True Confessions of Kristen: I’m a blubbering idiot and complete disaster

Tracy Tennant

I’ve been reading the book “APE Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur” by Guy Kawasaki. One of the things he wrote is: “Understand the numbers. If Mother Theresa were on Google+, Facebook, or Twitter, some people would complain about her posts. The vast majority of people probably like what you’re posting, so don’t let a few orifices ruin your day or cause you to lash out.” One of the reasons I’m afraid to publish books is because I haven’t developed a thick skin. Maybe having a thick skin would decrease our humanness; after all, those who love and feel the most deeply, get hurt the most. It’s kind of a package deal. All of us need to remember that “experts” are people too, and they don’t have all the answers. Whether it’s the bumbling clerk at the bank, the crabby cashier at the store, the” incompetent” webmaster, or the “idiot” driving in front of us on the road, we need to realize with soberness that we don’t know their personal situations. I have to remind myself of that when I get impatient. I say to myself, “Maybe they had a bad day, or their spouse just asked them for a divorce, or they’re going through bankruptcy, or they were abused, or they have a teenager making destructive choices, or they accidentally ran over their cat on the way to work. I would be a bumbling, crabby, incompetent idiot too under those conditions.” Likewise, even the people who lash out at us–saying mean things and being unkind–have issues too. It’s easy for me to get indignant and hurt over something someone says or writes about me, but maybe in their own pain–in their own private lives–they have hurts, frustrations, challenges, self-esteem issues, or just a tragic lack of character. Maybe they really were raised in barns . When I think about that, I feel compassion for them, even though I’m still hurt by their words. Kristen, you’ve been successful because you’ve believed in yourself, and you kept getting up after falling and failing. I would rather follow a “failure” who keeps trying than a person who succeeds because he’s always had it easy. Someday, when people who always succeeded (maybe by running over everyone else) reach the level of their incompetence, they’ll come crashing down and not know what to do next, because they’ve never really had to try before. They have no idea what true success is. True success is the result of not giving up. Maybe I’ve gotten off-track a little; but my goal is to encourage you. I can relate to your self-deprecation. There’s a danger in playing negative self-talk tapes in our heads. The danger is that we might mentally beat ourselves up so badly that we just give up because we start to believe everyone would be better off without us. You are an inspiration to me. If it wasn’t for a serendipitous chain of events that led me to your Ultimate Book Publishing website, I would not have finished writing my book. When I had a question months ago, and first contacted you, you actually took the time to write back. I can’t tell you how much that personal response meant to me. It had been almost a week without a response from you (due to some email and server issues), and I was about to take to take that as yet another sign that I wasn’t meant to write a book. Then you wrote back. That little gesture on your part, which you probably thought nothing about, made all the difference in the world! I’m so sorry about the loss of your family. Keep your light shining; many people need to see it, including me.
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