🐼 It's tough to do the maths
I don't even know where to begin
Heyaa,
Recently I started reading Almanack of Naval Ravikant. An okayish book so far; a few things are resonating, while others aren’t.
I would like to share an excerpt from it.
I'm always “working.” It looks like work to others, but it feels like play to me. [...] I'm just playing, for sixteen hours a day.
That piece of writing took me on a short ride down memory lane.
It’s 7 years since I entered the marketing industry. I entered for fun, to get money in exchange for writing something. I was good at it, I know. The reviews and travelogues I wrote earlier got me 2-3 people who followed not for what I wrote, but the way I wrote.
Back then, I wasn’t aware that what I was doing essentially was writing for marketing/growth. It dawned on me slowly as I started marketing myself as a freelance writer.
I started as a freelance writer, yup. I wrote as I was briefed. Drafted, submitted, and got paid. That was it, for an entire year of my writing career. Unaware that I was slowly upgrading in the process of marketing myself.
Slowly, I was also getting the hang of writing purely for marketing.
And slowly… I was losing myself. I no longer know who I am.
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OK, back to my story…
I kept trying and testing different types of work. I still do. While newbies are focusing on their niche, I yet don't have an identity 7 years later.
I’m not complaining… Na na, far from that. It’s just that I still don’t know who Abhijeet is.
I know I’m a writer. But I don't have a “public definition” for myself. And it’s when I’m defining other’s businesses. Even my merch business has a story, and I don't have any.
Confused?
OK, how about you swim with my thoughts?
Who am I? I’m a writer. But it doesn't answer what I do. I’m not exactly just a writer. All that I do is essentially writing. Yet I can’t say I’m a writer.
You know, a business content writer doesn't have to handle only writing.
Maybe I can say I’m a writer who knows a bit about marketing. A bit? How much is a bit? I don’t know. And I can’t even say that I’m a marketer.
While everyone polishes their expertise, I am into a wide variety of tasks. I write, I pitch, I design and I do a whole lot of other things.
I’m still exploring what all I can do.
“Kaafi faila hua business hai” means the business is widespread.
And I don't know who am I. It's tough to do the maths. I don't even know where to begin.
It’s not that I’m always “working.” I’m playing. I’m adding new trophies to my shelf. It’s a potpourri of skills. All different but coming together to form this Abhijeet.
Thus, I can’t define myself in a sentence. My identity changes with the situation. Yet, I’m proud of it, whatever it is.
“Kaam aisa karo ki log puchhe exactly karte kya ho.” (Do such a job that people ask what exactly you do).
Did I make any sense so far?
I don't know. I had a jumble of thoughts as I was in the hazy memory lane.
And that was all for today.
Bidding adieu.
Live long and prosper.
See you next week, with another story.