Osmosis

Things have been going well recently. Surprisingly well, to be honest.

I've been trying to analyse why. I analyse everything. I put the "anal" in "analyse". I am a detail-obsessed freak, which makes me such an annoying, yet perfect pedant. I can spot a misused word, misplaced comma or awkward sentence from 50 paces, unless of course, I wrote it.

So this has led me to examine my recent successes and sudden popularity outside of the parameters of WA. All I appear to be doing is what I was doing before I came here - blogging, posting, making offers, being a bit cheeky. On the face of it, WA has taught me nothing new.

Except it has. I'm blogging more, and more regularly; I'm posting everything to my top 5 social media outlets; I'm making offers and backing them up with articles to establish my authority, and I'm braver than I was before. People are asking me more questions, requesting more information, and negotiating with less vigour. My prices have risen and no one's arguing.

Have I actively planned any of this? Nope, not a bit. What I have done is immersed myself in the WA culture of reading, learning and helping. If I've wanted to write an article I've researched it until the pips squeak and I'm now being sought as an authority on the back of some articles I've written.

And it's all happened by osmosis. I have absorbed the knowledge and successes of others. It rubs off.

So I have a word of advice for everyone here, or at least those who haven't reached the same conclusion: do not be frightened off by loved ones who say you're spending too much time here. Read, learn, look at subjects in which you have no interest, but keep your mind open. Research, give, write, reply.

The time you spend here can be better spent than your years in college. Suck it up, breathe it in, absorb it all. Because this place and these people can give you more than enough to be successful, providing you're prepared to spend the time, give a little, then practice what you preach.

Here endeth today's lesson.