It’s interesting how throughout my life “just business” has implied impersonal or mechanical interaction. Like the person to whom the phrase, “Calm down; this is just business.” is directed to is not really a person at all. He or she is instead an object to be acted upon.
In my experience, and especially with Scripped, the contrary is true. Business is people and business is personal. In my last business-y post I described a little bit about the emotional and financial investment we, the founding team, had to make to put Scripped together. That makes it personal. And the recent surge in writer interest in Scripped makes the other people side relevant.
And here I find that some interactions with people can be impersonal, and that’s okay. I think that’s why we have this blog. There are people coming to the site, poking around, and probably thinking, hmm, why is this free? There must be a catch. And who are these guys, anyway? Then they go to the About Us page which says amazingly little about who Zak, Sunil, and I are. And so they go to the blog.
And then it becomes a little more personal, but not for us. I don’t know who reads this and what they think about it. No one leaves us comments. Maybe it’s a little charming to see that we’re pretty regular people, certainly not professionals, and aren’t really bad. And, obviously, we like to write. We just don’t get that much time to do it. And maybe, just maybe, it is compelling enough to take the plunge and try out a script. Maybe having a blog and taking a web-based glimpse into our souls makes some people feel more comfortable. Whatever it is , sign ups recently have been fast and furious! This is good because it keeps Zak excited about perfecting our new import function.
To summarize, whoever first made the implication that business is purely transactional probably didn’t stay in business very long. Or if he did, he died a wealthy man with no friends. Instead, be nice but play safe. And if you do what you love the money will come.
You don’t need business school to learn that.
