The Thrill of Victory and the Agony of Defeat

"I don’t know anything about luck. I’ve never banked on it, and I’m afraid of people who do. Luck to me is something else: hard work—and realizing what is opportunity and what isn’t.”
— Lucille Ball

In Issue #241

Guest Essay: The Thrill of Victory and the Agony of Defeat
by Coleen Graham

It’s been two months since I started AWAI’s basic copywriting program. I just completed the first installment.

At first, their copywriting challenges intimidated me. I didn’t want to participate since I was so new to copywriting and really nervous at the thought of rejection. But then the Blog-Off Competition came along and I couldn’t resist the challenge.

Nursing is my professional background, so I started with something familiar. I titled my entry “Modern Medical Mysteries.” I’m not even sure my entry met blog criteria, but it certainly got the creative juices flowing. I had an absolute blast writing it!

I just needed to be one of the top five bloggers…this would give me the chance to write four more blog entries (one a week for four weeks), and earn a little cash in the meantime. The grand prize was a blog job with AWAI…what fun!

I submitted my entry close to the contest closing date. I hoped to hear the results within a few days. I checked my emails daily with no word regarding the challenge results. Then it happened…

As my husband checked emails one evening, he called me over. I received an email from AWAI that read, “Thank you for your blog submission. I’m happy to say that you’ve been chosen as one of our finalists. Congratulations!”

I was ecstatic! I began to jump up and down, yelling, “You’re kidding! Are you for real?” as I ran around the desk to see the screen for myself.

It was true! He wasn’t even teasing, as he often does. Then, as I looked closer, I noticed that the title of the blog entry wasn’t mine. I thought maybe it was just a minor mix-up.

I didn’t even notice that the email was actually addressed to someone else.

As I continued to review emails, my eyes drifted to a more recent AWAI message. It included a sincere apology for the mistaken “winning” email letter. It turns out, my entry was confused with another and I was NOT one of the five chosen finalists. My stomach dropped!

However, the apology letter contained kind remarks about my writing talent and a very encouraging message to continue copywriting.

Well, I wasn’t a finalist, but it surely sounded like I had potential for this business. That little bit of positive feedback certainly eased the sting of rejection.

So what did I learn from this experience?

For one thing, by taking advantage of this opportunity and giving it my best shot, I am beginning to see that this copywriting business is real…real people, real assignments, real income.

Secondly, I do not feel either disappointed or unfulfilled after this experience. Rather, I am more determined than ever to work hard at learning, so that I may carve out my own copywriting niche.

You see, I’ve wanted to write in some fashion for most of my adult life. I’ve helped with nursing policy revision (tons of fun) and written a few letters (mostly of complaint) in my day, but the writing bug has never been completely satisfied. I don’t have the Great American Novel ready to burst forth, but I’m excited about the variety of options available to copywriters. The possibilities seem endless.

Finally, having experienced the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat all within five minutes, I’m more convinced than ever that the journey is what makes reaching the destination so worthwhile. Bumps in the road are simply that…bumps. They don’t stop our progress. Rather, they make us pause to reconsider our goals and reorganize our priorities.

Some may think that I was a little insane to compete before I completed the first installment of the AWAI program, but I look at it as the first real step on my new adventure. And it definitely was.

Coleen Graham has been a nurse for 29 years, and is the proud mother of two children, 1 dog, 3 cats and a rabbit. She can be reached at jgraham20@sc.rr.com.

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Quick Update on Virtual Mentoring

I’ve received a couple of emails from people asking if Virtual Mentor has launched yet. The answer is yes, but just in case you also missed it, we launched the program the week of May 18th.

So if you’ve been on hold waiting on us, come on in … the water is warm. In fact, if you sign up now you can join us for the first monthly Q& A teleconference next Tuesday, June 9th, at 12:00 p.m. Eastern.

Join Virtual Mentor today, then if you have a question you’d like Monica and me to answer on the call, just send it to admin@copyprotege.com by Monday morning.