Initial Thoughts

Starting this writing business has been an interesting experience for me. Although we've only been in business for about 2 weeks, it seems like it's been longer. It reminds me a lot of how I felt after getting married. The idea, the concept, had been in my mind for a long time which made it seem like a lot of time had passed despite the fact that it had not.

Just like when I got married, I've learned a lot in a short amount of time.

One of the most interesting things I've realized is that how this business goes is completely up to me. I get to set my expectations. I get to not only have my own ideas but to execute them. There's no supervisor I have to check with, no partner I'm required to convince. It's all up to me. There's something liberating about that. Between that realization and people interjecting their own ideas, I've come to realize what it is that I want.

It's funny really. Despite the challenge of these past two years, I've discovered that I want to teach. That's actually the objective of this business. I'm not in it for the money ore resume building. I would much rather know that I'm able to help people become better writers, more confident writers, more passionate writers than to know that I've brought in a 6 figure income for the year.

In fact, I really don't expect to make 6 figures. My audience is your average college student after all. Plus, right now, it's just me. I don't have a team of editors to evaluate papers, tutor, or help me get more clients. If money was the point, then I'm certainly off to a bad start.

Instead, I want to build a community of people who appreciate the importance of writing often and well. I want to build awareness of the intense disservice we do our society by neglecting a writing education. Even the writing education that's out there is too structured. Sure everyone needs some sort of structure to start out, but how easy is it to regress into some version of the 5 paragraph essay rather than just develop an idea fully? It takes so much of the creativity out of writing because no one ever pushes us to go further than that. We often aren't encouraged to push our minds and be open to letting an idea unfold on paper - to just see where it goes and then edit into the necessary structure. I think we could learn a lot about ourselves and whatever idea we're exploring if we wrote with this freedom and intensity more often.

I love writing. I should be writing more - everyday at least. It makes me happier, more contemplative, more engaged in my day and the present moment. I think if more people viewed writing as an adventure or a tool for self-growth and effective communication or an opportunity to expand and express creativity, we would be a stronger society. Stronger intellectually, creatively, and how we relate to one another.

Developing this purpose and passion in my mind has been much more interesting and helpful than anything else I've done for the business in the past two weeks.