I’ve been trying to come to terms with my feelings about Youngstown, complicated and / or simple as they might be—and in the meantime, I haven’t written a thing. Why? Well… what if I don’t write the right thing?

It’s ironic that I’ve felt this way, fleetingly, and ignoring it, because it’s the same thing that keeps scads of people from doing anything with real meaning. We don’t think we’re good enough, we don’t think we have the right skills… We may have feelings on the subject, but we’d rather sit back and let other people act. The people who know what they’re doing. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned in eight years of design work, eight years of business building, and wow, at least eight years of singing on stage… None of us know what we’re doing. None of them know what they’re doing, either.

And if we all were to sit back and enjoy the show, not a damn thing would get done.

You can see the problem, can’t you?

So remember: We don’t have to be perfect. We don’t have to say or do something groundbreaking, something that knocks their socks off. We don’t have to have everything excellently organized, or start with the best office furniture, or have the most exquisitely designed blog. We just have to stand up, and start anywhere.

And then all we have to do is… keep going.

That’s all.