Agenda, mission and my relationship with you
Ted Gioia's ideas on honesty and trustworthiness prompted these thoughts on what we're doing here: me the writer and you the reader.
Listening to
’s excellent recent interview with helped me crystallize a thought that has been bubbling close to the surface in the first few months of Fee Sheet.My relationship with you.
Said Ted:
“There are multiple temptations [in writing]. One temptation is to tell the reader what they want to hear. Another temptation is to write what the editors want. Another one is to write about [someone] in a favorable way so that you can become a friend…
I just put all those behind me and I ask myself, ‘How do I serve my reader?’ This is the most important thing to me is my relationship with my reader. That’s more important than if they think I’m cool or me showing off or making connections with powerful people.
So what does the reader want from me? What does the reader expect from me? And the reader wants it to be honest, they want it to be fair and obviously it has to be convincing to fair people.
If I’m not operating at that level, I have failed.”
Agenda vs Mission
A lot of writers, Ted went on, are not honest or fair. A lot of writers have an agenda, and agendas create distrust and skepticism.
So inspired by Ted Gioia’s stance on writing — he is called “The Honest Broker” after all — I must ask myself an honest question.
Do I have an agenda or a mission?
It’s not straightforward to answer it, but let me try.
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