Back at you for the first time in a little bit - and I promise I'm going to try and be here a lot more regularly moving forward - and time to call out everyone.
Yeah - everyone.
At some point, we're all guilty of not giving credit where credit is due, and it's become something that really grinds my gears like Peter Griffin.
We're all so quick to attack and criticize; calling people out for their decisions and everyday actions, putting just about anything under the microscope of negativity as if we're without flaws and worthy to pass judgment.
Sure, there is some element of that necessary in the world, but with that should come a willingness and acceptance that you have to pay attention to the other side of the coin as well. You can't just be critical and not give credit when it's due...
The title of this piece - another brilliant lyric from Jay-Z and the song "A Star is Born" - sums up my personal connection to this situation incredibly.
As I'm sure I've rambled on about here a couple of times, a bunch of my Mixed Martial Arts writing is syndicated to Bleacher Report. Over the first six or seven months of my existence there, I went from being the new kid on the block to being selected as a Featured Columnist and the top-ranked writer in the MMA Community.
With the success came the usual collection of haters and detractors. It seemed that my dedication and commitment to writing every day was a problem for some. The line was usually something along the lines of, "No wonder he's #1 - the guy writes a million articles a day, and all of them are crap."
Seriously. You gotta love it.
Funny thing is, shortly after questioning my practices, a couple people started to put the pattern I laid out into use for themselves... and have now risen to the top of the charts in my place.
Note: I stopped posting a bazillion pieces a day during my two month dalliance with Heavy.com... but I'm back now, and plan on reclaiming the throne.
D'you think I've gotten any, "Sorry for busting your chops all summer. Now that I'm being as successful as you were, I can see the merit in your methods" type emails or messages?
Of course not.
That would involve giving credit where credit is due, and we can't have that.
It would take away from all the bitching and complaining about everything...
Friday, January 15, 2010
But I'm The Blueprint / I'm Like the Map For'em
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Attack of the Green-Eyed Monster and His Collection of Baseless Accusations
Unfortunately, the green-eyed monster I speak of is not the lovable Mike Wasowski from Monsters Inc. I'm speaking, of course, about jealousy.
There are some things I'm going to have to accept (and I truthfully already have) if I want to make it in the writing business. First and foremost is that not everyone is going to like my work. That one I came to grips with long ago.
The second is that there are always going to be jealous people out there. I'm not saying my work is worthy of jealousy - a collection of monkeys chained to typewriters could do just as good a job as me - but some people are haters and feel the need to piss in other people's Corn Flakes.
Such was my day yesterday.
As mentioned the other day, I was recently moved into the #1 position in the Bleacher Report MMA writer rankings, a position that holds less value, power and merit than being the pie eating champion at the local country fair; at least that guy gets a trophy... and pie.
While there is a certain intrinsic satisfaction and feeling like my efforts are being recognized, believe me when I tell you that I haven't let the ranking go to my head.
Honestly, how could I? It's a subjective ranking on an website, not a proclamation from the New York Post that I'm the greatest writer in the world.
Anyway, when I went to the site to post the day's article, there was a message in my mailbox. When I opened it up, the green-eyed monster jumped out, wielding a collection of baseless accusations as his weapons.
The quick and dirty version is this: the author felt compelled to tell me that he - a man who can't spell properly and is a big fan or piss-poor grammar - believes that I am a hack, a plagiarist, have a stupid name, cheated my way to the #1 ranking, am incapable of writing as much as I do and myriad other insults and allegations.
Did I mention that at no point in the three months that I've been on Bleacher Report had I said more than twelve words to this Gomer before receiving his love letter?
Like I said up front, I can take the not liking my work. even from someone who believes enough is spelled "enuf" and thinks it's "rediculis" that I write as much as I do.
What I refuse to accept are douchey morons who feel the need and desire to make baseless accusations about people - in this case me - then quickly remind me about Freedom of Speech.
After a long and drawn out day of nonsense, this guy was classy enough to offer up $10K for me to pick an arena or gym where he would meet me to prove that a martial art I trained in years ago (tae kwon do) is useless.
Seriously, this is the idiocy that follows me around.
I know I shouldn't let it get me worked up; Sarah and I actually talk about it every time something like this comes up, because I take it very personal and I shouldn't.
What can I say? I'm working on that part.
But there is something about people just randomly making statements and claims about another person that rubs me the wrong way. Not so much that this tool thinks I'm an 18-year-old rich kid with a stupid name and massive inheritance coming my way, but the general idea of things - the idea that you can just say whatever you want about someone without repercussions.
That's not how I live my life and maybe I'm thick for not understanding how others don't do the same.
Jealously and envy aren't my style, but I guess they're something I'm going to have to get used to, what with being a useless, plagiarizing hack and all.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Making Moves, Taking Steps
I know I've said it here before, but I really should have been on Bleacher Report years ago.
Having the backing and name recognition of a major site like B/R is opening doors and providing opportunities that certainly wouldn't have come my way otherwise.
Not only is the site helping my work circulate to more and more people, yielding an average of 500 reads a day, but I've been able to secure my biggest interview to date, UFC Light Heavyweight and Winnipeg native Krzysztof Soszynski.
Add to that the syndication and partnership agreements in place with CNNSI, Fox Sports, CBS Sportsline and both Strikeforce and the WEC, and you have the makings of all kinds of fantastic opportunities collected under one roof.
This whole time, one of the stated reasons that I've covered sports as much as I do is to get a chance to go see sporting events for free. In the Bugs & Cranks days, I would have been pumped to watch the Jays play without it costing me anything.
Multiple that by a thousand and you have how excited and amped I would be to go to an MMA show with a Press Credential hanging around my neck. D'you know what's even more exciting?
Those opportunities are out there and already coming my way. I'm just not in a position to take advantage of them just yet.
But I will be soon enough and then weekends will be spent catching planes and watching fights, interviewing a who's who from the world of Mixed Martial Arts and pushing this burgeoning career of mine to that magical place I've been waiting for all along ... a place where I get paid to watch fights and write about MMA.
The first step is always the hardest and I've now passed that milestone.
Time to run with this thing.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
If You Can't Beat'em...
Join'em and that's exactly what I've done in setting myself up at Bleacher Report.
Let the Shameless Self-Promotion Tour continue!
Bleacher Report is much like all the other places I'm currently plying my trade, except with one great advantage: a bunch of the stuff that gets written over there finds a way onto major sports sites like ESPN, Sports Illustrated and the like and that's the kind of exposure a promising but unknown Mixed Martial Arts writer like myself needs.
I started thinking about taking this step last week when I read a couple pieces over at SI that had been penned at Bleacher Report and contained factual and grammatical errors. While we're all prone to a mistake here and there, it pains me to see people with incorrect information getting published on SI while I research the hell out of some stuff and manage 47 hits.
I'm not even kidding - it drives me insane. I know part of that is my ridiculously inflated sense of self, but it's not called the Shameless Self-Promotion Tour without good reason.
Then earlier today I was chatting with a guy on Facebook about various things MMA. He said he liked my post on Thiago Alves being Georges St-Pierre's toughest test to date and I mentioned the other places I write and told him to check them out.
He said he wrote for Bleacher Report.
A load of other people write MMA for Bleacher Report and seem to get far more readers than little old me, a guy who fancies himself a writer by trade. Seriously, the leading MMA writer is a Registered Nurse. I gots to be able to drum up some attention and followers if an RN is leading the way...
So I joined and will be posting there with reckless abandon moving forward. And by reckless abandon, I mean copying everything I write at Keyboard Kimura onto Bleacher Report.
What? You thought I was going to write new stuff and spend even more time on this bloody computer?
Like Scrooge McDuck always said, "You've got to work smarter, not harder!"
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