Write it Out

You should go read Marc’s write-up of why Wesabe “lost” to Mint ¹; it’s interesting, insightful, and clearly written.

It was two sentences that aren’t about Wesabe or Mint which caught my attention; the emphasis is mine.

I don’t agree with those who say you should learn from your successes and mostly ignore your failures; nor do I agree with those who obsess over failures for years after (as I have done in the past). I’m hoping that by writing this all out I can offload it from my head and hopefully help inform other people who try to start companies in the future. Writing is how I get things out of my head, how I get some distance from my own thoughts, and how I put things in perspective. Julia Cameron calls them morning pages in The Artist’s Way, but I’ve found it doesn’t matter when you do it: if I want to get perspective and stop obsessing about the possibilities, I write. If I want to stop worrying about the future, I write. If I want to get a better idea about how things went, I write. Informing others is great, but I actually think that’s actually a secondary benefit: writing alone is worthwhile.

I suppose the real question is why I’m surprised or excited when others have the same insight. And why I don’t I do it more often.