determined to keep on trying and for the last 20 months, I have worked 12 hours a day without taking any holiday. Even 12 hours was not enough at the beginning. For first 6 months, I had less than 15,000 page views per month. For a professional blogger, this was not a good sign. I got the much needed break after one year. I am not that successful in blogging yet but I earn enough money to pay all the bills and then save some.

I have learnt a few lessons in my quest from one failure to another. The first important thing that I try to remember these days is the value of being persistent. You have to keep on trying as long as needed. I also have realized the value of having a dream. Many of my friends and relatives felt that I was a lousy dreamer and sore loser in life. They did not suffer like me because they had no dream. The dream will help you to go through the rough patches of life. However, the most important lesson that I have learnt is that you must learn to appreciate failure. I am happy that I have gained this wisdom now after years of failures. In fact, to me, failure has a new meaning now. It is an essential part of growing. I have achieved modest success in blogging. If I want to remain as a mediocre blogger then I do not need to do anything special. If I want to grow and do something bigger then I have to experience some failures again.

There is another valuable lesson that I have learnt- the importance of relationship. I am deeply grateful to my wife for supporting me in my failures. She had to sacrifice a lot. Perhaps the biggest sacrifice was to get married and then love and support a man without any ambition and prospect. She never complained for the fact that since the day I started professional blogging, I did not take her any place or even in the wedding day, I wrote an entry in my blog.

Then, there are two of my students to whom I am a big hero. They admire me a lot but more than that, they support me in everything. Thus, I am lucky that even in all the failures, I have managed to get some good people.

Thanks a lot for reading about my failures.

Next in line is: Dawn at Anything That Pays

The participating blogs in this AW Chain are:

• living my life all over again
• Spontaneous Derivation
• Jenn Hollowell: Working Writer
• Peregrinas
• Techtainment
• Anything That Pays
• Polenth's Quill
• wfg thinks out loud
• Twisted Fantasy
• Spittin' (out words) Like a Llama
• A Thoughtful Life
• The Speakeasy
• Virtual Wordsmith
• The Writer's Round-About
• Copious Notes
• Tennessee Text Wrestling
• Writings

awchain