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Zachary Aldwin Milkshake in the boardroom
I love reading, I read anything that has a great storyline and even better, great English. I will devour books. I have on rare occasions been known to read till the wee hours of the morning forgoing dinner and other bodily functions until I read the final chapter, put the book down and wonder why I am suddenly so hungry and why I have such an urgent desire to run to the ‘‘Little Boy’s Room’’.

It was probably because I loved reading that I was able to start writing. The most important thing for anyone who gets to the level of being ready to write is to tell your story. Don’t try and tell the stories that other people can tell.

Any starting writer always begins with other people’s voices because they have been reading other people’s stories for years.
They tell stories based on the kinds of things they have been reading.
My first attempt at a book was fantasy literature.

I picked fantasy because I had read a lot of it. It was familiar territory. I was kickstarted by Christopher Paolini’s Inheritance Cycle when I realised that he started writing it when he was 16, and I thought “Well, if he can, then I have no excuse.”

It is okay to be inspired by others, but as quickly as you can, start telling the stories that only you can tell.
This is because there will always be better writers than you, and there will always be smarter writers than you, and there will always be people who are much better at this or that, but there is only one you.

There is no one else who can tell your story like you can. There will always be better writers, smarter writers, writers who can plot better, but there’s no one who can write a (fill in the blank with your bit) better than I can.

It is not just about writing. Your entire business tells your story. “There’s no one who can raise worms, cultivate relationships, tell stories, build motors, debate contracts, organise finances, (fill in your strengths here), better than me.”

Play to your strengths. Your product is an expression of you. Do not just think of your product as simply the end item you are selling, it is the all encompassing creation, marketing and follow up on the goods you are putting together.

Apple does not just sell phones or computers, it sells its brand and experience. Its product is not the iPhone, it is Apple. That is their story and they tell it rather well.

We spend too much time trying to copy everyone else when we start out. When I first lectured I copied the style of my previous professors.
It was only after a while that I realised that it did not sound like ‘‘me’’ when I spoke. Now I speak in my own unique manner.
I may still have the occasional tool that I have borrowed from elsewhere, but when I speak or write then it is Zach telling about Zach.

So how do you go about telling your story? Start a journal. Invest in a notebook where you can write things down.
I have expensive tastes and have a preference for the Moleskin brand, but my first journals were hard covers that I bought for US$2.

Write anything that comes to mind, your thoughts, emotions, experiences. Doodle. Draw cartoon figures if you want. Write in it backwards if it suits you. Just write.

Examine yourself. List areas that you know you can do better than anyone else. List your strengths. Actively seek out new experiences.
You will never become an Olympic shottist if you never hold a gun. Invest in yourself. Pick up a magazine of things to do in your town.

Find something that interests you can go do it, have a couple of lessons with no long term commitments. See how it goes and write about the experience.
Investigate ways of telling your story.

If you want to write then look at starting a blog, writing a book, syndicating a magazine feed.
If you are telling your story though your work or your product, then bring your strengths to play in everything you do.
Just start. No one has to see your first draft, but you do have to start somewhere.

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