Learning to Fly

11.04.2012 | Kasvu | Ville Tolvanen

Learning to Fly

I started writing my blog just about nine months ago. My motivation was to start sharing my thinking on growth, strategy, differentiation, branding and digitalization. It’s a new world, with new rules and hopefully some new thinking.

In just about 200+ days I wrote around 180 blog entries, received 35,000 visits and around 200 comments. This is considerably high – given that the blogs, up until now, were all in Finnish. Finland is a country with a low population (of 5 million people in the whole country).

I’ve had a great time writing these blogs, and have had some truly interesting discussions with my audience. Though I had some initial reservations about blogging, writing has turned out to be – not only professionally gratifying – but also totally therapeutic on a personal level! I’ve come to the realization that breaking old habits and learning new skills is becoming a viable part of the solution for my personal ”40-something-crisis”. It’s time to move on. Learn something new again. Gear up.

I don’t consider myself an excellent writer per se – especially when writing in English which is not my mother tongue. I did do my degree and my studies in English at the Helsinki School of Economics (MBA courses taught by mainly American professors from top US MBA-programs), so that of course helps. I also lived in the US as a teen for a year, as well as in London and Milan for some shorted periods in my late twenties. But it’s been a while that I’ve actively spoken English, and I’ve never written anything professional in English.

Regardless, I’ve decided to give it a try. From now on, I’ll make it my goal to blog once a week in English about something that’s bugging me in the industry or about something that’s of a great interest to me. I’ll probably have to have someone else edit my blog entries. I’m a fast writer, and my writing style is more like brainstorming than anything else. But I’m more than happy to write in exchange for a few comments here and there and the occasional thumbs up from the readers. I think I’ll need the interaction with you all in order to be fueled up to continue writing.

I’ve created a vision for what my life after forty looks like. I’ll share that with you all later. But I’ll say right now that a part of my life vision is to live abroad again. That’s one good reason to stop blogging in Finnish. I’m also thinking that video blogs might be something to consider as well.

This is a start of something new and adventurous for me. I feel like this is all a bit like learning to fly: A little scary but at the same time very exciting and extremely energizing! Please jump on board! I recommend to all of you to step out of your comfort zone and do something different today, right now and from now on – create a vision for your life path, and start taking immediate steps towards making it real. One step at a time.

Please feel free to comment my texts, and please, by all means, let me know if you think something’s gone awry in my style, my message, my grammar, or anything else for that matter. In any case, I’ll promise to always offer opinions with an idea for a solution or a resolution.

Thanks for reading my blog entries! Hope to see you soon again!

V

P.S. May the force of ”Rome Advisors” be with you! 😉

JAA

[et_social_share]

KIRJOITA KOMMENTTI

Minna Karhu
2012-04-11 07:23:16

Way to go, Ville! Nine months...it's time to give birth to something new :).

I love you giving a living example of how things (in this case English/writing skills) do not need to be perfect to have the guts to go live and share your thoughts. The content and the thoughts count - even if unfinished - to get the interaction and discussion going.

It is still very untypical in our Finnish culture to do so, at least has been in my opinion, and this is the way to go forward to make a gradual change happen. This is how we can develop the discourse, discussion culture, interaction, innovation climate and even the whole life in Finland to change.

You are not afraid to fail. Which means that in the end you never will. Congrats for your courage!

Lisää kommentti

Kommenttisi moderoidaan tarvittaessa.

Ville Tolvanen
2012-04-11 22:00:23

Thank you Minna for your honest support. I need it ;) There are times when i think about quitting or just "pulling the plug"... self-critisism rules. On the other hand it is fun and who cares? it's just an expression...and excellent skills development.

Instead of just "consulting" I try to "lead the way" and show examples. I hope many people like you think "what should I do and what am I capable of What do I want to do with my life? My thinking is constant."

Many of my ideas should be applied to existing business models to make even better living... (I skipped the word "world" this time). Terkut, V

Lisää kommentti

Kommenttisi moderoidaan tarvittaessa.

Ari Huttunen
2012-04-11 08:14:20

Fly Ville Fly!

To Be By Your Side- Nick Cave
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ny4izkgnX_k

Lisää kommentti

Kommenttisi moderoidaan tarvittaessa.

Pekka Tuominen
2012-04-12 16:09:24

Once again courage is here, congrats! Also shame has been moved back, congrats for that too. About the shame and what that means for all of us, is this TED video by Brene Brown, she is great: http://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_on_vulnerability.html

Lisää kommentti

Kommenttisi moderoidaan tarvittaessa.

Ville Tolvanen
2012-04-12 17:12:03

Thank you pekka. May the force of rome be with you!

Lisää kommentti

Kommenttisi moderoidaan tarvittaessa.

Ville Tolvanen
2012-04-13 12:34:35

Pekka, When do you start your videoblog? or blog about videos? V

Lisää kommentti

Kommenttisi moderoidaan tarvittaessa.

Minna Karhu
2012-04-12 21:22:33

Thanks Pekka, a g-r-e-a-t talk!

Lisää kommentti

Kommenttisi moderoidaan tarvittaessa.

Lisää kommentti

Kommenttisi moderoidaan tarvittaessa.