Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

50 Years…

April 7, 2024 /

Sold My First Two Short Stories 50 Years Ago…

I just finished recording and putting up on Teachable a nine-week class called A FIFTY YEAR PERSPECTIVE OF LEARNING. 

Five videos each week for nine weeks talking about what I learned from my mentors over the years, and from others along the way, that got me to this place fifty years down the road.

Tonight, as I was recording a topic on both the weekly CREATIVE SURVIVAL and MOTIVATIONAL MONDAY classes, I got thinking about the idea of doing a class that would talk about what I learned in fifty years from crashes, mistakes, and setbacks and what I learned from each one over the fifty years.

In fact, the more I thought about it, the more I think it would be valuable learning, since we all have setbacks, make mistakes, and have things just crash around us. From each of those in my life (and there were a ton, some major, some minor but important), how did I keep going and what did I learn in the process?

In fact, looking back, I think I learned a ton more from the negative things that happened then I did from mentors. I find that logical and sort of interesting.

So thought I would toss this out there to see if anyone would be interested. No obligation to take it if you say you are. You can write me or leave a comment here.

The two classes would make interesting bookends of learning over fifty years fron different ways.

11 Comments

  • Connor Whiteley

    April 7, 2024 at 2:25 am

    Hi Dean,

    Yes that class sounds great and it would be valuable, because I feel the same way. We all learn more from our “mistakes” or “failures” (even if it’s failing to success) more than what we learn from our successes.

    Have a great week.

  • Emilia

    April 7, 2024 at 3:01 am

    I’d take any class where you talk about the history of publishing and writing, the things you’ve mentioned in other classes have always caught my interest. The subject of setbacks and how to recover from them sounds especially useful.

  • Thor

    April 7, 2024 at 5:55 am

    I believe some (like me) tend to learn more and stronger lessons through the adversity of mistakes, setbacks, and such. I have found that they don’t always have to be my circumstances for me to learn valuable lessons. This would be of value.

  • Kat

    April 8, 2024 at 7:07 am

    Yes please! I was just listening to the Motivational Monday and Creative Survival lectures and hoping you’d do this one. Came over to catch up on blogs to see you might really! Add my Yes vote to the list. Sounds like a lot of excellent learning.

  • Brad D. Sibbersen

    April 8, 2024 at 8:02 am

    Another vote for yes. “How Y went wrong and I got through it/made it work” is always, to me, more helpful and inspiring than “I did X and it all went exactly as planned!” Because let’s face it, how often does the latter really occur?

  • Gaelen Foley

    April 10, 2024 at 12:26 pm

    Dean, just wanted to say Congratulations on 50 years of authordom. That is an ASTOUNDING achievement, more than most people realize. You are clearly someone who will let literally nothing get in your way.
    Respect!!!
    G, who’s got half your years in the biz and is delighted to see that another 25+ years is truly possible doing my dream job