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You can steer yourself any direction you choose.
~ Dr. Seuss
After I saw this quote, I read a little about Dr. Seuss. Talk about a writing success story. But what I didn't know was that his first book was resoundly rejected by publishers. According to a biography on KidsReads.com, (http://www.kidsreads.com/features/010221-seuss/seuss-bio.asp) his first book And to Think I Saw it on Mulberry Street was rejected by all of the 43 publishers he sent it to. It was only 20 years after that book was (finally) accepted that he wrote the Cat in the Hat that finally made him famous.
In most cases, "different" is considered bad until someone realizes that different can mean creative and interesting. Can you imagine the rejection letters Dr. Seuss must have received? "What's with the stupid rhyming thing and made up words? Kids won't get it." I did find a reference on a freelance writer site that he got one that said, "It is too different from other juvenile books on the market to warrant it selling." (For writers who have received rejection letters, that's just SO easy to imagine.)
The technology industry is no different from any other. Many people were surprised by the success of the Macintosh or even many years later the iPod. Whether publishing or technology, businesspeople want to take the safe path and create stuff that they think people will buy. So they look to what people have bought before. A computer with a "mouse?" That's different; no one would ever want that. Wrong.
As a business owner, it's easy to be swayed by every trend and idea you run across. But as I thought about it, most of the best ideas we've ever had were not widely accepted at first. Even on a personal level, when my husband and I began our relationship many years ago, no less than 8 people told us it would never last. Wrong.
Here at Logical Expressions, we are considering various new plans. Like most changes, it's scary to ponder new projects. Fear of failure runs rampant. But here's one thing I've been thinking about a lot lately: any time you let something external to yourself control you, you generally make yourself miserable.
That external thing can be where you live, your business, the economy, your customers, your job, politics or whatever. But your job or the current political realm isn't who you are. (Or it shouldn't be.) Letting your happiness be contingent on things over which you have absolutely no control is a mistake and paralyzes you to ever try anything different or creative.
So as we all head into a new year, I wish that you steer yourself in whatever direction you choose, so all your most wild, creative, and wonderful dreams come true ;-)
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