Branding irons were used by cowboys in the old west to mark cattle. They would place the iron in a campfire to get it hot enough to do the job. It might take a few minutes or more before it would be hot enough to do the job, so in order to be efficient when branding a bunch of cattle an experienced cowboy would have more than one branding iron and would “keep an iron in the fire.” As one was being used and cooling off rapidly, the other would be heating up.
Louis L’Amour the famous American writer who specialized in Western genre, wrote a lot about cowboys and knew about their work habits and culture. In his book “Education of a Wandering Man” he chronicles his life experience as a young man first starting out in the world. This book was very inspiring to me because of the incredible drive he displayed to educate himself and to become a successful writer.
Louis shows the pages from his journal when he was still in his teens, working as a merchant marine, a miner and a fighter he traveled the world and became “educated” in this way; he also read books like mad. He made and achieved a goal to read 50 non-fiction books a year. And he did so for many years. Serious books on history and many other disciplines. My Dad always said that education as really just forced reading. Louis L’Amour subscribed to this sentiment and educated himself in this way. He did not go to college or university, but in my estimation became a man of letters and well educated because of his habit of reading hundreds of books – specifically non-fiction works.
He also chronicles his efforts to become a writer, with pictures of detailed lists of western themed stories he would write and send in to publishers. Each line included the name of the story and the publishing house, the date sent, and the result -“rejected.” While he worked his many blue collar jobs he maintained a vision of becoming a successful fiction writer in the Western genre. He journal proves that he wrote and submitted many many stories and submitted them to publishes and in the early days all were rejected. How could he face such rejection and still keep going? The answer is he always “kept an iron in the fire” by always writing and sending a story out before he received an answer from the previous effort. In this way he maintained hope that the net one would not be another rejection.
His diligent writing paid off because even though he was rejected, I think hundreds of times, he kept writing and getting better over time through his practice. Eventually, his list shows the first story that was “Accepted” and published! Of course he went on to become very successful and famous as a writer, and the rest is history.
The lessons I learned from Louis L’Amour is educate yourself through readinmg difficult non-fiction books, and when pursuing a vision always keep an iron in the fire. Before a rejection can knock you down apply for another job, or reach out to another customer, or ask someone else for a date; whatever it is keep laying the groundwork for the next opportunity, and keep an iron in the fire, keep working and improving your technique – soon you will have a win, and then another and another! And maybe even a herd of cattle with your brand on them!?
Ben Wagner (237)
Member The365Commitment
