Waldemar Franz Herman Titzenthaler:
A soldier of the Prussian guard (1903)

" … one must always serve as their own Gatekeeper first …"

I live in conflict with my beliefs. I suspect that everyone does. Yesterday, I wrote a fine story about how I believe that Gatekeepers surround Success and deny entry to any and all not holding GoldenTickets. As near as I can tell, I've always believed some variant of this story, even though it has rarely held true. While it's true that I have at times benefitted from some Gatekeeper's intervention, it might be equally true that they probably did not command the sole means for my gaining access. Even when a Gatekeeper intervened, I also needed to have intervened on my own behalf at some point. I was never a passive commodity impassively passed but an active entity making my own choices.

It might be true that one must always serve as their own Gatekeeper first, however unlikely this role might seem. While it's true that a Gatekeeper referred me to the publisher that agreed to publish my best seller, the fact that I'd already completed the manuscript and had something ready to deliver sealed that deal. They had a hole in their publishing schedule and just happened to be looking for a book just like mine to fill it. Their primary intent was to find something that wouldn't need much polish, and we managed together to complete that final copyedit and artwork in under a month. Such Success might always favor the already prepared.

So while I might still firmly believe in the Gatekeeper's magic, behaving as if Gatekeepers held, the sole power could only prove tragic. They might well serve as a useful tool without necessarily proving crucial. They can prove helpful without necessarily ever becoming essential, a nice to have rather than a must acquire. I have never had much Success when signing up to finish something under contract. Success most often found me if I simply proceeded to finish before pitching the product when I had more than a bright idea in hand. Most of the life of most of my efforts began well before any Gatekeeper came into focus. Had I held myself hostage to finding some qualified Gatekeeper first, I doubt I would have ever started or finished much. Sizzle might sell somewhere, but rarely here.

While my bestseller certainly proved Successful, the bestselling part was the least of the experience. Creating it remains the most magical time. In my essential element, I felt successful every second when I was writing it. I wrote it in the deep dark shadow of a failed second marriage and a disappointing outing starting my third career. The Muse and I had just connected and were forging a promising future together. I was writing that book to explain to her what I had been doing and how I perceived the world. As I still do today, I’d rise very early in the morning and just start writing. I wrote without too much anticipation of what that writing might become. I was just telling my story to a very limited audience of two, me and who would shortly become The Muse. That I was able to pull off that ruse, just to get up mornings and do, served as the greatest Success of that episode, perhaps of my life. Later, those stories got published and proved popular, but that mess was their second Success. I'd gatekept that first one without anyone else's intervention. I repeated that Gatekeeping this morning with this story. You're welcome.

©2023 by David A. Schmaltz - all rights reserved

Tags: #Success, #PureSchmaltz