The Importance of Consistency (Happy Birthday, Riskology.co)

Fellow Riskologist,

Last night, as the clock ticked over to midnight, Riskology.co turned three years old. Hooray!

I was drinking a glass of wine and thinking to myself, “How did I get here, and what have I learned along the way?”

Over the last three years, Riskology.co has become a resource for risk-takers the world over. I’m incredibly grateful for what it’s become and to everyone that shows up here day after day. But more than just what it’s become for you, I’m grateful for what its become for me.

This site was born in the throes of a very turbulent time in my life. I’d just been laid off from a cushy desk job. I was a little lost, and I was looking for something to bring meaning back into my life.

I knew I couldn’t stay on the track I was on, but I also didn’t know what the next one was going to be.

I saw some of my friends like Chris and Sean and Corbett and Adam (and many, many others) doing amazing things with their blogs, and I decided to follow suit.

I didn’t know what I was getting myself into, but I assumed—like most things I do with my life—I’d figure it out as I went. At the very least, it would lend some credibility to the message I was trying to spread: that life is better when you take smart, calculated risks and you don’t have to spend your life doing things you don’t like so that later you can switch to something you do.

Three years later, I’m happy to say that while—in some ways—I still haven’t a clue what I’m doing, in other ways I really have figured some things out.

I still don’t make as much money as I did back in the corporate world, but I don’t need as much either. And I’ve created a respectable full-time income for myself. To know that I am in complete control of my destiny is something I could have barely even imagined just three years ago when this all started.

I’ve learned how to build and connect with an audience. This is probably one of the most useful skills I’ll ever develop for myself. After three years, I’ve learned that no matter what direction I take my life, I’ll be able to rally a team of amazing people around it that are as passionate as I am.

Most importantly, though, I’ve learned (the very hard way) the importance of consistency.

When I started Riskology.co, I promised readers I would publish two articles every week. For more than two years, I did just that. It wasn’t easy. There were times I wanted to give up. There were times I was publishing from airports or from coffee shops on the side of dirt roads in rural Africa just to meet the deadlines I’d given myself. But I always made it.

Then, last year, I decided to try something different. I was feeling a bit down. I was feeling like I needed something more.

I quit publishing as often, and I went off to build a coffee company (random, I know). I’m incredibly grateful for that experience and I’m very proud of what we built, but I also couldn’t shake the feeling of guilt that I’d  had to trade my regular publishing schedule here to do it.

Now, the coffee business is up and running and I’m back to my old self here on AR. It feels great, but I learned a hard lesson about consistency along the way. Many of you stuck around and supported Riskology.co during the slow times. Thank you! But also, many chose not to. And how can I blame them? My attention was elsewhere. I slipped on my promise.

Now that I’m back, everything is falling into place again (a testament to the value of this community), and the power of consistency rings truer to me now than it ever has before:

If you have something great, don’t give up on it! You can change a million things about it along the way, but don’t stop doing it. Riskology.co is a blog, and I’m a writer. If I want to keep calling myself that, I’d better be writing pretty damn often!

A writer writes. The key to doing something big is to do something little over and over.

So, here we are three years and 266 articles later. In terms of the Internet, three years kind of feels like a dinosaur. But I’m happy to say this is but the beginning of our journey.

We’ve only scratched the surface of the world of smart risk-taking. I’m glad you’re here with me, and I can’t wait to explore so much more with you as we dive into Year Four.

Now what about you? What risk are you looking forward to exploring?

All the best,

P.S. Confession time: Some people will look at the archive and argue that Riskology.co started on April 29th, 2010 based on the date of the first published article. The truth is that Riskology.co was not live to the world until June 2nd, 2010, and all the articles dated before then were actually written and published the night before the launch and back dated so as not to interfere with the launch post. Now you know…