Do things that scare you
Two scary things I have done this week:
Donning a Reddit-branded bumbag to flog stuff at my first ever car boot sale. I was almost rugby tackled to the ground by eager buyers when I first lifted the car door, but ended up with a thrilling £325 in my bumbag.
Announcing to the world that I’m launching a newsletter.
Actually, this newsletter has had the softest of soft launches. For the past month I didn’t tell anyone I was writing The Takeout and just sent emails to myself every week, a bit like my mad teenage diary entries (although hopefully less mortifying in retrospect).
Much as I admire people who can announce a massive project and then just wing it completely, I’m far too neurotic for that. I wanted to make sure there was time to write a weekly newsletter, that I had enough stuff to say, and crucially that I’d find the process enjoyable. Of course I still hold on to my biggest fear: that everyone I’ve ever met will simultaneously fall off their chairs laughing when I say I’ve launched a Substack. But I’m bored of being too scared to try stuff I secretly want to do.
A few months ago, I asked a former, hugely-successful editor of mine for her advice on picking the perfect side project. How do you pinpoint where to place all your time and effort? I expected her to say that it involved hours of soul-searching to identify your biggest skills and passions, and a precise target audience in mind. In fact, her top tip was this: if you throw enough shit at the wall, something will stick.
Another interesting chat I had was with social media phenomenon James Smith, who has millions of followers hanging on his every word. He explained that he was pretty much clueless when he started posting videos on Instagram, and only honed his craft by actually doing it. In his eyes, taking action is the route to confidence, not the other way round.
That’s two very successful people both telling me that if you wait around until you feel ready - or good enough - to do something, you’ll never get going. And yes, your start-up project might go down like a lead balloon, but at least you won’t be left with the anguish of “what if?”, that little buzz in your head of all the things you could achieve if you were just a cleverer, more competent, more confident person.
UWhich brings me back to launching a newsletter. This is inherently self-indulgent, of course. But by including things I’ve learnt from experts I speak to through my journalism job, and through the various experiments I do in the name of that role (the current list includes an insomnia course, kindness practice and interviewing millennials about whether they can afford to have kids) I hope to share interesting advice and insights too.
Launching a newsletter also feels pretty vulnerable, because you’re asking people to sign up to read your thoughts and words, even though they already receive about 10 million emails a day and every journalist in the UK already has a Substack. I can’t lie, as soon as I saw actual people signing up for this email I freaked out and wondered if it was just all too embarrassing. What if everyone thinks my writing is rubbish?
Well…what if? I guess I’ll still be alive. Yes, this feels a bit outside my comfort zone. But if my new life as a professional car booter has taught me anything, it’s that sometimes you have to do things that scare you to get the most rewards. Oh, and that it is possible to make cold, hard cash out of a deflated basketball, old lighters and a book about the Dalai Lama.