You Can Make An Impact

As I write this, a lot of folks are mourning the death of Andrew Brietbart. For those of you who may not be familiar, Mr. Brietbart was a politico who pretty much made himself famous through his web pages and his blogging in particular. Regardless of what you may think of his politics, it would be hard to deny that he had a tremendous impact in American politics through his writings. Maybe when he started writing he had a specific goal in mind of making a big impact in the political world. Maybe he didn’t. And that’s the point here, folks. You can make an impact. As a writer, you are equipped to do so.

Maybe you’ve never considered setting such lofty goals for yourself. I know I certainly haven’t. But I think sometimes it just happens with folks. You know, right place at the right time and all that. I have to admit there has been a time or two when a post of mine has gone mini-viral and my head has swelled a wee bit. With that said, I’ve never set out a serious set of goals to try and be the next world famous blogger.

In the case of Mr. Brietbart, he made his fame by not being afraid to tackle issues head on and he didn’t seem to care too much about who he may piss off in the process. Is that what it takes to make an impact? These days that seems to be the case but I’m also not quite that cynical. I think you can make an impact on folks without being in their face. I don’t have an in-your-face mentality so I’ve kind of resigned my self to the fact that the chances of me being rich and/or famous as a blogger are fairly non-existent. I do believe I impact other writers, but not necessarily in earth shattering ways. I think I impact through inspiration and at times through clever or at least different ways of looking at things. That’s okay with me and I could stay true to this path for years on end. That may not be true for everyone, however.

If you wanted to make a profound impact on folks, make a name for yourself, how would you do it? Would you take a “shock and awe” approach or would you put your nose to the grindstone and plug consistently ahead? I think that most of us know in our heart what we are capable of. We know what our personality type would allow and what it wouldn’t.

What I’d like you to take away from this is that most likely, in some way, you impact folks with your writing. Are you happy with that or do you want something more? If you do want something more are you willing to take the steps to do so and what do you think those steps would be?