Business, Accident, and the Law of Averages

Accident plays a much larger part in business than most of us like to think. I don't mean that the people who do well are only lucky, though some seem to be. But by and large, you actually make your own luck. If you are working enough, and in an effective way, then assignments, whether corporate or editorial, will come your way.

It's law of large numbers - that is to say, the law of averages. This concept is that when things happen at random - that is, by accident - and there are enough of them, you will inevitably see patterns come out. The end results are predictable, like dropping marbles down one of those devices that are a board with lots of pegs, so they can bounce this way or that. You can't predict where any single marble will land, but you know that some small percentage will be all the way at the ends and that the numbers increase until they hit a maximum in the middle, producing the classic bell curve.

There is a lot of accident in business. Sometimes clients need writing, and sometimes they don't. Sometimes they'll want certain topics or treatments, and sometimes others. Sometimes it's one person at a company or publisher who needs something, and sometimes it's another. You don't know for sure which one will need help on any given day. But, you know that if you take enough clients together, some of them will need help on any given day. The more with whom you're in contact, the greater a chance that you'll talk to the ones that need the help when you'd like the work.

To make marketing effective, you have to take the long view. You also have to be in contact with enough people that you hear about the work coming in that is available. That's why numbers are so important in marketing and sales, and why you must keep making marketing efforts even when the work is coming in.

Sometimes it will seem that work comes in for no particular reason, but I've found that such happy occurrences generally happen when I'm working hard at developing my business, and it's the constant effort that makes things work. If you don't make the marketing effort, well, you might have some business show up of its own accord, but chances are that you won't be making much of a living. If you do make the regular and sustained efforts, you will eventually have success - it's mathematical.