Written by Paul Myers is an innovative online marketer specializing in issues and strategies and is the publisher of TalkBiz News, which provides details about all different aspects of developing both online and offline businesses. The following is an excellent article (printed with permission) in which he stresses that a relevant message is far more important than the grammar behind it.
Some folks worry about grammar or perfect presentation. Unless you’re really bad, that’s silly.
Imagine for a moment that you have one line to deliver. Just 12 simple words. You’re on the grandest stage ever walked by man. You have the largest audience there ever was, with literally hundreds of millions of people watching, cheering you on. There will be no second performance, and no-one will ever play your role again. Just that one line, this one time. And you blow it. How would you feel?
Here’s the line, as it was delivered: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” Mrs Wombat would have cringed, and then rapped Commander Armstrong across the knuckles with her ruler. Stated that way, ‘man’ and ‘mankind’ mean the same thing. The sentence doesn’t make sense. It was supposed to be “One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.” But does it matter?
The only people who ever think about that today are grammar zombies and the people who hunt them. To the rest of the world, it’s as memorable as any line ever delivered. And for good reason: They care about the spirit of the thing, not the grammar. If you want people to remember your message, you don’t have to be perfect. You do have to have spirit.
Do you think Neil Armstrong will go down in history for the most famous botched line ever? Do you think he spends his days worrying and his night sleepless over having omitted a critical word from his introduction to immortality?
Hell no. He didn’t just put himself out there. He put himself waaay out there. His leap was a leap of faith, taken on behalf of every human being on the planet. To paraphrase a famous redneck: “He got ‘er done.” That’s what counts.
There have been a lot of great speeches in the history of this country. One of the most famous was given on August 28th, 1963, by the Reverend Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. He was set to end the speech on a lower, more cautious note. For whatever reason, he didn’t feel it was right for the time, or perhaps not as good as it might have been. We’ll probably never know for sure why he hesitated.
When she heard him getting ready to send the audience home, Mahalia Jackson, one of the greatest gospel singers of all time, encouraged him from the background. “Tell them about your dream, Martin. Tell them about the dream!” So, he went on. He told us about his dream. And he changed the world. Dr. King was only 34. He never made it to 40.
There’s a lesson in that story for anyone who has something to say they believe is important: Say it the best way you can. Say it with the will to move the mountains in your readers’ hearts.
You don’t have to be perfect, just true to your message. But say it. You never know if you’ll get another chance.
The odds are that the things you’re hesitating over aren’t quite as historically significant as being the first to walk on the moon, or attacking the underpinnings of a broad social injustice. But they’re probably just as important to you and your family.
That’s why you’re nervous. That’s normal. Just keep in mind that you get a second chance. And a third. In fact, you get as many chances as it takes until you get it right. And you don’t have the entire world watching and judging your every move.
So you’re not perfect. So you screw up sometimes. Did you think you wouldn’t? Do you think anyone, anywhere, ever achieved anything useful without mistakes along the way? Congratulations. You’re tied for first place. Just you and 7 billion other humans.
People who’ve gotten good at something, even really, really good at it, still make mistakes. They’re not afraid of those mistakes because they know the consequences and how to deal with them. You only tend to let fear of mistakes stop you when you don’t know the road at all. It’s like traveling to somewhere you’ve never been and worrying about ending up in the wrong place. If it’s a long trip, the odds are good you’ll get lost at least once. Getting lost is the result of a mistake. And how do you fix it? You consult a map, or retrace your steps, or you stop and ask for directions. Whatever you need to do to get back on the right track.
The way most people handle fear of not being good enough is very much like someone getting lost or hitting a detour and deciding they’re stuck wherever they are. They’re not where they want to be, but still they don’t move. Would that make any sense at all?
Do whatever research you need to decide on a destination, and then to figure out some general directions. Then get started. Make adjustments as you go along. If you get lost, use that as an excuse to meet new people. If you hit a detour, take in the scenery. That makes it a lot easier to enjoy the ride.
That last part assumes you don’t know what you’re doing. A much more common problem is people underestimating the value of their own skills and knowledge.
That’s easy to do. You learn things, for the most part, in bits and pieces. None of them are usually all that big in themselves. One small step after another. Before you know it, you’ve lost sight of how far you’ve come.
King’s march took a lot more than one small step, and Armstrong didn’t make it to the moon in one giant leap. But they knew they had what it took to keep advancing. They may not have believed they were “good enough,” but somehow they were, and they got there anyway.
So can you. Just make a map and get moving. You’re already good enough. Now go do something about it.
Here are a few little guidebooks that might help you figure out how to get from where you are to where you want to be.
“20 Page Empires” : A simple guide to building an online business with short reports you can create in very little time. It also outlines some alternative types of products you might never have considered, and that could be more suitable for your personal style.
I get incredible feedback from customers of this one. It’s helped a lot of people who’ve struggled to finally get something done and selling.
“Creating Killer Content”: My course on writing. The focus is on what it takes to create powerful content that gets results.
http://talkbiz.com/killercontent/
The Power Creativity System: Everyone is a genius. This will help you tap into real solutions that work in the real world. Warning: This course will make you think. You might find you have trouble sleeping after reading parts of it. I promise, you’ll enjoy that.
If you know someone you feel might benefit from this issue, feel free to pass it along. Just send them the whole thing, so they can sign up if they like it.
Paul Myers
