Success is taking the things that made you weird as a kid and getting someone to pay you for them when you’re older. –David Freeman

As a kid, I was constantly doodling and writing. I’d also get strangely obsessed with learning as much as I could about random subjects. Ancient history, marine biology, the lives of Alexander the Great and Leonardo da Vinci, the Disney Imagineers, the mythology of ALF, playing the trombone. And words. The etymology and evolution of them, how they acted alone and how that changed when paired with other words… and how people reacted to them.

Yes, I was a weird kid.

Those weird traits became unexpected advantages as an adult, working in corporate training and management. But it wasn’t until will into that career path that I realized that there are people who get paid specially for those traits: learning deeply about businesses, noticing patterns and opportunities, and then concepting and writing campaigns ans communications designed to influence people in their behalf.