Don't Be Afraid of Your Past

Recently, I was confronted with my past. And I survived unscathed!

A couple of years ago, the wonderful Rena Tom (if you don’t know who she is and you’re not following her everywhere she can be followed, I’m sorry to say you’re missing out) asked me to write some notes for product-based businesses on finding your voice.

Of course, I said yes! (When Rena asks, you agree. Period.) At the time, she used what I sent her in a series of workshops she was putting on called Retail Readiness. And a bit later, she started working on a book by the same name, and of course, I agreed to have my piece included there as well.

But things got a bit busy for Rena (a little thing called Makeshift Society happened—maybe you’ve heard of it?) and the book got stalled for a while. Just recently, though, she brought the project back to life, and asked me to review my part to make sure it was still relevant.

I was nervous.

You know that feeling you get when you have to review older work? That panic that everything you’ve ever written is total crap and you’re going to be so embarrassed to even look at it? Yeah, I had that. But you know what? What I wrote over two years ago was still totally relevant. I made a few small tweaks (time gives great perspective), but honestly, what she published is extremely close to what I wrote back then.

There are two lessons here:

1. If you sell products, check out Retail Readiness immediately.

It’s so insanely helpful if you're interested in getting into wholesale work but not sure where to start (or how to continue if you've already started). I’m not an affiliate for the book, nor did Rena even ask me to write this—I just know how much information and wisdom she has, and I know how awesome the other contributors to the book are, so I’m pretty sure you don’t want to miss out.

2. Don’t be afraid of your past work.

You’re smarter than you think, and if something makes you cringe a little, hey—that just means you’ve grown since then. Not a bad thing. And there’s often something to be learned from looking back on what you’ve done in the past.

P.S. For a while, I wrote a column on Rena’s blog about editing your own writing that I think you might find helpful. It includes detailed tips about grammar, punctuation, and more thrilling (to me, at least) topics! You can check out all the posts about editing your own writing here.