contrarian writing philosophy

True story:

I’ve been lucky enough to have multiple mentors over the years.

One co-founded a multi 8-figure health company…

While another started a sales training & consulting company and then built into a $40 million dollar business within just a few years.

Both are incredibly impressive people… 

From whom I took many notes.

In fact, I’m still amazed at how often I hear their words coming out of my mouth.

It’s a testament to how influential they’ve been in my development as a writer, strategist, and entrepreneur.

What I find most interesting though…

Is the one value they both embodied above (almost) all else:

Speed.

You see, most writers fall victim to the following seductive notion…

They believe that the more TIME they put into something, the better it gets.

But that’s not always true.

Actually, I’ve found the inverse is often true.

Meaning:

The more time you spend on a piece of writing, the more likely you are to…

A) Edit it into oblivion, or…
B) Sink 2-4x the effort into it for marginal gains

Now, there are certain moments where investing more time is justified.

Yet in a publishing business like ours, these are the exceptions.

Not the rule.

Which is why this “time = quality” fallacy is usually used to enable a mix of perfectionism and procrastination.

A truth my two mentors drilled into me.

Now, why am I sharing this lesson with you?

Because it’s been top of mind as I work to put the finishing touches on my new Email Storyselling Playbook.

My original plan was to take the transcripts from the Crash Course I recorded…

Format them into a simple PDF…

Then hit publish.

Alas, that is not what’s happened.

The temptation to beef it up and try to make it better has been hard to resist.

But in the spirit of my contrarian writing philosophy and its need for speed…

I’ve had to crack the whip on myself.

The book doesn’t need to be perfect right out of the gate.

What’s more important is:

Putting a “minimum viable product” in front of other people and seeing if they’ll pay for it.

That’s the true value of this endeavor…

Testing the idea as quickly as possible and using the feedback to guide my next move.

I can (and will) improve upon it once it’s selling.

Anyway, some food for thought for ya on this lovely Monday afternoon :)

Jim Hamilton