Finishing Year One Strong
Reflecting & Looking Ahead...
September has arrived - although you wouldn’t think it given the current sweltering heat we’re experiencing - which means football season is finally here.
Amen to that.
Also, I have the Philadelphia Eagles over the Buffalo Bills in Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas.
You heard it here first.
On a side note, this heat is insane. I mean, come on whoever up there controls this kind of stuff. It’s September, we’re all meant to be putting away unhealthy amounts of Pumpkin Spiced Latte’s while bundled up in oversized hoodies and attempting to look cute in beanie hats.
This isn’t the time of year where we are supposed to be hustling around town wearing shorts and sweating from holes we never even knew we could sweat profusely from.
I can, however, now relate to NFL centers who endure through the house of horrors sensation that is swamp ass every single training camp.
Yep, it’s as horrible and as sweaty as it sounds.
Anyways. September making an appearance also means that this website has been exposed to the world wide web for over half a year now.
That is truly wild.
When it dawned on me that it had actually been just over six months ago that I launched this project - or an entire new chapter in my life in other words - it shocked and scared me in more ways than one.
Firstly, time really is a thief. It literally seems just like yesterday I was working until 4, 5 in the morning in order to get the website and the podcast online and launched just in time for Super Bowl LVII on Feb. 11. The fact that we’re on the cusp of waving goodbye to 2023 and that this beautiful, multi-faceted labor of love has been alive and kicking for more than half a year is mind-blowing.
Those six months and three weeks really have flown by quicker than Elly De La Cruz rounding the bases or an explosive trademark Tyreek Hill TD down field.
It is also scary because, in many ways, these last six months and three weeks have represented the biggest failure of my career so far. Allow me to expand on that.
I took a huge leap of faith when launching this website. My career, heck, my very being, was facing a very significant crossroads, and I had the choice to either swing for the fences and make the big, big move, or play it safe and turn my back on everything I had grafted and hustled so hard for over a substantial amount of time.
It really was that dramatic a time in my life.
I was wounded, I was staggering, I was blindsided and I was backed so tightly against the ropes, I could quite literally feel the walls closing in on me. I was more bloodied and more beaten than Rocky after taking down Drago in Rocky IV.
With nearly every ounce of energy and will drained from my crippled body, I was pretty much history in the eyes of many. Consigned to my fate - to be mired in mediocrity forever.
But that’s when I’m at my best. When trapped in a corner with seemingly no way out. With a million knives coming at me, a million voices telling me to quit and to give up the golden-laden dreams of a better life.
With my odds plummeting and nothing else but a Hail Mary to launch, that’s when I really come to play.
So, naturally, I opted to swing for the fences and see how big a home run I could hit. It isn’t in my nature to be a quitter. But, more importantly, it isn’t woven in my DNA to not take risks. My whole identity, my entire career is built on taking gigantic leaps and dreaming bigger than anyone else would even dare to.
And that’s never going to change.
As long-time Pittsburgh Steelers Head Coach Mike Tomlin so eloquently put it during his team’s Training Camp, “As we grow up, we dream realistically. We shouldn’t. I got where I am today by being a ridiculous dreamer.”
Being happy to settle for an average life and refusing to dream and reach for the highest star in the universe is for losers. I don’t want to associate with those kind of people.
And that’s never, ever going to be me.
I’m going to be a ridiculous dreamer who makes the big moves and takes the colossal leaps until the day I die.
That’s just the way it is.
So, as it pertains to the website and the podcast, I feel as though I’ve done everything but make the big moves and take giant swings.
In truth, it feels like I’ve done the opposite.
Six months in, I’m not happy one bit with where the website and the podcast are, and I’m not really that pumped about what we’ve created so far either. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still proud of the Blogs Of Steele creation / brand overall, but we are nowhere near where I wanted us to be at six months in.
And all of that is my fault.
I’ve been inconsistent, I’ve made a slew of mistakes, I haven’t been decisive when I’ve needed to be, I haven’t attacked this whole project with my usual aggressive streak and I completely underestimated the whole business aspect of running a website.
Let me tell you something for free - journalists, especially sports journalists, suck when it comes to business. We just do.
We’re six months in and I’m filled with more anger and frustration than anything else, if I’m being brutally honest.
However, it is now time to parlay those emotions into something positive.
What has happened is now in the past and the beautiful thing about mistakes is that you can learn from them and use them as a platform on which to build something truly great.
It doesn’t matter who you are, you won’t get anywhere good in life unless you use mistakes as learning curves. You also need to be adaptable and willing to adjust things on the fly and change the game plan when the situation calls for it.
And that’s what I’m in the process of doing right now.
The reason I’ve been so quiet on here is because I retreated back to the laboratory in order to cook up a brand new and improved playbook for Blogs Of Steele and The Andrew Steele Podcast.
We already pivoted to being a baseball-driven site - and I stand by that decision all day long - and there’s plenty of compelling new ideas currently cooking away under the hood. Both for the site and for the podcast.
I’ve always been a firm believer in if you are going to do anything, do it right and also give it everything you’ve got.
I would much rather take a brief timeout in order to tweak some things and do a little course correcting, rather than trudge on and get entrenched in quicksand that won’t allow us to go anywhere.
As frustrating as it has been, and as much as I’ve hated letting down all of you brilliant subscribers and loyal readers, I’m at ease with the steps that have been taken.
After all, in order to really jump ahead in life, sometimes you need to take a few steps back first and assess the situation and the overall landscape.
We’ve done that and now it is time to truly get back to business.
I’ve racked up a glut of learning lessons, I’m more battle tested when it comes to the business side of all this - although I’ll always stand by the fact that journalists shouldn’t be allowed to flirt with business in anyway - and I’m more than ready to get this train back on the tracks and moving in the right direction.
We’re about three months out from the end of the year, and I fully intend on using every second of that remaining time wisely. Armed with more knowledge, a little bit wiser and more hungry and driven than ever before, it’s time to put this thing into turbocharge mode.
What’s come before is history. I’m only interested in the now and doing everything within my power to ensure that we finish Year One on the highest of notes for both Blogs Of Steele & The Andrew Steele Podcast.
Let’s make big things happen.
For those of you already on the ride, your support will be richly rewarded.
For those of you just joining us on this journey, you won’t regret it.
Here’s to finishing 2023 strong and with no regrets.
As always, you can reach me at any time at blogsofsteele@substack.com, or on X (or whatever it is called these days) @andrewsteeled. Feel free to reach out to me on Threads or Instagram (stee.led2194) too.
There’s plenty of good stuff coming along the pike, so, if you haven’t already, please consider subscribing and becoming part of the Blogs Of Steele family. You won’t regret it.