I’ve been wanting to expand my blogging, and my writing abilities, so I’ve been doing some research on how to be a better blogger. While doing my research, I came across a post by Brian Clark over at CopyBlogger , who asks the question "Are you a courageous blogger?" He states:

"You need the courage to alienate the wrong people in order to resonate with the right people. You need to stick to your convictions when people tell you you’re wrong simply because your knowledge doesn’t mesh with their opinions. "

I’m 100% convinced that he is correct, but that it doesn’t only pertain to blogging. This is true in life and leadership, in general. If you want to make a difference, you’d better be prepared for the inevitable backlash from the people who will completely go against what you believe.

I gave up trying to please everyone at work very early in my career. I have very strong convictions, and stand up strongly for what I believe in as a leader in whatever company I’ve ever worked for. Sometimes, especially when trying to stand up to management, you will find yourself very alone. Even if others agree with you, many people shy away from anything that resembles confrontation, even when it’s just simply standing up for what they feel strongly about, and even if they can easily provide support to back up their beliefs. I feel that only true leaders understand the benefits of putting their necks on the line. It’s what separates them from the followers and lemmings of the world, which is, of course, the vast majority.

At times, I still feel a little hard-headed and stubborn after I’ve expressed my opinion (I have to work on that emotion), but I have found that people tend to respect that I stand by my convictions.

One of the reasons I haven’t written as much as I would like here is that I have not been able to transfer that same attitude to my public writing. I have absolutely no problem with it in face-to-face discussions, but I sometimes feel that expressing myself in writing and sharing my professional experience would get shot down online. Come to think about it, I have occasionally expressed myself better on public online forums, but maybe tying it directly to my own name on my own blog is holding me back a bit.

When I started this blog, I subtitled it, "I have nothing to say." But I removed that subtitle because I actually have plenty to say. I’m just still a bit afraid of putting it in writing. I recently wrote a follow-up email to a comment I posted on Scott Hanselman’s blog . He asked me why I didn’t post it on my blog instead of emailing it to him. I had the usual excuses of not being ready to blog full time yet, etc. I should re-think that.

Looks like it appears that I still need to work on becoming a courageous blogger.