Where do you find inspiration to write?

Every so often, I feel at a loss when trying to figure out what to write about.

I frequently feel uninspired and lacking in ideas, so I will go weeks, possibly months without writing.

But there’s a great source of material I haven’t turned to enough: questions.

Whenever I speak at an event, or meet another founder, or really, anyone, I’m usually thrown a question of some sort.

I’ve started to note these questions down, as they’re the perfect starting point for topics to write about.

I’ve found that writing answers to questions I’ve been asked has three valuable advantages:

1. Writing addresses my frustration

If I had more time, I’d have written a shorter letter. — Blaise Pascal

When I’m asked a question, typically I must think on my feet.

Occasionally, that works OK. But sometimes, about 2 minutes after I’ve answered the question, I’ll realise I had something better to say on the topic.

There’s no rewind, or “edit” button for live conversation.

It can be incredibly frustrating!

By retrospectively writing an answer to questions I’m asked, I can address my frustration by giving a better answer.

2. Writing helps form better answers

I find writing to be a fantastic way to clarify my thoughts.

It forces me to consider something on a deeper level. The act of writing can crystallise a topic for me.

It’s correlated to the way I like to learn: if I must teach someone about something, it will absolutely force me to learn more about that thing.

I’ve often found that teaching others is the best way to teach myself, but it always feels like cheating!

3. Writing multiplies my impact

I’d like to think another benefit of turning these questions into written articles shared here, is that I can be more helpful to you, the reader of this blog.

When I have a chat with a friend, or when I am fortunate enough to speak at an event, I often think “gosh I wish that was recorded, the conversation could have been very helpful for more people.”

A wonderful thing about writing is it tends to last a lot longer than audio or video. It’s easier to find via search, and can more easily be edited to bring it up to date.

Some questions I have written answers to

Some questions I need to write answers to

Why are you building an email marketing tool, when it’s one of the most crowded markets you could possibly enter?
What’s driving you after so many years to keep doing GoSquared?
How have your values influenced your decisions and lifestyle recently?
What advice do you have for someone starting out on their own startup journey?

Do you have a question for me? Please

The crippling fear of hitting “publish”

“I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.” — Pablo Picasso

I’ve been feeling it increasingly — I’ll put a tweet together, a short article, maybe even a visual piece of work. I’ll be feeling pretty good about it, and then the time comes to hit “publish”…

That’s when the fear creeps in. What if this is rubbish? Is this going to offend someone? Will it be misunderstood? Will people judge me for it?

It’s been enough to make me undo all my work and not hit publish on countless occasions.

I know I’m not alone on this — even the best feel it to some degree whenever they’re about to publish their work.

I keep trying to tell myself, though: don’t let it stop you.

Usually, the worst thing that happens is no one cares. Everyone looks the other way and gets on with their lives.

No one cares as much about you and your work as you do.

With that in mind, I urge you (and my future self) to overcome that fear next time by hitting publish. It’s the fastest, most effective way to learn, iterate, and improve.

Jump in at the deep end

I was in central London doing some last minute shopping today, and I debated getting the Tube back with all my bags, or being lazy and jumping in an Uber.

It's been a knackering week, so I opted for the Uber.

But I'm so glad I made this choice – I ended up having an extensive chat with the driver who had moved here from India to become an IT consultant.

He's a freelancer so is keen to get more work, hence why he's driving for Uber on the side. Naturally, we got onto the subject of building a personal "brand" – or at least, finding ways to get people to notice you.

We were talking about starting a blog and how he's not written in a long time. I could hear him finding reasons to hold off on writing – he wasn't ready.

But I hear this all the time – "I'm not ready". When will you be ready? How will you ever be ready?

You will never be ready unless you start.

So I started pushing him to just write. Just Do It!

You have to just start, with the knowledge your first attempt will probably suck.

Then he told me a story that really resonated with me: he explained how when he lived in India he desperately wanted to learn to swim.

The pool was deep at the deep end – 16 feet deep! Because it had a diving board.

He would walk around and walk around and become increasingly nervous, just staring at the depths of the water.

He'd stand back and watch as others swam up and down, growing more and more frustrated.

Until one day he jumped in (at the shallow end), and just started to try.

He kept trying and gradually swimming further and further from the edges until he could fully swim.

This simple story just emphasises so much of what holds us back from doing new things – fear. And that fear leads us to push back the idea of even starting.

You can’t learn to swim unless you jump in and try.

Whatever you're hoping to start in the new year – don't wait. Just start. Jump in.

Photo by Artem Verbo on Unsplash.

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